The new mayor of London is Sadiq Khan. Here's his manifesto.
About cycling:
My aim is to make London a byword for cycling around the world – with a plan to make cycling and walking safer and easier in the capital. Although a great deal of progress has been made, we still have a lot of work to do to protect cyclists and pedestrians from collisions. I’ll continue the good work that has been done by the last two Mayors on cycling, and increase the pace of change. I will:
Increase the proportion of TfL’s budget spent on cycling.
Continue the Cycle Superhighway Programme, investing in new routes and learning the lessons from earlier schemes, with a focus on segregated provision.
Prioritise Quietways – continuous cycling routes running through parks, alongside waterways and down quiet backstreets – to broaden London’s safe cycle network, while completing the roll out of current town-centre cycling improvement plans, and beginning a new round of schemes.
Promote safer, cleaner lorries – working with the boroughs and using City Hall procurement to set new safety standards, moving towards City Hall and TfL contracts specifying ‘direct-vision’ lorries.
Review the Safer Junction Programmes to identify and commence priority improvements at more of London’s major accident blackspots.
Deliver more cycle storage and parking, using the London Plan to ensure provision in new developments, while working with London boroughs deliver on-street secure provision.
Work to break down some of the city’s physical barriers, such as by backing the Rotherhithe-Canary Wharf cycle and pedestrian bridge.
But there’s more I’m determined to do to make getting around safer for everyone - walkers and cyclists, as well as motorists – and particularly for those with disabilities which make negotiating London’s streets that much harder. I will:
Establish safe walking routes, to give children cleaner and safer journeys to school, avoiding busy and polluted roads where possible.
Reduce street and pavement clutter on TfL Roads and support urban realm improvements across town centres.
Encourage the roll out of 20mph zones across the city by backing the '20’s Plenty For Us' campaign.
Is it any good? Is it deliverable? How does that compare with Mayors from other cities?
From my point of view, it all looks fine - though I'm not interested in Superhighways or Quietways so much as roads fit for cycling. We'll see.
.... and learning the lessons from earlier schemes...
Well, he can't say fairer than that, I suppose - though it may be merely a case of dissing one's predecessor....
Though I'm not often in London, I suppose I and everyone else have an interest in what's coming. Wait and see.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity. Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments... --- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
Boris opened the new E/W superhighway yesterday and I made a detour to use it in the afternoon.
It is genuinely good and I hope will work as a benchmark for how things can be done. Sadiq has blown hot and cold about cycling, I do worry that he doesn't "get it". Hopefully he will see this new evidence before his eyes and continue the work just started.
He should keep Gillingham who has a thorough grasp of his brief and is effective at the politicking necessary to get these schemes built. Maybe he should keep him but rebrand his role from Cycling Commissioner to Active Streets Commissioner, or Liveable Streets Commissioner. This is about more than just cycling.
I've not seen any of the latest stuff in London. It was about five years ago that I last visited. But I hope the money being spent is doing some good. My nearest city is Cardiff, where cycling infrastructure is not great and does not seem to be improving much. I could cycle most of the way to Cardiff (about 23 miles) on quiet lanes, and there are some good facilities around Cardiff Bay. But in between there are some grotty roads that, whilst not intimidating me, make the prospect of cycling there unattractive.
The money spent in London is far greater than that being spent elsewhere, and that is understandable. But I'd like to see a similar effort made around Cardiff.
Cardiff doesn't do the prominent mayor thing. Thankfully.
The real dream is to not need separation of road users but to make it safe for all. This needs a real seismic shift in culture as well as building roads factoring in cycling. There's too many new or upgraded roads built without even any attempt to cater for cycling.
Sorry but London doesn't interest me there's just too many places outside of London that needs fixing and city mayors won't do that. Creating powerful Mayoralties for cities leaves a lot outside losing out.
Tangled Metal wrote:The real dream is to not need separation of road users but to make it safe for all. This needs a real seismic shift in culture as well as building roads factoring in cycling. There's too many new or upgraded roads built without even any attempt to cater for cycling.
Sorry but London doesn't interest me there's just too many places outside of London that needs fixing and city mayors won't do that. Creating powerful Mayoralties for cities leaves a lot outside losing out.
I suppose it is felt that money spent on cycling infrastructure shows a better return in cities (i.e. extra miles cycled) than outside cities. Considering the comparatively tiny sums involved, it really shouldn't be a choice. As someone who lives in the edge of London, I'd be grateful for new road surfaces in either direction.
Over in Bristol, Bristol First's red-trousered cycling architect mayor George Ferguson has lost to Labour's Marvin Rees who is already saying to the BBC that he'll "look again" at the 20mph and resident-only parking zones which I feel have done so much to re-humanise large areas of the city ☹ - Labour also gained a majority on the city council, so he's likely to have a freer hand than the previous mayor. I fear the so-called "cycling city" may be about to backpedal.
On the other hand, Avon and Somerset re-elected their independent Police Commissioner Sue Mountstevens. She was one of the 12 commissioners to sign the Road Justice pledge.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Tangled Metal wrote:The real dream is to not need separation of road users but to make it safe for all.
Yes, though it's contextual. Separation is one of a number of strategies that can/should be employed in a complementary fashion to get to the "safe for all". Where you have fast/heavy traffic and alternative routes would be much less direct then separation is well worthy of consideration. So, for example, a typical bridge over the Thames in central London, where all sorts of handy alternative measures like filtered permeability etc. don't work unless you're a very good swimmer, is not really a place your typical primary school child would be happy to ride mixing it with busy traffic. With the newer segregated lanes that gets to be tenable though, but plenty of places have no need of them.
mjr wrote:Over in Bristol, Bristol First's red-trousered cycling architect mayor George Ferguson has lost to Labour's Marvin Rees who is already saying to the BBC that he'll "look again" at the 20mph and resident-only parking zones which I feel have done so much to re-humanise large areas of the city ☹ - Labour also gained a majority on the city council, so he's likely to have a freer hand than the previous mayor. I fear the so-called "cycling city" may be about to backpedal.
On the other hand, Avon and Somerset re-elected their independent Police Commissioner Sue Mountstevens. She was one of the 12 commissioners to sign the Road Justice pledge.
It also means the mayor has become a party political job rather than an opportunity to break that mould. Ferguson wasn't perfect, the Green Capital thing was a complete wash-out for instance, but he did have his own ideas outside the party set pieces. It looks like we're now (in Bristol) to have to choose a mayor from the left-right binary.
As for the RPZs, I expect that "looking again" will mean freezing them rather than removing them. There's a lot invested in them financially and it will take a few years to pay off. The 20mph zone (ie most of the city -- or rather most of the city council area, not so much of the urban area; another cause for things to not work so well) I'm not so optimistic about.
Tangled Metal wrote:The real dream is to not need separation of road users but to make it safe for all.
Top priority for pedestrians then with the complete abolition of pavements. All wheeled traffic at pedestrian speed. Is that your real dream?? London's Exhibition Road seems to give priority to vehicles despite lack of pavements.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
With even larger cuts in central funding to deal with than Ferguson had (and Ferguson has already made most if not all of the easy non service efficiency improvements available) I don't think Marvin would have the money to remove the 20mph zones even if he wanted to.
In reality i don't think he wants to anyway, he's just been largely very non committal to most things in his campaigning in what appears to be an effort to not lose the pro car vote, or at least get it to turn out. I've seen/heard talk from a number of people belonging to the more traditional labour voting suburbs (with traditionally flaky turn outs) who seem to be under the illusion that he's going to let them all drive to work again so it obviously worked. They're going to be quite disappointed.
However he does seem way too keen on consulting with everyone, being 'democratic' and making everyone happy (obviously impossible). He also seems too nice in a rather naïve sense as well so won't have the will to push unpopular sustainable transport policy through. He also appears to lack any kind of real world project management experience which is concerning (contrast Ferguson, who as an experienced architect and in urban realm/regeneration would have had plenty of both that and planning issues as a whole).
Ferguson was far from perfect but he had a decent vision for the city and actually made stuff happen, which as anyone who's been in Bristol longer term will know was a bit of a rarity for a city more used to endlessly procrastinating over doing anything substantial.
I doubt Bristol well go backwards over the next 4 years but it's hard to see it keep moving forward at the rate it has been and easy to see it returning to the stagnation of old.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
Tangled Metal wrote:The real dream is to not need separation of road users but to make it safe for all.
Top priority for pedestrians then with the complete abolition of pavements. All wheeled traffic at pedestrian speed. Is that your real dream?? London's Exhibition Road seems to give priority to vehicles despite lack of pavements.
Exhibition Road is a great example of context in action. In the context of the low-motor-volume end nearest South Ken Tube the shared space setup works pretty well (the ice cream from the Kensington Creperie there is hugely recommended, by the way). Pop back to the space between the Nat Hist and the V&A and it's a normal road in all but name with the boundaries between the peds and the vehicles quite distinct (they even put a grill along where the kerb would be, just in case you're not sure where you ought to be...).
The new mayor of London is Sadiq Khan. Here's his manifesto.
About cycling:
My aim is to make London a byword for cycling around the world – with a plan to make cycling and walking safer and easier in the capital. Although a great deal of progress has been made, we still have a lot of work to do to protect cyclists and pedestrians from collisions. I’ll continue the good work that has been done by the last two Mayors on cycling, and increase the pace of change. I will:
Increase the proportion of TfL’s budget spent on cycling.
Continue the Cycle Superhighway Programme, investing in new routes and learning the lessons from earlier schemes, with a focus on segregated provision.
Prioritise Quietways – continuous cycling routes running through parks, alongside waterways and down quiet backstreets – to broaden London’s safe cycle network, while completing the roll out of current town-centre cycling improvement plans, and beginning a new round of schemes.
Promote safer, cleaner lorries – working with the boroughs and using City Hall procurement to set new safety standards, moving towards City Hall and TfL contracts specifying ‘direct-vision’ lorries.
Review the Safer Junction Programmes to identify and commence priority improvements at more of London’s major accident blackspots.
Deliver more cycle storage and parking, using the London Plan to ensure provision in new developments, while working with London boroughs deliver on-street secure provision.
Work to break down some of the city’s physical barriers, such as by backing the Rotherhithe-Canary Wharf cycle and pedestrian bridge.
But there’s more I’m determined to do to make getting around safer for everyone - walkers and cyclists, as well as motorists – and particularly for those with disabilities which make negotiating London’s streets that much harder. I will:
Establish safe walking routes, to give children cleaner and safer journeys to school, avoiding busy and polluted roads where possible.
Reduce street and pavement clutter on TfL Roads and support urban realm improvements across town centres.
Encourage the roll out of 20mph zones across the city by backing the '20’s Plenty For Us' campaign.
... Is it deliverable? ...
In some ways a better question woud be "How much will be delivered ?". I think the expression is "Aim high. You may still miss your target but at least you wont shoot your foot off".
