Hi Leo, thanks for joining the discussion, listening to people’s concerns, and explaining issues. I’ll make it very clear that I support the schemes in principle however as you can see there’s a perceived lack of clarity and transparency around the process of deciding where the closures are happening and also implementation and signage.
I’ve been out and about to have a 1st hand look at things and they definitely seem to be improving. Please do continue to stay involved in these topics.
Public interest journalism site 853.london has an informative write-up about the Upwood Road debacle, previously bought to prominence by Tom Edwards Tweeting to show drivers mounting the pavement in order to circumnavigate the modal filter installed at the boundary to Lewisham:
In our defence, the legal changes that meant emergency Traffic Orders covered Covid-19 response measures only came into force on 23rd May. About 6/7 weeks go.
Covid-19 has not gone away and social distancing remains necessary. We can’t have our tubes and buses getting ram-packed again, therefore we still need to create more space for cyclists and pedestrians. The remit and need remains.
I do not intend to brusque but I’d say it’s not up to you to police my language. If someone is offended by the term blacklist, I’d probably inform them that it comes from the list of judges who signed Charles I’s death warrant (his son, Charles II, later described it as ‘this blacklist’), and that its subsequent uses mean it has little if nothing to do with race.
Not to be flippant but if someone was offended by the term snowflake, I might call them a snowflake! (I jest)
But in honesty, words are deemed offensive when decided upon the collective. Not when an individual arbitrarily assigns it so. I am quite forthright on this principle and believe nobody has a right ‘not to be offended’. If rat-running was deemed a slur against all people who drive by a broad cross-section of the population, I’d likely change my tune. However, I have a hunch that the phrase is seen, very broadly, as an acceptable and pretty harmless term to describe cut-through traffic on residential roads.
Anyway, I think this issue stands to one side of the main thread here and I don’t want to get into a tit-for-tat back and forth.
This has still not been answered despite participation in this long thread by councillors.
I don’t mean to split hairs here, but accuracy is important.
While the legal changes may have come through on the 23rd, the scheme was first announced on the 9th May and Councillor McGeevor was Tweeting about plans as early as the 4th.
So that’s actually about 8/9 weeks ago.
I do feel that’s plenty of time for things to have moved faster, or the time used for clear and transparent consultation. But I won’t labour that point further.
Anyway, it’s good to see final phase 1 funding has been allocated with £5m going to London Boroughs and TfL to help make improvements. I look forward to more details on this in the near future:
“Silverdale Road Planters targeted by anti #stopkillingcyclists activism”
Looks like someone decided they didn’t like the idea and have taken it upon themselves to vandalise a planter. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was an angry mob but clearly some people think they can take the law into their own hands and don’t care for health and safety of cyclists or pedestrians.
This will just end up spending more council money to fix. Sad.
In fairness (unless you or others witnessed it) we don’t know the reason this happened. Could be someone accidentally reversing into it, could be a few people doing it for ‘fun’ after a few too many drinks or an escaped elephant.
Not great whatever the reason though I agree.
I once witnessed a very drunk man who had pulled a small tree out of a planter (well I assume he did tgat) dragging it down the road and down the steps to Aldgate East Station where he appeared to abandon it. People do strange thinks post alcohol…
Yes of course you are entirely correct, it was an attempt at making a satirical post.
Someone has also stolen or rescued the plants from it too, depending how one would want to spin it.
I saw the damage done to that planter. It is a ton of soil screwed (badly) into the ground. To tip that over would require more than an accidental reverse unless it was dangerously top heavy (with false bottom)
Rather than accept the council’s arbitrary closures, it looks like people are taking matters into their own hands in Brockley:
What a shame, let’s all hope the perpetrators are are caught and punished.
So what can we all take from this thread? A lot of London’s drivers are selfish arseholes and Lewisham Council are, as per usual, absolutely useless. I’d honestly like to see how some of Lewisham’s employees and elected officials would fare in the private sector.
The link to that tweet takes you to the original which is of a couple of kids enjoying cycling down the road…
“Kids are now safely playing on roads in Lee Green where last week thousands of vehicles sped past each day bringing noise and pollution.
This is what Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are all about.”
Some bellend has vandalised the signs and thinks he’s cool for being a rebel and reopening the road. Given the amount of bitching some people do about graffiti this is just plain ridiculous.
“Low traffic neighbourhoods” sound great.
Kids cycling in the street sounds lovely.
But to imagine that’s a realistic proposition within one of most densely populated cities in the world? It’s just completely unrealistic, as much as it’s sad to say so.
London needs its roads. They’re not playthings for children. They’re not the canalside idylls of Amsterdam. They’re vital vehicular transport arteries, all of them.
If the council cherry-picks some roads to close arbitrarily, the council merely pushes traffic onto other roads.
The council are giving to a privileged few by taking from the unfortunate many.
That’s not fair, and it makes people angry. I understand that anger.
Feel free to get angry. That’s fine. It’s the vandalism I object to.
I’m not angry. I just understand the anger of people who are on the sharp end of this council policy.
I wish the council would acknowledge that their policy is harming people’s legitimate interests. They might have been able to avoid conflict if they’d just thought things through and communicated better.
I wish people got as angry about illegal use of spray paint to damage public property as they do about its lawful use to paint murals!
London isn’t one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
A lazy Google search does list London in various rankings for city density e.g. at number 43 in this list from USA Today, noting that the first European city in that list looks to be Athens, Greece at number 40.
Next up the list is Madrid, another European capital.
The density of Madrid and London are somewhat similar, but in terms of square miles, London is much larger.
I think it’s this combination of density and sprawling scale that makes transport such a problem for London, though all cities have their challenges.
Either way, the government message is still to avoid public transport if possible, so alternatives are needed. Unfortunately I think the road closures are arbitrary and costly for what they achieve - I would prefer to see the money spent on directly addressing the issue of safe travel on public transport e.g. by increasing the number of buses and frequently deep cleaning as much as possible and remodelling passenger flows in tube stations where possible.
The government indicated there is a further £20m to be allocated between London Boroughs & TfL for phase 2 of this ‘emergency’ active travel fund (phase 1 was just £5m), so I guess there is much more to come.
