Gosh Francis, who would have guessed that cyclists in Chiswick have been the people influencing the Department for Transport who are providing councils and TfL with funding? And not only that, writing the funding applications and lobbying government for money as well...Needless to say, in my opinion, your post is a bit "conspiracy theory"...If you read the instructions from the Department for Transport to TfL and London boroughs, the policy is really not that much different from policies adopted by other major cities in the western world in recent times. Some places are ahead of the curve (like Dutch or Danish cities), some places have accelerated their programmes massively (Paris), some places are lagging (like most US cities). London is probably somewhere in the middle.The direction of travel is clear, away from private motor transport and re-allocating and rebalancing the road space in favour of walking and cycling. It's a global (or at least developed Western) trend, not a bunch of cyclists lobbying...To quote some of the DtF instructions:"We have a window of opportunity to act now to embed walking and cycling as part of new long-term commuting habits and reap the associated health, air quality and congestion benefits.""To receive any money under this or future tranches, boroughs and TfL will need to satisfy the Department that there are swift and meaningful plans in place to reallocate road space to cyclists and pedestrians, including on strategic corridors.""The quickest and cheapest way of achieving this will normally be point closures. These can be of certain main roads (with exceptions for buses, access and for disabled people, and with other main roads kept free for through motor traffic); or of parallel side streets, if sufficiently direct to provide alternatives to the main road. Point closures can also be used to create low-traffic filtered neighbourhoods.""We expect all these measures to be delivered quickly using temporary materials, such as barriers and planters. Elaborate, costly materials will not be funded at this stage. Anything that does not meaningfully alter the status quo on the road will not be funded.""If work has not started within four weeks of receiving your allocation under this tranche of funding, or has not been completed within eight weeks of starting, the Department will reserve the right to claw the funding back by adjusting downwards a future grant payment to your authority. This is also likely to have a material impact on your ability to secure any funding in tranche 2.""To allow changes to be put in place more quickly, a temporary process for new emergency traffic orders was announced on 23 May halving the time needed for approval.""The second tranche of £180m will be released later in the summer to enable authorities to install further, more permanent measures to cement cycling and walking habits."
Michael Robinson ● 2316d