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electors it seems to us here at cycalogical that with the scottish referendum bringing up the question of local devolution and accountability now is a good time to think about how london is run there are some issues that are unique to local conditions and need to be decided locally but there are plenty of other services like refuse collection that are pretty much commoditized currently services are managed in theory by each of the 33 councils that means london has 33 different organizations doing what is a very similar job except in fact they don t anymore some councils have already figured out there is a lot of cost and not a lot of point in this duplication and have set up organizations such as the south london waste partnership which manages your old newspapers and tin cans if you live in sutton merton croydon or kingston but the problem with this of course is there is no overall accountability if you live in merton and you think your rubbish service is er rubbish your local council has only limited influence and control over the service being provided so there is a democratic deficit caused by the fact that london s democratic structure is out of date with the realities of how an increasing number of services are provided transport is of course a different matter we already have transport for london controlled by the mayor which is in charge of london s transport only of course it is not tfl only controls the major roads and all others fall under local borough control except the royal parks and some commons which have their own little organizations looking after paths and access oh and of course central government which has put in place over the years lots of primary legislation that makes it much more difficult and expensive to get perfectly reasonable transport measures in place another danger is that left to lots of local boroughs there is no consistency or coherency to policy if one borough tries to reduce traffic by restricting parking drivers can just go to a neighboring borough that enables parking to try to revive its ailing high street transport is by its very nature a cross borough issue it makes no sense to have great bus or cycle routes in sutton which stop as soon as you get into croydon or merton and it is cycling that is the biggest victim of our current multi layered approach to government there are formidable obstacles set up by the labyrinthine bureaucracy comprised of the various bodies that have to be involved consulted and brought on side if the london mayor wants to construct a meaningful network of cycle routes fit for purpose and worthy of a first world city what is most toxic about the current set up is that local boroughs now with the health and social care act 2012 have responsibility for public health and the easiest way to improve public health is to get people doing more active travel which is very difficult to do at a borough level if you want people cycling to work and to school you need a city wide network of cycle routes surely the most sensible arrangement for london is to have more powers for the mayor mrs thatcher abolished the glc leaving london without leadership labour then set up a mayor who is little more than a glorified transport commissioner who is not even in full control of transport and is not properly accountable with an assembly that is just a talking shop we can and must do better this city needs to be an attractive and healthy place to live in if the mayor wants to reduce the incidence of obesity diabetes heart disease arthritis and a long list of other common but preventable diseases thereby saving the health service a sack of cash enabling him to hand back the savings in tax cuts or better services and reducing traffic congestion pollution and noise while making better use of public space it is not reasonable to ask that he has the power to do this as a footnote we are not claiming to have the solution for how best to run london or the uk but we do believe that the current system has all the problems you would expect given that it dates from a time when most people didn t own cars or telephones the net was something you went fishing with tuberculosis rather than obesity was the disease of choice and the nhs didn t exist we think that a horse drawn quill pen gas lit democracy could be a little out of step with the information age let alone the city of london corporation which dates from an era when gas light and democracy was the stuff of science fiction at 11 34 am 33 comments tuesday september 23 2014 crossrail for bikes dave hill gets it wrong generally we like dave hill s insightful and reasonably balanced journalism but in his piece about the crossrail for bikes we think he s got it a bit wrong a political railroading exercise is the picture he paints he starts by stating some of these concerns about the east west cycle route were aired for the benefit of the policy committee of london travelwatch the official watchdog representing all repeat all transport users in the capital first london travelwatch does not have a good record of representing cyclists in the capital in our opinion they don t really get it and have been laggards in the debate about what place cycling should have in the transport mix london chamber of commerce and industry s problem with the superhighway is a lack of almost any information at all about its possible effects on the workings of london s economy this is a strange point tfl are not economists and it is not their job to make economic predictions and in any case economists don t have a great track record of predicting macro effects let alone effects on this small scale level there are all sorts of changes to traffic patterns happening on a daily basis caused by all manner of things from events like the olympics to roadworks and construction projects but we don t do detailed analysis of possible effects on the economy it is not the mayor s job to keep london s businesses in a bubble sealed from all possible ill effects it is up to businesses to adapt to changing conditions more successful businesses will take advantage of opportunities arising for more cycling many sectors from the bike industry to tourism will benefit there will be business opportunities for freight consolidation and deliveries by pedal powered vehicles and let us not forget it is the job of businesses to serve london not the other way around there is no way that quality of life in this city should be sacrificed to make life a little bit easier for businesses who can t or won t adapt to what londoners want from their transport system and street environment london first has also raised the problems the superhighway could cause pedestrians this is ridiculous problems for pedestrians have been caused by fifty years of motor centric planning and traffic flow prioritization not least by the current mayor to suggest that better cycle facilities will cause pedestrians problems is a bit like saying giving chemotherapy to a cancer patient will make them feel unwell cycling is a far more efficient use of roadspace than private cars or taxis so is part of the solution not part of the problem and what is more improvements for pedestrians have often involved endangering cyclists as carriageways are narrowed while no attempt is made to provide for cyclists to control traffic speeds or volumes or enforce against dangerous driving city of london s michael welbank has described the superhighway plans as too narrowly focussed on the needs of cyclists well it is a cycle scheme and set against a background where virtually every single change to london s road system in recent history has ignored the needs of cyclists so to take this scheme in isolation is to skip by the fact that london has an enormous amount of catching up to do in terms of cycling provision to draw a causal link between lack of priority for pedestrians and this scheme is bogus the superhighway iain simmons thinks could add another 20 or 30 seconds to these pedestrian crossing wait times the presence of cycle superhighways doesn t determine anything with or without cycle superhighways it is up to tfl how signals prioritize pedestrians they didn t start to relegate pedestrians down the pecking order with this project and there is no reason why they should continue to do so the fundamental problem is that tfl have tried to squeeze far too much traffic into london s narrow streets during the olympics we had reallocation of roadspace and a massive reduction of traffic did london s economy collapse as a result not that you d notice which puts the lie to the idea that every journey made today is absolutely necessary other cities cope well with less traffic and we certainly don t see anyone arguing that the city would be better off with more traffic and more pollution more congestion noise and degradation to the street scene and urban environment the common theme is that all concerned want cyclists lot improved but worry that johnson s plans are being pushed through far too hurriedly are you sure about that dave are you sure there isn t a hidden agenda we ve spent a long time getting to the point where the debate about cycle infrastructure is settled it is now the consensus that more cycling won t happen without decent segregated routes so if you are against this project you are against cycling period but it isn t politically expedient anymore for organizations and lobbyists to directly oppose the plans as to do so would associate them with continued death and injury to cyclists so their only weapons are delay procrastination and obfuscation and it is not really credible for people to claim that the building of segreagated routes is a surpise dutch style routes were in the mayor s manifesto and supported by all major parties businesses have had years to think through the implications and do economic analysis if they so chose pushed through far too hurriedly why not slow down a bit and let more cyclists die you mean but here is the real point london voted for this it would be an affront to democracy for plans for decent segregated routes to be degraded into well the kind of crap that has hitherto been the calling card of cycling investment what s more it would be a gross waste of taxpayers money the benefits economic public health pollution environment liveability etc etc only come if ordinary non lycra clad people start cycling and we know they won t if the routes aren t up to a consistent standard throughout arranging this triumph is the mission of his part time cycling adviser andrew gilligan a pushy media chum with no experience in transport planning we ve had decades of transport planners making a total mess of cycling in the uk it s not up to gilligan to design or plan the routes that s the job of the engineers it is up to him to make them happen and frankly being pushy is a required attribute as is understanding communication and the media at least gilligan rides a bike which makes him a lot more qualified than a lot of people at tfl he is doing what he was hired to do and the general impression is he is doing a half decent job sorry dave we think that better cycling provision will be good for london for its people its economy its businesses its health and its environment and there is plenty of evidence for this it is up to businesses to adapt to the changes and opportunities this positive change will throw up sure there are details that need to be worked out but the fact is that roadspace must be reallocated to cycling and there will be consequences both positive and negative to that for example on the plus side of the ledger victoria embankment will go from being an urban motorway to having the cycle track as a buffer between the riverside pavement and the motor traffic the riverside will go from being an unwelcoming unattractive noisy and polluted place to somewhere people might actually want to linger yes some journeys may take longer on the other hand a whole new transport mode cycling will be opened up to people who currently aren t prepared to mix it on a bike with heavy traffic people might take a boris bike rather than a taxi and their journey could well be quicker don t forget that taxis are responsible for a lot about 30 of central london pollution according to darren johnson based on tfl figures the crossrail for bikes is scheduled to be complete just before the mayor s second term is due to end in may 2016 it would be hailed as the crowning glory of his much trumpeted cycling revolution tfl would like the time to do its job with the thoroughness this ambitious project merits that though might clash with the career interests of the mayor and they of course must always come first again this project can t come quickly enough the idea that the mayor shouldn t push ahead with a great scheme because that might be perceived as good for his career prospects is completely illogical there are very few projects that wouldn t benefit from a bit more time and a bit more money but in case you hadn t noticed we have a public health emergency in this country the consequences of sedentary lifestyles is threatening to bankrupt the nhs decent cycle infrastructure can t come soon enough and making boris look good is surely a price worth paying at 5 21 am 1 comment wednesday june 18 2014 brazil developing world cycling infrastructure brazil isn t all about football with the blanket coverage of the world cup on some of the on beach punditry footage in rio de janiero you may have been able to see in the background some half decent cycling infrastructure above cycle crossing at av atlantica above semi segregated lane on rua figueiredo de magalhaes above segregated beachfront track copacapana beach av atlantica you can even get from an airport to downtown on a segregated path according to riouncovered there is a decent network of bike lanes connecting the various neighbourhoods the mayor s office has been keen to highlight rio s green credentials before the world cup and the olympics so new cycle lanes have been sprouting up all over the place they are all pretty well connected and are strategically placed to enjoy some of the most famous locations and spectacular scenery of course rio is not amsterdam much of it is traffic choked hostile and dangerous if you re on a bike but there seems to be a will to change this although there is the usual lineup of motorized opponents in london we can only aspire to have developing world cycling infrastructure head over to voleospeed for a summary of london s almost complete lack of cycle infrastructure that is our olympic legacy at 3 54 am 1 comment saturday june 7 2014 traffic signs consultation i was feeling a bit bad about not posting on this blog for a while but then i thought about how long it takes uk governments to get even simple cycle related issues resolved and then i didn t feel so guilty a traffic signs policy review was first launched under the previous government back in...