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.  We could choose to accommodate twice the number that we […]


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 that was a good policy, and why he has since […]


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 its car culture.  The Cycling City project, in which a […]


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 around 7ish).  Hopefully I’ll see some of you there. So […]