A few months ago Transport for London (TfL) launched a new “consultation hub” – see https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/ . I advised our blog and newsletter readers to register on the site so they get notified of new consultations. But I registered and have never received any notifications.
The photograph above taken from the web site shows TfL’s vision of the future – queues of traffic stuck behind cyclists!
The web site also just contains a list of TfL Projects with some description of them and people can add their comments on each. The result of course is that there are no doubt a wide variety of comments some of whom support the proposals and some of whom do not. Such arrangements are open to exploitation by pressure groups.
This is one comment I added on the topic of lowering speed limits: “This form of ‘engagement’ is a good way to get a biased set of responses from ill-informed sections of the public which TfL can then use to justify more attacks on motorists by picking out selective comments. It’s not even a proper survey with random responses from anonymous contributors. This is a disgraceful way of claiming that this can be a fair way of consulting the public. It’s another example of TfL trying to justify their policies by manipulation of consultations”.
You can see all the active projects by going here: All projects: https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/projects
Ones that may be of particular interest are:
Euston Road: https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/euston-road . Greatly increased traffic congestion due to introduction of cycle lane.
Park Lane: https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/park-lane . Pointless cycle lane reducing road space for vehicles when there is a parallel cycle lane in the Park. Has Created traffic congestion.
Bishopsgate: https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/bishopsgate . Bus gate that bans all vehicles for most of the day except buses and cyclists. Closing a key road in the City of London effectively.
Trafalgar Road and Woolwich Road (A206): https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/greenwich-woolwich Limited turns inconvenience road users and cycle lane reducing road space.
Lowering speed limits: https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/lowering-speed-limits . There is no evidence that reducing speed limits actually reduces road casualties. The published evidence shows no benefit from 20 mph signed-only limits for example.
But there are many other projects covered that are spread over the whole of London. Please go to the web site and add your own comments on any that are of interest.
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Rather than a queue of traffic stuck behind cyclists, isn’t that just a line of moving traffic with the photo taken at the moment a couple of cyclists were passing the photographer? The motorists are likely to be driving at a sensible speed so wouldn’t need to pass the cyclists anyway.
I don’t think your views would match that of most vehicle users. The photograph can be interpreted in different ways but your view is not that of most road users.