It was Transport Question Time at City Hall this week: the 25 London Assembly members’ monthly-ish check up on the chair and the commissioner of Transport for London — Boris Johnson and Peter Hendy respectively. If you’re as big a loser as me, you’ll want to watch it here. Alternatively, […]
I stopped off at Ludgate Hill one morning in October, after reading this on Cyclists in the City: …most of the elected politicians [in the square mile] don’t seem to care about cycling or walking. What they do care about is this zebra crossing opposite St Paul’s on Ludgate Hill. […]
I’ve not had a moment to write anything this week. Instead, here are some more videos, from monday morning between 8 and 8:15. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…
I’ve just been scrolling through Google Reader clearing a couple of months worth of posts with videos that got saved-for-later when using a mobile connection. Peter at Pedestrian Liberation asks whether we are winning, citing London Bridge as evidence that maybe we are. Continue reading at At War With The […]
Way back in July, when the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme launched a couple of months late, we had a little play around with the bikes to get our first thoughts. Just a quick back-and-forth beside the BFI. The bikes were fun and sturdy, just right for their particular job. It […]
I’ve been meaning to write a bit more about the M4 bus lane, and the interesting things it says about psychology, but haven’t had the time, so here’s a rather crude brain dump while I sit in the dark on a bus somewhere on the A9 in the snowy Cairngorms. […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog, written in september 2009. I’m putting the wrong key in the lock, confused by lack of interaction with garden gate. It is, after all, an epic journey from W1 to SE21. It starts at Goodge Street tube, a museum piece of […]
That’s the most common question asked by people who responded to the GLA survey of London cyclists. Looking into the raw data I find out just how little the cycle superhighways have achieved, and the one thing that London cyclists say over and over again makes them such a joke: […]
Way back at the start of October we mentioned that the London Authority’s transport committee were seeking your views on the hire bikes and the two trial cycle superhighways. The results are in, and we must have had a massive influence because the results seem to match what we were […]
Despite being fully up to date with the latest city driving rules, the Serco/Barclays hire bike relocaters are worrying the Evening Standard today: Cyclist David Ellis, who was knocked over by a trailer used to transport the Mayor’s hire bikes between docking stations, today branded the vehicles “ludicrous”. Continue reading […]
Prominently reported in the Camden Cycling Plan update: The latest update from Spring and Autumn 2008 shows a positive growth in cycling. Between 2007 and 2008 there has been an increase in numbers cycling by 44.6% and the estimated modal share for cycle use is 11.19%. An impressive achievement that […]
The M4 bus lane was a fascinating thing. Introduced in 1999 by John Prescott, ostensibly as a “green” policy to allow buses to pass the traffic jams into London, it became the icon of the so-called “war on the motorist”. At At War With The Motorist I explain why, despite […]
Epidemiologists at a London medical research institute have looked at the police records of fatal accidents involving cyclists on London’s roads between the late nineties and mid noughties, and notes some interesting trends in where they occur and who is involved in them. At At War With The Motorist I […]
So I mentioned that Carlton Reid and I both like the idea of mass bicycle use, and that we agree that high volumes of fast moving motor vehicles are a barrier to it. But while I have drawn the conclusion that high-quality conspicuously safe dedicated cycling infrastructure is a pressing […]
At War With The Motorist‘s tongue-in-cheek name and sarcastic attitude is usually to make fun of people who misuse and overuse the private car. But at least as big a problem with our transport and built environment is the misuse and overuse of freight and delivery vehicles, especially in London […]
The awesome Science Is Vital campaign organisers kindly asked me to accompany them to Downing Street to capture the delivery of their petition of 35,000 opponents of science cuts. Over at cotch dot net, I have a short photo essay on how to deliver a petition.
With everything that has been happening, I’ve neglected to mention the Thames Barrier to Teddington exhibition at the gallery in Foyles bookshop at the top end of Charing Cross Road, or indeed even been to look myself. I usually ignore calls for entries in photography competitions, since 99.9% of them […]
On saturday, a couple of thousand nerds gathered outside the treasury to be noisy, and to argue the case that science is vital. The scientists are getting their contribution in early ahead of the “comprehensive spending review” that is to be announced this month. Having been accused by their secretary […]
On the London Cyclist thread “is there anything super about the Cycle Superhighways?,” we hear Chinese whispers on the reason why TfL decided against making real superhighways and instead came up with the overpriced and failed PR exercise that are the blue lines on the side of the road: “TfL […]
At the weekend around 12,000 people marched through London in protest against the policies of the Pope. A photo essay on cotch dot net explains why we were there.
Boing Boing brings us the story of a San Francisco bike messenger who takes acid at work. To do what I do, I have to be paying attention 100% of the time. My peripheral vision and reflexes are my best friends. Acid is not a drug that lends itself to […]
The latest trend in street engineering is shared space. It sounds great: the street belongs to everybody, Motorist, pedestrian and cyclist, and we all look out for one another and show some respect. It’s a reversal of the forced traffic management: the curbs and railings that segregate vehicles from people; […]
A petrol station on Clerkenwell Road has been turned into a cinema. This is a disaster; an act of war on the Motorist that must be condemned. The BBC’s Andrew Sully explains why this epidemic of sudden garage death should be such a worry to us. Continue reading at At […]
TfL’s consultation on proposed changes to the Congestion Charge ends today. This is your final chance to send in your comments. Briefly, the notable proposed changes are these: Abolish the Western Extension Zone (WEZ) — the section in Kensington and Knightsbridge, west of Park Lane and east of Shepherd’s Bush. […]
Over at At War With The Motorist I consider what the effects of the London Bike Hire scheme will be — how the bikes will be used, and how they will change London. The conclusion is that they should make a small contribution to solving London’s problems, by helping the […]