[sustran] problem in London

Eric Britton Eric.Britton at ecoplan.org
Sat Jan 20 16:57:30 JST 2007


Simon Norton wrote on this date: "Any thoughts on this situation which was
recently the subject of an article in a
local newspaper. Transport for London recently removed some bus laybys on a main
road . . . "

 

I have, as maybe some of you know, given this a lot of thought and indeed I
think there is an answer to this kind of unnecessary (I think) and potentially
harmful anomaly. Briefly and by the numbers:

 

1.	If there is one thing that can be said without a shadow of a doubt about
our exiting transport arrangements in cities, it is that there are notoriously
piecemeal.


2.	Which to me suggest that what is needed is a broadly shared, explicit,
consistent philosophy.


3.	That indeed is what in fact many of us are trying to get at here.

 

I am struggling with this and am trying to see what I can do to put down the
main principles of such a philosophy, which if you are interested you can find
in the Agenda site at http://www.newmobility.org <http://www.newmobility.org/> ,
clicking Philosophy on the top menu. It is, as you will see, kind of all over
the place, but I would say that I have something on the order of say 80% of the
core values there. 

 

We need something that we can state relatively succinctly that can be understood
by all of the key actors (local authorities, police, media, experts, interest
groups, and the general public) which they can then debate among themselves and,
in each place perhaps according to their own volition and conditions, hammer out
something that is broadly shared and understood. 

 

In fact, I would suggest that if it is not something that can be read and
understood by a reasonably bright eleven year old, then we probably have it
somehow wrong. 

 

Does this help at all? And if it is a start, what next? All critiques and
suggestions most welcome, both here to the group or to me personally as you
think will serve us all best.

 

Eric Britton

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
 On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:09 AM
To: lotslesscars at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LotsLessCars] problem in London

 

Any thoughts on this situation which was recently the subject of an article in a
local newspaper.

Transport for London recently removed some bus laybys on a main road in outer
London. This is often advocated as a means of reducing delays to buses caused by
them having to wait for other traffic to pass before they can rejoin the traffic
stream -- and then as a result probably missing the next set of traffic lights.
I presume that that was TfL's motivation.

However, on this occasion there were reports of collisions between cars and 
buses when the latter had to brake to serve stops. As a result the police
stepped in and ordered the bus stops closed. This created consternation among
bus users, particularly the elderly and infirm, who would now have to walk
further.

I'm not sure whether the relevant section of road has a speed limit of 40mph or
30mph. Would reduction to 20mph have been a fairer way to deal with the
problem ?

The road in question is part of the A1, just inside from the North Circular
Road where it passes through a largely residential area. I remember when many
years ago plans to widen it to dual 3 lane were scrapped after massive protest.

Before I give my own moral on the situation I'll wait to see what others have to
say.

Simon Norton

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20070120/71653f03/attachment.html


More information about the Sustran-discuss mailing list