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Anti-cycling campaigner claims bike lanes cause pollution

Councillor questions CS11 opponent claims cycle lanes will increase pollution levels and suggests focusing on motor traffic instead

A campaigner lobbying against a Cycle Superhighway has been accused of using air pollution concerns to prioritise private cars over walking and cycling.  

Jessica Learmond Criqui, a specialist employment lawyer who lives and works around Hampstead, has repeatedly raised concerns the introduction of Cycle Superhighway 11, which is proposed to run from Swiss Cottage to the West End, will “act as a cork” to traffic and force cars onto narrow residential roads, worsening air pollution.

However, at a meeting in Hampstead where Learmond-Criqui told Camden Council it was breaching its own guidelines on air quality and that it shouldn’t approve any more planning applications that could exacerbate the problem, a local councillor told Learmond-Cirqui she is addressing the right issue with the wrong strategy.

Ms Learmond-Criqui, quoted by the Ham & High, said: “Finchley Road is used by 35 million vehicles, and CS-11 will see more than 200 more vehicles per hour being funnelled through the streets of Hampstead because Tfl are trying to narrow five lanes to three at Swiss Cottage. Hampstead has 12,500 children and 55 schools and pollution is a danger

“Hampstead is exceeding safety levels for pollution."

However, Cllr Lazzaro Pietragnoli questioned Ms Learmond-Criqui's approach to the problem.

He said: “I think you are addressing the right issue with the wrong strategy – the pollution in Hampstead is mostly caused by motor vehicles and you object to new cycle lanes which will reduce the no of motor vehicles.

“You want essentially to prioritise private cars against over walking and cycling – why aren’t you campaigning for restrictions against motorists instead of against the creation of new cycle lanes?”

Learmond Criqui runs a Facebook page, I love Hampstead NW3, which posts regularly about CS11, air pollution and local planning issues. She has also written a letter to the Financial Times voicing her concerns.

While some have questioned claims Finchley Road carries 35 million vehicles per year, last month Andrew Gilligan, Boris Johnson’s Cycling Commissioner, told road.cc opponents to the CS11 proposals had often "fundamentally misunderstood" what was being planned. 

He says opponents have said, “among, other things, that we’re going to take the cycle lane down Finchley Road, take out traffic lanes - that’s not true, and I worry that people are being led to oppose this scheme under false pretenses."

In a recent Evening Standard article he wrote the notion reducing motor traffic capacity worsens congestion is incorrect. 

He wrote: "Some people think traffic is like rainwater and the roads are the drains for it. If you narrow the pipe, they say, it will flood. If you block one road, they say, the same amount of traffic will simply spill over to the nearest easiest routes.

"That’s the sort of argument made against our cycle superhighways, or our current proposal to cut rat-running through Regent’s Park by closing some of its gates.  

"But in real life, once the builders have finished, the spill never actually happens. The pipe doesn’t flood; some of the water goes away instead. Because traffic isn’t a force of nature. It’s a product of human choices. If you make it easier and nicer for people not to drive, more people will choose not to drive." 

On the first Cycle Superhighway (CS%) to be completed, there has been a 73% increase in cyclists across Vauxhall Bridge since the route opened in November. According to the Mayor and Andrew Gilligan’s legacy document, Human Streets, traffic levels along the route are back to normal since completion of the cycling infrastructure building works. Several more Cycle Superhighways are due to be completed in London in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile TfL’s traffic modelling for CS11 predicts return journey times by car along Finchley Road will improve by approximately eight minutes if work goes ahead.

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15 comments

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joncrel | 7 years ago
1 like

Cars are the principle producer of air pollution, and that pollution is not necessarily localised to the road it is produced on.  Cars dont run that efficiently in cities at the best of time (urban cycle is always a lower mpg), but increasing the number of stop/starts probably will further decrease their efficiency and increase the amount of pollution.  If you end up with the same number of cars in fewer lanes it may increase the amount of pollution due to increased congestion on narrower roads (which is presumably Ms Learmond-Criqui argument).  On the other hand if the number of car journeys decreases (as is likely to happen if cycling and walking feels more comfortable), then there is a triple win, few cars=less pollution AND less congestion AND nicer cycling and walking.  ...but a lot depends on what assumptions you make about the nature of tarnsport and people. 

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Alessandro | 7 years ago
1 like

This silly mare is now campaigning against a Sainsburys being built in Belsize Park for fear that it will make the area "too posh"...

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/protesters-aiming-to-block-sainsbu...

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davel replied to Alessandro | 7 years ago
0 likes
AST1986 wrote:

This silly mare is now campaigning against a Sainsburys being built in Belsize Park for fear that it will make the area "too posh"...

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/protesters-aiming-to-block-sainsbu...

Not quite - a councillor is telling her to wind her neck in and beware of making the area 'too posh'.

She does appear to be one of those awful people who just campaigns against any minor change, in order to keep things exactly as they are for people like her.

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iso2000 | 7 years ago
0 likes

"However, Cllr Lazzaro Pietragnoli questioned Ms Learmond-Criqui's approach to the problem". Blimey that's a pretty cosmopolitan neighbourhood they have there in Hampstead.

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Wolfshade | 7 years ago
2 likes

I think  Cllr Lazzaro Pietragnoli is on the nose. Yes there is a problem with the traffic volumes and by reducing the capacity you then increase delays and therefore make the problem worse, but building more lane capacity doesn't help in the long run.

To paraphrase Field of Dreams "Build it and they will come", if you build more capacity into a road system then the volume of traffic will rise to use up that capacity. So you end up with the same problem that you had previously, only with even more cars to deal with. In order to deal with our congested streets we need to cause a modal shift so that all these short journeys (over half of all car journeys are under 5 miles) are done by other means to relieve congestion which benefits car drivers, and relieve air pollution which beneftis everyone.

I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned how bike lanes are empty and shown that to be a cause of under use, rather than the reality of the situation that you don't see standstill bikes as the lanes aren't congested

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CumbrianDynamo | 7 years ago
2 likes

It's almost as if traffic isn't already at a standstill in this area without any bike lanes in place - how exactly does she think it's going to get worse?

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cczmark | 7 years ago
5 likes

I am sure the esteemed lawyer has plenty of time to draft her facebook messages while in her stationary Bentley in traffic jams on Fitzjohns Ave (Hampstead NW3). I lived there 20 years ago and the traffic around that area was grim even then! Must be horrendous now....

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Klaffy | 7 years ago
6 likes

Having engaged with her several times, and spoken and two of the three meetings held on CS11 in St John's Wood, Hamstead & Maida Vale, I decided to dig around the statistics. 

DfT have the figures using Finchley Road at just over 13million annually, that is the stretch from Adelaide Road to the A598. That is down 10,000 cars a day from 2012, and about 20,000 from 2000. 

The claims that the traffic is driven by the M1 doesn't hold water either, with most traffic using junction 2 of the M1 (not 1) and dissipating along the A406. 

I put it all in a blog here, and would welcome comments should anyone have them. https://mettresurlaplaque.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/local-roads-for-local...

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balmybaldwin | 7 years ago
4 likes

so if they were all bike lanes the pollution would be even worse eh?

 

 

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emishi55 | 7 years ago
2 likes

Sadiq Khan should ensure that QW plans get the same level of priority afforded to upgraded pipe lines carrying eter or sewage.  

...err that's water or sewage - apologies (and for the other typos).

 

I ws going to add also that ensuring that TfL are Human Streets (mayor's legacy document)-savvy, and are given the necessary powers to get these, and CS routes in, would be teh best way to achieving this.

Howling and baying motorists have caused enough damage and delay.

The new mayor needs to be in possession of the facts and not get distracted and waylaid by the noise of those who have been obscenely over-indulged for too long.   

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emishi55 | 7 years ago
7 likes

This woman thrives on the publicity.

At an open meeting for TfL to explain exactly what the scheme would entail - the reducing of rat-running in Regents Park and the providing of an improved cycled route from Swiss Cottage and the removal of one of London's prime death gyratories - she enlisted a mob of her cronies to shout down the TfL speakers, particularly  a young woman who seemed to draw out the demented hostility of the baying NW3 mob.

A breathtaking and staggering demonstration of the loss of all reason and critical faculties, and orchestrated by L. Criqui, who at one point aske for her supporters to allow the TfL speaker to have their say, and "at the end you can really pile in".

They complain about increased rat-running on side-streets (a reason for keeping the current, unsustainable, carcinogenic and menacing situation). The complete logic, of course is taht you take the necessary steps beforehand to ensure rat-running is not possible.

Andrew Gilligan: 'opponents have said, “among, other things, that we’re going to take the cycle lane down Finchley Road, take out traffic lanes - that’s not true, and I worry that people are being led to oppose this scheme under false pretenses" '.

Though he had to repeat this at the afforementione meeting maybe five or six times, falling on deaf ears each time, the fact nevertheless remains that Finchley Road WAS once in line for a CS route - and furthermore these plans should be eviewed under the next mayoralty.

Sadiq Khan should ensure that QW plans get the same level of priority afforded to upgraded pipe lines carrying eter or sewage. 

These schemes are essentail for public health - they are not merely to allow those that currnetly cycle to get along a bit quicher, more easily and safely. 

Public health will be impacted beyond all measure once the negative effects of catastrophic climate breakdown start to kick in. 

 

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fixit | 7 years ago
2 likes

have british politics  lost the litle mind they have left in their brains? We all know that creature is that. A zombie!!

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Mungecrundle | 7 years ago
8 likes

What evidence does she need? she's a specialist employment lawyer and therefore feels that she is fully qualified to make informed statements about road planning and traffic management issues.

Or maybe she should keep her mouth closed about stuff she doesn't really understand and reduce her own hot air emmissions. I suspect that her real motive is that she drives a rather expensive and larger than necessary car a few miles every day and doesn't like the idea that she might be inconvenienced or horror of horrors feel obliged to walk, cycle or use public transport herself.

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pcb21 replied to Mungecrundle | 7 years ago
2 likes

Mungecrundle wrote:

What evidence does she need? she's a specialist employment lawyer and therefore feels that she is fully qualified to make informed statements about road planning and traffic management issues.

Or maybe she should keep her mouth closed about stuff she doesn't really understand and reduce her own hot air emmissions. I suspect that her real motive is that she drives a rather expensive and larger than necessary car a few miles every day and doesn't like the idea that she might be inconvenienced or horror of horrors feel obliged to walk, cycle or use public transport herself.

She gets involved in a lot of local issues (sufficiently many to have her own topic in the local paper: http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/topic/Person/Jessica%20Learmond-Criqui ). I suspect her heart's in the right place but she's wrong on cycling 

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
4 likes

And her evidence to support this?

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