Wandsworth Council suspends Low Traffic Neighbourhood – blames the Mayor’s Streetspace works on nearby A24

Alternatively: bad.  Most have made cycling and walking much safer.  A reluctant conservative council implementing a policy under the initiative of a conservative government against their own natural tendencies, decide to blame Sadiq Khan when they decide to scrap it.

But there is the rub - it can be like badly designed cycle lanes which are a waste of time and money, and have a negative effect on cycling. 

The West Putney one wasn't blamed on TFL.  It was a bad idea!  The moment I saw the road they were closing it was obvious it would impact the next road along which is used by lots of cyclists.  I hope there is a holding to account over the design and approval of the rubbish ones.  There are many ways that the funding could have been used to make things better.  Now I'm left wondering if it was a cynical ply to "do something" that would fail as an excuse to stick with the status quo.

As an aside I tried the proposed quietway from Putney Heath to Wandsworth the other day.  It seemd a really long way round and over a hill, so not a good design either.

I haven't experienced the West Putney measures, so will take your word on how bad they were, but my point stands that Wandsworth have blamed other scheme failures on TfL, as seen in the article above. There could be something in the cynical designed to fail theory - it's noticeable that the boroughs and councils who have always been against reducing motor traffic are the ones where the temporary LTNs are deemed to have 'failed'.  And noticeably they are predominantly conservative councils, as were the five boroughs who took only half of the available funds from the DfT to implement them. Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea stand out in their seeming desire to make them fail but it's a similar pattern in the other reluctant boroughs. However, on the brightside, there are many boroughs who have done quite well and as the consultation is live and ongoing, they can tweak the areas where they haven't. It's why it's so important for residents to comment on their local infrastructure especially knowing that the people who oppose LTNs are certainly commenting on your neighbourhood whether they live there or not.  

"Weak at the knees" I think is the phrase. Fast forward 5 years: ever more, larger cars, buses still out of fashion (e.g. unreliable), cycling only for fanatics and die-hards, walking fumey and unpleasant.  Where then?

I thought I picked up a stat yesterday, though I cant find the source now, there are something like 40million registered vehicles in the UK now, which is a doubling in about only 20-25 years, so on the current track per head of population in the UK the R factor of vehicle per person, will be above 1 within the next 10-15 years.

Pavements, parks, forests - all coming under pressure as the roads themselves gradually silt up. 

everyone knows better than the councils: "This silly road closure hasn't been thought through" and what, pray, has been "thought through" about the past 50 years?

"where will all the traffic go?" - more traffic is inevitable, unstoppable. Driving less seems to be on no-one's radar.  

In terms of popular attitudes, At what point does it become anti-social to run a Discovery or other so-called SUV,  or unless you really do live up a Cart track, a Range Rover? At what point does it does it become plain silly to drive a car two miles in town?

Also, at what point during a respiratory pandemic shall we decide that cleaner air and healthier lungs are better for people than the option of some people shaving a few seconds off their journey (or not shaving any time off their journey but preferring to sit in their status vehicle for their journeys)

markieteeee wrote:

Also, at what point during a respiratory pandemic shall we decide that cleaner air and healthier lungs are better for people than the option of some people shaving a few seconds off their journey (or not shaving any time off their journey but preferring to sit in their status vehicle for their journeys)

There's also a fair bit evidence that Covid has bad outcomes for people with cardiovascular issues, so it should be a priority to get more people taking more exercise and I think that active travel is one of the easiest ways to incorporate more exercise.