Author name: Steven Edwards

Roads Rebellion activists burst into car showroom to hold a “die-in” in protest at Toyota’s dirty lobbying tactics

Peter Stonham 16 June 2022

Mechanisms that enable a whole life carbon assessment of transport  schemes have been developed by a special DfT- led two year project soon to issue advice to local authorities and other bodies. 
The Strategic Digital Carbon Architecture (SDCA) programme, supported by the Treasury with funding as a special project in its shared outcomes fund, is led by Dr Tom Mclenachan, DfT’s senior policy advisor infrastructure net zero.

The new leader of Greenwich council has pledged to meet with the elected mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz to “stop, pause and review” the Silvertown Tunnel, which is under construction in both boroughs.

Anthony Okereke narrowly beat the council’s current leader Danny Thorpe in a vote of the borough’s Labour councillors a week after the party were returned with a large majority in the local elections.
LTT asked Greenwich Council whether Anthony Orereke will press TfL to review its plans for the tunnel. A council spokesperson said: “The council elects its leader at its AGM on 25 May, and will be able to comment further after that time.”

Transport planners and politicians often talk about using carrots and sticks to bring about modal shift, but rarely is that approach so clearly visible on the ground as it is now in Snowdonia National Park. Bus services to the most popular places have never been as frequent as this summer, while changes to parking controls have reduced the problems caused by illegally parked cars.

Road-traffic noise significantly slows the development of crucial memory and attention skills in primary school children, research has found.
The study of almost 2,700 children aged between seven and 10 in 38 schools in Barcelona, Spain, is the first to assess the impact of traffic noise on child cognitive development over time and to determine the impact of peaks in noise.

13 June 2022

Walk down a busy street in most urban areas, particularly the more affluent parts, and you may feel somewhat besieged. Indeed, in many public spaces people are being displaced by an occupying force that grows more numerous by the year. I’m talking not about US military bases or extra-terrestrial colonisers, but a homegrown menace: so-called Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).
Over the past decade, these gargantuan monstrosities have greatly increased their market share of new car sales – of which most people are all too aware. Why? It’s hardly as if roads have suddenly become unnavigable in ordinary saloon cars, or that more people are going for picnics in peat bogs. Well, like many ostentatious consumer trends, it’s a triumph of aggressive marketing.

The report, Street Shift: The Future of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, looked at the roll-out of LTNs by London boroughs in recent years. It found that LTNs reduce car traffic, increase walking and cycling, and make roads safer for all users. But the report argues that LTNs should be introduced alongside complementary measures including promoting cycle training, new public transport options, and a denser network of bike and scooter hire and car clubs. 

Peter Walker
Low-traffic neighbourhoods boost cycling, reduce car use and make roads safer, but councils could do more to make the schemes more palatable and comprehensible to local people, the most thorough study yet of the concept has concluded.
The report by the Centre for London thinktank about the interventions, which use planters or other filters to stop through-traffic by motor vehicles on smaller residential streets, also found no evidence they disproportionately benefited richer people.