Many jump in the car because they don’t think there’s a realistic alternative
With a larger proportion of the workforce choosing to drive to work in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, rising congestion could cost everyone in the UK more than £2,000 a year, according to Cycling UK. The charity has therefore called for improved walking and cycling networks, arguing that the cost of failing to provide alternatives to car travel are too great.
Comic – Welcome Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – Hackney Citizen
By Hackney Citizen | Friday 11 December 2020 at 17:48Our resident artist Francisco de la Mora gives his personal take on the low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) that have been introduced in Hackney.
Climate change: Lower Thames Crossing CO2 impact figures revealed – BBC News
By Roger Harrabin 11/12/20
BBC environment analyst
A new tunnel linking Kent and Essex will create five million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), figures suggest.
Estimates say building the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC), a flagship project in the UK’s roads programme, will emit 2 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas.
Meanwhile, traffic created by the road is expected to generate another 3.2 million tonnes over 60 years.
Environmentalists say the statistics make a mockery of the prime minister’s claim to lead on climate change.
A government report published in March provisionally estimated the UK’s net carbon emissions in 2019 to be 351.5 million tonnes.
The Thames crossing is said to be the UK’s biggest roads project since the M25.
What’s all the fuss about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods? – Greenpeace UK – Youtube
:excerptstartGreenpeace UK Dec 17, 2020In the UK, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) have become the subject of heated debate. So what are they, and why do we need them?Read more: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/lo…: excerptendlink to original article
Bike blog test ride: are commuter e-bikes worth the price tag? | The Guardian
Peter Walker
It’s fair to say I learned two main things in trying to test out a series of commuter-type e-bikes over the past few months. One was more of a rediscovery: they’re fantastic fun. The other was a surprise: at the moment, they’re really hard to get hold of.
The coronavirus pandemic changed the UK in many ways, and one of the minor impacts was to spark an explosion of interest in e-bikes, as people sought out ways to return to work while avoiding public transport and traffic jams.
After months of back-and-forth emails with bike companies and PRs, I got hold of the four featured below. I wanted to test more models, and some cheaper ones, but it couldn’t happen.
Before I get into the details, there are three general points to make.
Handful Of Twitter Users Can Sway Council Decisions, Finds Data Analysis Of ‘Low Traffic Neighborhood’ Posts – Forbes
Carlton Reid Dec 12, 2020
“If the Internet was a block of flats, would you want to move in?” asked London-based Jimmy Tidey on tech media site Hackermoon in 2017. An expert on Twitter tribes, Tidey argued that self-selection and algorithms separate people from information which disagrees with their viewpoints, leading to online polarisation.
His latest research delves into the divisive debates about London’s new “low traffic neighborhoods.” Using graphics to represent “filter bubbles,” he explores how a small number of individuals on Twitter can convince themselves and others—including councils—that their opinions are the truly mainstream ones.
Sadiq Khan considering £3.50 daily charge for drivers entering London | The Guardian
Gwynn Topham Fri 11 Dec 2020 14.33 GMT
Drivers could face a £3.50 daily charge to enter Greater London under proposals from the mayor of London to address the capital’s funding crisis.
Sadiq Khan has asked Transport for London to start feasibility studies for the plan to raise £500m a year.
The boundary charge would be levied on vehicles registered outside the capital crossing into the whole of London – an area almost 80 times larger than the central congestion zone.
An independent review into TfL’s finances, which have been badly hit by the loss of tube fares after the pandemic, suggested that road charging would be the best source of new revenue.
The review said cuts to bus services in outer boroughs, scrapping the night tube, and ending the subsidy for the “Boris bike” cycle hire scheme would provide potential savings but could inflict further congestion and economic damage.
The independent panel was commissioned by Khan during fraught negotiations with the government for emergency funding, after passengers were told to avoid public transport to help stop the spread of Covid-19.
Khan urged ministers to “play fair” by London to assure the future funding of the capital’s transport network, and to allow the capital to keep the £500m a year paid in vehicle excise duty by London-based drivers.
He said the money was spent outside London while TfL used fare income to fund maintenance of major roads in the capital.
The boundary charge could also reduce congestion and emissions and encourage greater use of sustainable transport. On an average weekday about 1.3m vehicles travel into London.
Cycling UK accuse Fair Fuel UK of running ‘how much do you hate cycling’ survey | road.cc
Fair Fuel UK, the pro-motoring lobby group that consistently opposes measures by central and local governments to curb car use and promote active travel, has been accused by Cycling UK of “rigging” its Annual Road User Opinion Survey, the 2020 edition of which was launched yesterday.
Among the criticisms levelled by the national cyclists’ charity are that the survey is designed around “leading questions” – ie ones that aim to provoke a certain desired response.
A number of those are related to cycle lanes and low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), initiatives that Fair Fuel UK has consistently opposed.
Just last month, the group was co-signatory to a letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and Hauliers which called on Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to withdraw support for emergency cycle lanes and LTNs.
Cycling UK prepares for legal challenges to bike lanes’ “unreasonable” removal | Cycling UK
Cycling UK today (Friday,11 December) has announced that through its Cyclists’ Defence Fund it is seeking urgent legal advice about whether councils’ decisions to remove schemes designed to promote walking and cycling are “unreasonable”. This drastic action follows in the wake of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s removal of a well-used cycle lane on High Street Kensington in London last week citing the lanes caused congestion. According to BetterStreets4KC chair Justin Abbott “Levels of congestion were unaffected by the cycle scheme.” There are now no separated cycle lanes and there has been no discernible benefit in terms of congestion reduction.
This cycle lane recently featured in a short film produced by the Department for Transport, showing the benefits cycle lanes can bring to local communities. Cycling UK has written to the council requesting a pause in these plans, and a clarification of the process which led to this decision.
The national charity is concerned this pattern of behaviour of removing cycle lanes and traffic calming measures, is not just increasing but is being done without adequate evaluation of their benefits, and without sufficient time to conduct effective trials.
Tougher sentences for hit and run drivers who cause death – Petitions
Tougher sentences for hit and run drivers who cause death
The maximum penalty for failure to stop after an incident is points and a 6-month custodial sentence. Causing death by careless/dangerous driving is between 5-14 yrs. The sentence for failing to stop after a fatal collision must be increased.