Green v Pike - the court of public opinion.
Having recently read a thread about the Kensington cycle lane it occurred to me that amongst the posts was a microcosm of the past 4 years on the topic of CS9 and cycling.I don't know either Paul Green or Tom Pike and I hope both gentlemen will accept me using their names.On the one hand (Green) you have a person who calls for a proper debate on the wider aspects of a transport strategy for ALL Londoners. And on the other (Pike) a single-minded proponent of one mode - cycling. I notice that Pike uses all manner of supposed public surveys to support his contention that the 'public' are in support of cycling and any road infrastructure consequences that result. He talks about award winning survey companies and the Market Research Society. Last year after a FOI request to the Department of Transport I received a copy of the Kantar research which the DfT and Boris Johnson use to claim the public support for 'schemes'. If you inspect the research you quickly realise that it, along with most other research/consultations conflates walking and cycling in the questions to get the answers they want. So, the responses are driven by the majority (approx 80%) walkers against the clear minority (approx 5%) cyclists. In fact the Kantar survey is so procedurally flawed it should be reported to the MRS - oh wait a moment aren't Kantar one of the largest subscription providers to the MRS!We saw in the original CS9 survey a blatant manipulation and mis-representation of the responses by TfL.Another recent example of the desperation of the cycling lobby was by one of their high priests, Will Norman (supposed walking and most definitely cycling TfL commissioner) who stated in a recent tweet - 'New research from Oxford shows that people riding bikes have 84% lower life cycle CO2 emissions than non-cyclists' - go figure that claim.If you add in the £262 million that TfL have spent (FOI response)in the four years, 2016 - 20, on implementing cycle lanes compared to walking (no figures available, but probably in the order of single millions) then the disparity between words 'walking and cycling' and actual action is stark.I have only scratched the surface of all the issues (London wide and Chiswick/Hammersmith) that are being imposed on us by the Government, Councils, Lobby Groups etc.What is clear, however, is the pressing need to recover economically from Covid. We need to get London moving (en masse) to save the centre (ghost town) and reinvigorate local businesses and hospitality.We, the people, should have a say and our voices must be heard.
David Millar ● 2056d82 Comments ● 2054d