Another Tom Pike lie - it’s probably less than 1000 cyclists a day on C9, not the 3000 he claims
At the Chiswick Area Forum on 22 November, ‘Professor’ Tom Pike said the following (see LB Hounslow YouTube site if you want to see it) “we shouldn’t have an argument about the facts. We also shouldn’t have an argument about how many cyclists are on C9”. (He pointed to the fact that “we” have cameras along its length.) He then said, “It’s averaging about 3000, it peaks at 4000 a day. We should focus on the facts here, take the heat out of the argument and make judgements based on what is happening here in Chiswick.”So I checked his arguments. FOI responses from TfL (you can find them online eg FOI-1431-2122, FOI-1192-2122) show that the number of cyclists on C9 in Chiswick is measured by sensor 62 count line 22096 at Annandale Road. It counts cyclists going both ways.In the 12 months to 30 September, the average daily 24 hour count of cyclists on C9 was 1,636. Fact, Tom Pike, fact. Not 3000. I think this categorically proves you cannot trust anything Tom Pike says. And bear in mind, this is BOTH ways, so it will be double counting every cyclist who goes to/from work or school, or every Deliveroo rider returning for another collection. Looking at the data from TfL, the morning 7-10 and evening 4-7 peaks are similar at 26% of journeys. So one can reduce the “number of cyclists” by at least a quarter. In all likelihood, the number of individual cyclists using C9 on average each day is below 1000. That makes this one expensive £10m white elephant (notwithstanding the other economic damage it has caused to Chiswick). Also, don’t trust Paul Campbell, or Michael Robinson. When asked about the number of cyclists on C9, they post a chart which doesn’t just use count line 22096 as TfL advise, but adds in 2 other cameras on Chiswick High Road (ie not the cycle lane) - it’s noted on their chart which they carefully label “Chiswick High Road”, not C9. In other words they are deliberately inflating the number (to show a 2000-2500 average) to give the impression of more cyclists on C9 than there actually are to support their failing scheme. And they know it. TfL even describes that methodology in the stated FOI requests as “problematic”. So there you have it. Not only was Pike wrong about £10m of fines in Grove Park, but he and his friends at the London Borough of Hounslow Cycling Campaign are misleading us about the number of cyclists on C9. It’s about 1000 per day. Not 3000.
Richard Tate ● 1336d94 Comments ● 1335d