Manchester councillor against 'taking out capacity' on major routes – says pop-up cycle lanes are "not a magic bullet"

So what if it creates greater congestion, it may well make people think I don't need to use my car when I can use the cycle lanes and then the congestion improves.

At the time of Shapps' original announcements I was highly cynical but some in the cycling press got excited that this gave the govt the authority to 'tell' councils what to do and hold them to account if they didn't produce pop up lanes. I asked them what legal authority does 'telling' a council to do something have but never got an explanation.

What we're now seeing is that the threat to 'tell' a council what to do was no threat and had no legal status at all. Councils can do nothing and return any money they originally requested or put something up then take it down for the most spurious of reasons.

I hate that my cynicism was proved correct. Even in my own town where we've made repeated requests both for pop up lanes and to know what the council are doing but we have seen nothing change despite having received £1.7m from the first tranche of money.

I'm tempted to suggest she put a bung in her gob, but I have a suspicion someone else may have beaten me to it.....

Is there an obliging Green group who will threaten to sue MCC - who presumably have some of the most polluted air due to all traffic converging on the center?

Would that be the same Angeliki Stogia who's on the board of NCP, perchance? 🤔

"..but they don’t do anything for pedestrians or people who aren’t able to use them.”

And neither do massive roads do anything for people who can't or don't drive.

“These pop-up lanes are not a magic bullet."

They literally are.  They reduce congestion, reduce danger, improve air quality, reduce climate change and make the residents wealthier, healthier and slimmer; it doesn't get any more magic councillor.

How does someone quite so utterly misinformed about transport become the exec member for transport?  Unfortunately, she is not alone, and there are plenty of councillors and transport execs who think that transport = cars.

'Angeliki Stogia said that if the council were to “take out capacity on major routes” by constructing pop-up lanes, it would result in greater congestion.'

Greater congestion, sure, but only for those people who choose to drive, right? This statement sums up MCC's, and almost every other local authority's view : people in cars are undertaking important journeys, crucial to the economy, and cannot be delayed in any way. Those people on bikes are just out for a fun ride, they aren't 'traffic'.

Until they appreciate that it's moving people, not vehicles, that is important, these types of statements and policies will roll on and on.

Angeliki Stogia wrote:

Until confidence in capacity is there so residents can get back into public transport, if we take out capacity on major routes then we will get back to congestion a lot quicker.

If we're inevitably going back to congestion, then why wait until motorists are unhappy with the volumes of traffic. If we take back some of the road space now, then motorists can more readily adapt due to the current reduced traffic (who knows, maybe one or two will choose active transport instead).

Given that you could get a whole lot more people down a road on bicycles than in cars, I find Angeliki Stogia's concern about not taking out capacity at odds with her actions.

I suspect that “We need careful and planned active travel interventions as it's far more complicated than often presented how we help people get around the city” translates as "We need more time to be able come up with some good excuses for why we can't do it".

Maybe we should all just ride in primary everywhere, in all these urban areas whose councillors refuse to see the advantages of pop-up bike lanes?  Let's face it - given how congested they already all are, I don't imagine we can be accused of 'holding up traffic'...