Transport for London (TfL) have published a note saying that after reviewing the public consultation responses they have decided to make the changes permanent. To remind you, Park Lane has always been a major thoroughfare in London. The recent introduction of wide bus and cycle lanes has reduced the road space for all other vehicles and caused congestion as a result (see photo above). What used to be a three-lane highway is now only one.
Park Lane is a key part of the road transport network in central London and has now effectively been downgraded. A few cyclists might have benefited but vehicle users have been seriously disadvantaged. This shows how prejudiced TfL is against vehicle users.
The results of the consultation showed that there was no overall support for the scheme but a lot of opposition. Only 31 per cent of respondents stated general support for the Park Lane scheme and vision while 30 per cent raised concern that the scheme has a negative impact on traffic congestion, including displacement of traffic to other nearby areas; and 22 per cent suggested that it is preferable to cycle in Hyde Park than on Park Lane while 22 per cent suggested to remove the cycle lane and the scheme altogether.
What is the point of doing public consultations when the feedback is simply ignored? This is yet another example of TfL ignoring the views of the majority of road users and implementing proposals that favour the small minority who are cyclists. This scheme should never have been proposed when there were much better alternatives.
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Lewisham Council have plans to improve the South Circular Road (A205) in London by removing the gyratory system. They may get funding from TfL to do the work. Proposals to do this have been planned for several years so as to relieve the traffic congestion, reduce air pollution and improve road safety. But money has always been the problem.
An artists impression of how Catford Road might look in future is above.
Some bus routes will be affected and bus stop bypasses will be implemented which many people dislike. In order to achieve the Councils “vision” they are proposing changes to the road layout of the South Circular Road, moving Catford Road to the south side of Laurence House and removing the one-way system around Plassy Island. They claim this will make it easier for people to walk, cycle and use public transport in and around the town centre. It will also enable the Council to provide new pedestrian public space and help create a green, largely car-free town centre, with new trees and planting. But some parking provision will be removed.
The proposals include some “shared space” ideas to which many people object.
There is very little information provided on the likely improvement (if any) in local air quality and no information on the changes in traffic flows. It’s a useless document to obtain informed responses.
Comment: This looks like another scheme similar to that imposed on Lewisham town centre which has made traffic congestion worse. Certainly Catford town centre was well overdue for improvement but it is unclear whether this proposal will help.
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As has been widely reported in the national media, a judge in the High Court has approved a full judicial review hearing of the case brought by 5 London Boroughs against the ULEZ expansion. But only on two of the five grounds put forward. The defective and misleading public consultation is not going to be considered which is disappointing. But it is a step forward nevertheless.
The case is likely to be heard in July. Sadiq Khan has vowed to push ahead with implementation including the installation of the thousands of extra enforcement cameras. So he could be wasting a lot of money, but that’s the way he manages the finances of TfL.
I happened to take a trip down the M20 today. There are so many potholes on the road between the M25 junction and West Malling that it really should not be considered fit to be called a motorway. I have complained to National Highways (see https://report.nationalhighways.co.uk/report/new?longitude=0.195740&latitude=51.387968). I suggest other people who use the road do likewise.
Even when the road is repaired it is not done properly so the potholes soon reappear. This is a problem nationally on motorways and major roads and also on local roads that are the responsibility of local councils (in London in the boroughs – who often use “Fix My Street” services – for Bromley see: https://fix.bromley.gov.uk/ ).
Even Bromley who have been good a fixing reported problems in previous years have got substantially worse in doing so of late.
If your vehicle is damaged from hitting a pothole you can submit a financial claim if someone has previously reported it so it is important to report all such problems!
P.S. There is a petition on Change.org on this subject which is worth signing – see https://chng.it/pndpFWqwTR
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An article in the Sunday Times by Nicholas Hellen has explained how Oxfordshire County Council was bribed with £33 million of Government funding to install the planned traffic filters. Installing the filters was conditional on funding for 159 electric buses and the Council committed to go ahead six months before a public consultation took place.
Under the proposed scheme residents will need to apply for a permit to pass through six pinch points but will be restricted to 100 days per year or be fined £70. The allocation of Government funding was explicitly linked to a written pledge to introduce the scheme.
Comment: Local democracy is being undermined by Government interference. Residents need to join the campaign against this scheme – see https://reconnectingoxford.weebly.com/
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It is not at all clear what benefits would be obtained from this expensive scheme and there is no information provided on the likely impact on traffic flows.
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The latest attack on the use of motor vehicles is the promotion of the concept of the “15-Minute City”. This is a concept where most daily necessities can be accomplished by either walking or cycling from residents’ homes. Irrespective of the practicality of it, such a scheme can be enforced by splitting a city into neighbourhoods and banning vehicles from driving from one zone into another.
The cities of Oxford and Bath have launched proposals for such schemes.
Oxfordshire County Council, which is run by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, wants to divide the city of Oxford into six districts. In these districts, it is suggested that most household essentials will be accessible by a quarter-of-an-hour walk or bike ride, and so residents will have no need for a car. The council plans to cut car use and traffic congestion by placing strict rules on car journeys. Under the proposals, if residents drive outside of their designated district more than 100 days per year they could be fined £70. Labour councillor Duncan Enright, cabinet member for travel and development strategy, has already declared that the policy is ‘going to happen, definitely’ irrespective of the outcome of a public consultation.
In Bath the City Council is proposing to split the city into four “cells”. Vehicles would be prohibited from driving from one cell into another. They are also pushing for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to be implemented.
The concept of 15-minute cities was conceived on the continent where cities like Paris have promoted the idea. But nobody has shown them to be practical in the modern world. We no longer have a range of specialist shops within easy walking distance and the elderly and incapacitated cannot walk or cycle for 15 minutes. Health facilities such as hospitals are rarely within 15 minutes walk and even general practices now tend to be in larger buildings serving a wider area. The single-handed GP serving a local community is long dead.
People have come to rely on cars – either their own or taxi/minicab/PHV services – to get around. And it’s rare that people only have friends and family within 15 minutes as some move house to cheaper neighbourhoods further out from city centres. Jobs are also now rarely available in a local area so travel is required if you want to improve yourself or earn more money – even in London public transport does not always provide a practical commuting route.
Politicians who support this concept rarely consider the practical impacts of what they are proposing and ignore those who object.
As we move into a New Year, this is just the latest example of how motor vehicles and those who use them are being prejudiced by the policies of tin-pot dictators in local councils. They think they know what is good for us but really don’t. The Government should remove the powers from local councils to destroy the road network by closing roads or limiting how they are used.
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In the South-East of England we are suffering from major transport disruptions. First from rail strikes affecting London commuters and second by the activities of Just Stop Oil on the road network.
The RMT union have announced further strikes on November 3, 5 and 7 and are balloting their members on pursuing them for another six months. I issued a tweet yesterday which suggested the way to stop these strikes was to give an ultimatum to employees to either work normally or get fired. The problem is that train drivers are so highly paid that a few days out is affordable.
Rather surprisingly I got a response from the RMT which said “In your haste to sound draconian you’ve not considered who would staff the railway or train the replacements if you’ve fired them all? Nothing would move for years!!”.
My response was “Well it worked when Ronald Reagan did it for air traffic controllers, did it not?”. This refers to the events in August 1981 in the USA. To quote from Wikipedia: “After PATCO workers’ refusal to return to work [over a pay dispute], the Reagan administration fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for life. In the wake of the strike and mass firings, the FAA was faced with the difficult task of hiring and training enough controllers to replace those that had been fired. Under normal conditions, it took three years to train new controllers. Until replacements could be trained, the vacant positions were temporarily filled with a mix of non-participating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some non-rated personnel, military controllers, and controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities”.
The US airlines continued operations with minimal disruptions and the Reagan move had a significant impact on union activities in other organisations effectively resetting labour relationships in the USA. Strikes fell in subsequent years. From 370 major strikes in 1970 the number fell to 11 in 2010, and it had a positive effect in reducing inflation.
Just as Margaret Thatcher handled the coal miners in the UK, Reagan’s firm resolve on facing up to the unions created a new and better culture.
As regards the Just Stop Oil (JSO) campaign the closure of the Dartford Bridge created enormous traffic jams and delayed people for many hours. The whole of south-east London was affected as many people commute around the M25. The Metropolitan Police tweeted they had “made 404 arrests linked to JSO activity. We have needed nearly 5500 officer shifts diverted from local communities in London, to deal with the serious disruption caused by this activity”. The total cost including the delays to people must be many millions of pounds.
The Police seem to be totally ineffective in stopping the activities of JSO. People get arrested but then released. Fines, if any, are minimal. There is a Bill currently going through Parliament that might assist – The Public Order Bill – see https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/bills/2022-23/publicorder . It creates a number of new offences relating to “locking-on”, obstructing major transport works and interfering with the use or operation of key national infrastructure. It also confers preventative powers for the police to search for and seize articles related to protest-related offences and provides for a new preventative court order, the Serious Disruption Prevention Order, to disrupt the activities of repeat offenders”. But will it be applied vigorously?
The Police already have considerable powers that are not used and JSO could be proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” as they meet the criteria. Let us hope the Public Order Bill is passed quickly. But it’s really down to the Government to take a lead on this matter even if they may be distracted by financial matters at present.
Peaceful demonstrations are OK but disruption to normal life should not be permitted under any circumstances.
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The Holborn gyratory in London has been the scene of some fatal accidents to cyclists so the London Borough of Camden is proposing some changes to improve safety. But the changes proposed are somewhat trivial in nature although they are likely to reduce the capacity of the roads and hence increase traffic congestion and air pollution. There is no information provided on any modelling of traffic flows that might have been done.
The changes include the right turn lane on Kingsway northbound being changed into a right turn only into Remnant Street which is surely a bit odd.
These changes might benefit cyclists but they prejudice all other road users. More substantive changes are surely required to really solve the road safety problems in this area.
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Transport for London (TfL) have launched a public consultation on the changes made to Park Lane. This road has always been a key road through central London to avoid more congested areas. But the introduction of bus and cycle lanes has reduced the road space for all other vehicles and caused congestion as a result (see photo above). What used to be a three-lane highway is now only one.
A cycle lane is also unnecessary as there is a cycle path in parallel in the Park itself which would be both more convenient and more pleasant for cyclists. There is no benefit to pedestrians in these changes.
This is another example of the prejudice against cars and vans while cyclists and buses get priority
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The sad death of Queen Elizabeth reminds me of my own mother’s death at the age of 100. They looked similar in later life. Both managed to die in their own home which is the best place from which to leave. Will Charles III make a good king? We will have to wait and see but his name is not propitious bearing in mind the track record of the previous two. As I am not a monarchist I will say no more.
It was interesting to see an open coal fire in use in the photographs of Liz Truss with the Queen. Balmoral does not have central heating apparently while Buckingham Palace does have a CHP plant. But the bill to run the later was about half a million pounds per annum before the projected price increases. So King Charles might welcome Truss’s announcement to cap the maximum price of gas and electricity.
This is a cap on prices, not on overall cost so people with big houses with large gas consumption will still pay more. But at least it will replace the OFGEM price cap which was an irrational policy. Fracking is also being permitted to boost local gas production.
Truss did not give in to calls for this largess to be funded through a windfall tax. She said this would undermine the national interest by discouraging the very investment we need to secure home-grown energy supplies. You can’t tax your way to growth she said. So it will be funded by more Government debt in essence.
Is this wise? I believe it is the lesser of evils as it will help to bring inflation under control which is essential to keep the economy healthy and avoid a severe recession. These decisions by Truss and her new cabinet are positive in my view. But she is still committed to net zero by 2050 which is simply an unrealistic and unachievable objective.
With a new Prime Minister we are getting a new Cabinet. Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has gone, thank god, to be replaced by Anne-Marie Trevelyan. She might be pro road building as in 2007 she campaigned to dual the A1 in the North of England. Liz Truss also supports road building – in a recent speech she said “We will get spades in the ground to make sure people are not facing unaffordable energy bills and we will also make sure, that we are building hospitals, schools, roads, and broadband”.
Other new Ministers in the Department for Transport are Kevin Foster MP and Lucy Frazer MP.
This is all positive news. Other good news is that Andrew Gilligan, the transport advisor to Boris Johnson and a keen promoter of cycling, has gone.
But the attack on private cars continues. Oxfordshire County Council is proposing to restrict private cars from the City Centre altogether but permitting taxis, PHVs, LGVs, HGVs etc. Local residents will be given permits to use on 100 days per year. This draconian measure is subject to a public consultation – see https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/traffic-filters-2022 . Please respond to it before the 3rd October although this is a very biased survey with way too many questions. I added these comments however: “This survey is totally biased with preconceived answers to the questions imposed to get the answers you are looking for. A total disgrace!”.
I hope the new Transport Ministers will put a stop to such schemes which are inherently illogical.
Roger Lawson
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