News from Elsewhere

Lydia Chantler-Hicks
One thousand extra pedestrians are walking in Stoke Newington Church Street every day – thanks to new traffic restrictions that have seen the number of cars using the road fall by 60%.
A bus gate was installed under an experimental traffic order last September, to reduce the number of cars using the trendy Hackney high street and surrounding area between 7am and 7pm.
Hackney Council says the ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ scheme has seen walking and cycling surge between those times, with cycling up 38% and pedestrian numbers up 16%.

Assembly backs ULEZ expansion & road user charging option

With a clear majority, on the 17th of November, the London Assembly backed the Mayor’s revision to his Transport Strategy opening up the option to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover all of London and later introduce ‘Smart & Fair Road User Charging’ (SFRUC). The vote was along party lines, with Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat members voting for the revision, Conservative members against.

Isabella Kaminski
A legal challenge has been launched against a road scheme that opponents say clashes with climate goals.

Changes aimed at improving car journeys between Milton Keynes and Cambridge by upgrading junctions and building a 10-mile dual carriageway on the A428 between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet were approved in the summer. The scheme, estimated to cost £810m-£950m, is listed in the government’s growth plan for accelerated delivery.

“All roads increase traffic, noise, air pollution and carbon emissions and make no sense in the current climate and ecological emergencies,” said the group’s director Chris Todd. “Rishi Sunak has firmly committed to net zero, and this is his chance to put that commitment into action.”

Spending money on new roads would swallow billions of public funds for very little return, Todd argues. “lso, building new roads in the long term makes things worse, with any congestion relief often short-lived and offset by increases in congestion on the wider road network.”

William Mata
London cyclists are worried “dehumanising” language directed at them on social media could be transferred into aggression on roads.
British Cycling has said the issue is particularly bad in the capital and the south east where there are proportionally more people on a bike.
Nick Chamberlain, policy manager of British Cycling, said: “Cyclists are worried that abuse online is going to be converted to dangerous [behaviour] on the road either verbally, or tragically physically where people have used a vehicle as a weapon.
“It is just generally dehumanising language. Things have not got better. The abuse is still there. The language is as unpleasant now as it was ten years ago.”

Steven Morris
Setting the default speed limit at 20mph in residential roads in Wales will save £100m in the first year alone as deaths and injuries are reduced, according to research.
The move, a first for a UK nation, will save more than 100 lives over a decade, the research claims, though a second study has found many people are concerned the limit will be very difficult to enforce and do not believe drivers will respect it.
The Labour-led government is introducing the 20mph speed limit scheme for many roads in residential and built-up areas across Wales in September 2023.

In 1381, a mob sacked university buildings and burned books in the town square, shouting: “Away with the learning of clerks!” More recently, battle lines have been drawn over plans to build homes on green belt land and attempts to ban wild swimming in the river Cam.

Now, tensions between town and gown are rising again in Cambridge. This time, it’s over proposals to introduce a £5 congestion charge on weekday car journeys to the city, with a protest march to Parker’s Piece common planned for 27 November.
People who live in the city centre and mainly cycle or walk, such as students and Cambridge dons, stand to benefit greatly from the scheme. Others, such as workers and families who have to drive everyday, are facing charges of up to £1,300 a year per car.