Monthly Archives: March 2011

AWWTM: Streets versus Democracy

We don’t have to accommodate private motor vehicles in places like central London.  The world wouldn’t implode if we did not; the economy wouldn’t collapse.  We don’t have to accommodate any specific number of private motor vehicles in central London.  … Continue reading

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AWWTM: Budget notes

It’s flattering and frightening that several people told me that they’re looking forward to my thoughts on the budget.  So here they are, in a crude and hastily scrawled brain dump. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…

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AWWTM: How Boris learned to stop worrying and love the Brum

Apologies for the extremely strained pun.  In his election manifesto, Boris Johnson promised to treat all cars in central London equally: no extra congestion charge for Chelsea tractors, and no exemptions for little low-emission cars.  I explore why Boris thought … Continue reading

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AWWTM: State intervention

In reviewing the Radio 4 documentary Bristol: Cycling City (I didn’t hear it and was too slow on the iPlayer), the Guardian‘s radio critic Elisabeth Mahoney once again revealed the bizarrely muddled thinking of a nation so thoroughly addicted to … Continue reading

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AWWTM: Ringways explained

Continuing the exploration of the history of Motorism in the UK, a video (not mine) and commentary (mine) maps the London Ringways plan, and tried to explain what was wrong with it and why Londoners didn’t want it.  You can … Continue reading

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AWWTM: The Boris Cable Car

This evening, Tom from BorisWatch will review London’s transport policies over the years since the city got its elected leadership back in 2000.  It’s at The Yorkshire Grey on Theobalds Road / Grays Inn Road (doors open 6pm, talk sometime … Continue reading

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Cotch: The Hutong

At the start of the 15th century, when the Ming Dynasty was young, Beijing was established as the new Chinese capital — a heavily planned city, a rectangle laid out on a north-south axis around the great imperial palace, the … Continue reading

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Cotch: Brean Down

A great limestone scarp runs the breadth of Somerset, the Mendip Hills, famous for their karst landscape — the gorge at Cheddar and the caves at Wookey Hole. Continue reading at cotch dot net…

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