Labour mayoral candidate, Tessa Jowell, has described the capital as ‘not truly fit for cycling’ in announcing a series of pledges that she hopes will address that. As well as promising to accelerate a number of major cycling schemes begun by Boris Johnson, Jowell is also keen to ensure that police properly enforce 20mph zones and says she would push for all primary and secondary schools to offer “bikeability” cycling proficiency courses.
“More and more Londoners are cycling – but cycling in London is still far too risky," Jowell told the London Evening Standard. "I want to champion cycling safety so that more people in London, particularly women and older people, have the confidence to cycle."
Among the measures she proposes would be ensuring the Met Police enforce 20 mph speed limits in the same way as 30 mph ones. Jowell would like to see officers target 20 mph roads with similar numbers of random patrols.
She also wants to ensure that all HGVs become ‘cyclist-safe,’ with driver vision cabs that improve visibility and eliminate blind spots.
“We should be doing everything we can to ensure this is a welcoming city for cyclists. London today is not truly fit for cyclists – and lives are being put at risk. I want to see all heavy goods vehicles fitted out with the latest technology, so that these senseless tragedies can be avoided as much as possible.”
The Mayor and Transport for London currently has plans to improve 33 of the city’s most dangerous junctions. However, it is thought that only six will be complete before Boris Johnson steps down next May. Jowell wants to speed up these improvements and has also pledged to complete the Quietways project – a network of low-traffic routes which guide cyclists away from the busiest streets – as well as the Mini Hollands scheme which sees town centres improved for cyclists. She also wants to see all primary and secondary schools offering Bikeability cycling proficiency courses.
Other Labour mayoral candidates include Christian Wolmar and David Lammy. In January, Wolmar, launched his Vision Zero policy paper in which he called for “a radical new approach” to the issue of road safety in London. The three key features of his proposals are: a 20mph zone across the capital; a freight strategy to reduce the number of lorries on London’s streets; and an accident investigation body for road deaths.
Lammy – who says that he now only cycles at weekends because he doesn’t feel safe during rush hour – would like to appoint a cycling representative to the Transport for London board and increase the city's cycling budget. He also believes that TfL should look to move towards a Dutch style roads prioritisation system whereby pedestrians come first, then cyclists, then drivers.
25 thoughts on “‘London is not truly fit for cycling’ says Tessa Jowell before pledging to address that”
Meh, I like Jowell, and I may
Meh, I like Jowell, and I may well end up voting for her anyway, but none of this gets me excited.
Meh, I like Jowell, and I may
Meh, I like Jowell, and I may well end up voting for her anyway, but none of this gets me excited.
More and more Londoners are
More and more Londoners are cycling, and by appealing to them I might get their votes.
She’s a politician, so if her lips are moving she’s only ever one deep breath away from a lie. Better than that studied buffoon Boris, but that’s like the difference between typhoid and cholera.
Comparing their actual
Comparing their actual records Boris comes out far better than Tessa Jowell. Boris is actually building 2 decent protected cycle lanes.
Whilst Tessa was an MP in SOuthwark – her Labour council actually expressly opposed building ANY protected cycle lanes – as they wanted the cyclists to slow traffic down.
Ah, the London mayoral
Ah, the London mayoral election. Just as tedious as the real elections but irrelevant to anyone outside the M25 :/ Yawn.
Morat wrote:Ah, the London
Mostly irrelevant to people living inside the M25 as well!
Morat wrote:Ah, the London
What annoys me more is that I pay ‘London’ supplements on my council tax, live on the tube network and still don’t get a vote.
We’ve had a borough wide 20
We’ve had a borough wide 20 mph blanket speed limit in Camden for coming up to 3 years. Widely ignored and not Policed as according to borough police commissioner, they don’t have the resources. With further budget cuts its only getting worse…
hampstead_bandit wrote:We’ve
In the main I agree but one problem is it’s not really a borough wide limit, there are plenty of TfL roads, like Camden Street, which are still 30 mph. This confusion gives the motorist a great out-clause if stopped elsewhere.
I’m holding out a small hope that if the whole of London becomes 20 mph, the excuse of not knowing whether you are on a local road or a TfL road, will be removed and it would only take a single, say month-long, blitz of enforcement to wake everyone up to it.
Meh.
Meh.
Good to see cycling as
Good to see cycling as transport continuing to rise up the political agenda but what we need is a genuine commitment to build the infrastructure that we desperately need.
Christian Wolmar still has the lead on that front.
on the subject of more
on the subject of more Bikeability – an academic study came out recently which indicated that it made absolutely no difference to cycling rates. But it does make it look like the government is doing things
(full reference; Goodman, Anna, Esther van Sluijs, and David Ogilvie. “⁎ A28 Impact of ‘Bikeability’, a national cycle training scheme for children in England.” Journal of Transport & Health 2.2 (2015): S19.)
the little onion wrote:on the
no surprise as bikeability does nothing to address
a) parents concerns over child safety
b) attitude of drivers towards cyclists
c) drivers knowledge of how to drive around cyclists
wycombewheeler wrote:
no
You posted while I was writing mine so they overlap a bit.
You are right on a, if parents don’t also do the course, which mostly they don’t. If they did you might be wrong.
Bikeability could well address b and c if drivers did Bikeability. Even faceplant guy might improve.
wycombewheeler wrote:no
So because bikeability doesn’t solve ALL of the problems cycling on the roads face it is pointless? Don’t forget that these kids who learn about correct positioning on the roads will be drivers themselves in the future, so it is educating [future] drivers.
Plus kids are encouraged to teach their parents what they have learned which will help them recall what they have learnt and also passing the knowledge on.
True but it does have the
True but it does have the major positive that the kids who are actually cycling get trained to do it properly.
the little onion wrote:on the
Which is not to say it’s a waste of time. I see this from the inside as a cycling instructor. Many of the children would love to cycle more, including to school, it’s the parents who will not allow them to despite having put them through the course. Why is this? Partly because the parents belong to a generation who have never cycled and don’t see it as a useful life skill. Why they put the child through the course in the first place I don’t understand.
Also Bikeability teaches how to cycle on roads. I don’t think the study measured the difference in numbers cycling on the road specifically, just cycling. So the study measured something which is somewhat outside the aims of Bikeability and is certainly outside the control of the potential beneficiaries. Children of cycling families already cycle and will continue to do so. Very few children of non-cycling families will start doing so because of parents.
As does promoting helmets.
She can promise anything as
She can promise anything as she is not in power. With the likelihood of Corbyn winning the leadership Liebour will never ever be in power ever again so she has no credibility what so ever.
OK, “so that these senseless
OK, “so that these senseless tragedies can be avoided as much as possible”. Think about that for a moment. You only have one life, and for the religious or the atheist life is important, but these politicians are not taking the deaths in London seriously. One life taken is too much already! I’m sure if it was someone ‘important’ it would focus their attention more.
Perhaps we need some good lawyers that get payouts from London of one million for each death, perhaps then they’d do something about it.
The same way we have special police, perhaps we could have similar with radar guns catching offending drivers.
More than anything the mindset has to change. Roads are not just for cars. Why hasn’t there been any national campaign regarding cycling?
Shouldn’t it be shameful for this ‘first world country’ to have so many cycling deaths in it’s capital city?
It’s a shame she’s never been
It’s a shame she’s never been part of the cabinet and could do something to make councils uphold proper cycling design standards.
Oh, wait a minute…
I’d take a punt that David
I’d take a punt that David Lammy doesn’t cycle anywhere at weekends or in fact any time. The ‘rush’ hour is about the safest time to be out on a bike imvho, traffic is barely moving. It’s the bit between 10 and 4 when it really gets up to speed and the weekends where there are no laws that I’m less keen to venture out, both times when our amazing cycling infrastructure reverts to parking infrastructure.
Or maybe just start with
Or maybe just start with those drivers causing accidents being visited by the police, or even if they just took a glance at the cc tv. The police will wait for a serious incident before taking action. Obviously the wrong approach.
posted in error
posted in error
Politicians’ pledges?
The
Politicians’ pledges?
The phrase has almost exactly the same meaning as the word “lies”.
Whilst pro-cycling statements
Whilst pro-cycling statements are welcome – that pic makes me sick.
Tessa Jowell was MP for Dulwich & West Norwood, which straddles Southwark & Lambeth, two of the worst boroughs for cycling in London.
The guy she is pictured with (Cllr Peter John – Labour leader of Southwark) oversaw and agreed a transport plan that expressly ruled out segregated cycling – approving a policy that said it wanted cyclists on the roads “to slow traffic down”. He removed ALL cycle routes in new Peckham and Nunhead Plan.
Refused all cycling proposals for new huge Aylesbury and Heygate Estate developments etc etc .
Neither borough built hardly a single meter of segregated cycle lanes over last 4 years.
If we are to judge Tessa Jowell on what she did rather than what she promises, then she would be a disaster.
I note many of the pledges she has made are basically meaningless.
Cycle training is already available in most schools in London?
She promises to complete the Quietways scheme – wow that is kind of her not to promise to abolish an existing Boris scheme. But will she make them genuine Quietways removing parking on at least one side of the streets and make them access only to traffic?
She promises to speed up the hugely slimmed down junction- improvement programme Boris started – she only mentions the 33 junctions – not the 500 Boris started with.
She says she will complete the mini-holland scheme – wow again a promise not to do something new but not to abolish an existing Boris scheme – will she extend it to all 32 boroughs from the measly 4 boroughs currently working on one?
Enforcing 20 mph is a good proposal but where is a commitment to make all of London 20 mph on TfL roads?
Getting all HGVs to have latest equipment is also a good idea but she makes no mention of how she will do this?
Finally and most importantly there is no concrete financial pledge on how much of the TfL budget she will alliocate to “doing everything we can” to make London safer for cycling.