Tom will as ever attempt to befuddle and confuse with his ever more complex data analysis, all in the continued search to 'prove' his existing beliefs. Lets look at HAmmersmith Bridge, where Tom has gone to great lengths to tell us traffic 'evaporated'. Though what he means by 'traffic' is not defined. Is it the number of vehicles passing two points or the amount of congestion.So the front page story shows the Putney Labour MP leading a protest calling for the reopening of Hammersmith Bridge. She notes the thousands of additional vehicles using Putney bridge and the pollution and congestion this causes, which has a real economic cost. many local community groups support this call. This is what Tom's ludicrous claim of 'evaporation' means in practice. London bridges are already heavily congestion, especially approach roads. So of coruse if you close one, the others cannot take up the slack due to physical capacity constraints. What people experience on the ground is even more gridlock. If you live on a nice leafy side road with no through traffic you seem not to care. Nor it seems bizarrely do these advocates actually travel around London or even their local areas to observe first hand the lunacy of their claims.Then this specific study. Like all others, it tries to look at traffic as a discrete thing, something with a defined and localised impact, rather than like a tide of water that shifts and flows over time. Given that cycle lanes have expaned in length and number, it becomes very hard to isolate a local impact. Also with many bus lanes having been extended in length and operating hours at the same time, its hard to disentangle for example the impact of a bus lane on average speeds in an area from a cyclelane. Plus where there are concerns of gridlock due to cycle lanes (like in Chiswick), key junctions and traffic lights are amended to throttle back traffic away from key sections. So why should we be surprised if this throttling works?The only real way to understand traffic flows and congestion is to look at data for London as a whole. COngestion is not really monitored but we do have data for London bus speeds, and these are falling every year. Despite bus lanes, signal prirotities etc. I wonder why.... Of course, if you take Tom's claim to logical conclusion, you would close even more roads, put cycle lanes everywhere, and miraculously there would no congestion or traffic. Hmmm, anyone remember Hammersmith flyover closing...?
Paul Green ● 2027d