apologies for bringing yet another local matter to this board, but it's important. Indeed, it's probably, in its own way, the most important document on transport we'll see for a while.
https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/streets/nos
TfL is charged with managing London's trains, tubes and buses. It also manages the main road network. During the Livingstone years it had a considerable impact. Now, under Johnson, there's a closing down of thought processes.
The DNOS doesn't really consider anything other than smoothing or managing traffic flow. It ignores the quality of life of people living on its road network, and has nothing much to say other than giving us the most almighty non-sequitur
https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/streets/nos
TfL is charged with managing London's trains, tubes and buses. It also manages the main road network. During the Livingstone years it had a considerable impact. Now, under Johnson, there's a closing down of thought processes.
The DNOS doesn't really consider anything other than smoothing or managing traffic flow. It ignores the quality of life of people living on its road network, and has nothing much to say other than giving us the most almighty non-sequitur
The efficient management, operation and maintenance of London’s strategic road network is therefore of significant economic importance not only to the Capital, but also to the wider UK economy. At the same time, TfL needs to make sure that London’s roads can play their part as social, economic and cultural spaces, whether as locations for shopping and leisure in the city’s many town centres, or simply as places for informal social activity. This means creating streets and public spaces that are safe, attractive and accessible as well as providing the corridors along which traffic flows.
Consequently, it is imperative that the road network functions effectively both as a set of corridors for traffic movement and as a collection of places in which people live, work and play. In order to demonstrate how these objectives will successfully be achieved, Surface Transport has prepared a suite of three documents: the Network Operating Strategy (NOS), the TLRN Implementation Plan (TIP) and the Highways Asset Management Plan (HAMP).
The NOS sets out how London Streets, as part of TfL, will successfully manage and operate the Capital’s road networks within the context of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS), published in May 2010.
The TIP records TfL’s aspirations for future investment projects on the TLRN that will create safe, accessible, attractive routes and places, through which traffic can flow smoothly. It also outlines their costs and benefits and how they contribute towards the MTS.
The HAMP sets out how TfL maintains its highway assets to meet user expectations, maximises operational effectiveness and minimises asset-related risks cost effectively.
How will we know we are being successful in our approach? When Londoners get in their cars, on the bus, cycle or walk to their destinations, they will reliably know how long their journey will take them, they will be assured that they can get there safely and they will travel through some
So that's it. All of London's street life reduced to journey times. Never mind that through traffic kills shopping streets, or that a reduction in journey speed has plainly made some streets more prosperous. Never mind, either, the effect on residents of traffic volumes. All the brave thoughts of three years ago have been turned in to a simple exercise of getting people from A to B.
TfL proposes to increase the level of scrutiny of future new schemes to insist that local authorities and TfL’s own internal scheme sponsors consider all alternatives before proposing a new set of traffic signals. Proposals will be scrutinised to ensure they are creating significant wider benefits that outweigh any potential smoothing traffic flow disadvantage (eg in relation to pedestrian movement, Barclays Cycle Superhighways, Better Streets initiatives, bus priority and supporting London’s growth through facilitating access to new developments etc).
In future, TfL’s Traffic Directorate will refuse proposals for new signal installations in cases where it is evident that alternative methods of traffic control have not been considered, or where installation will cause unacceptable levels of disruption to traffic and will not produce significant safety, pedestrian, cycle, public transport or other benefits.
So the design of CS8 through Vauxhall is about smoothing traffic, to such a degree that the very arrangement that killed poor Vicky McCreery is proposed. Bus lanes are out if they slow other traffic (which is a given).
And, for the rest, there's a whole bunch of geeky stuff about satellites and supersmart traffic lights. The fundamentals are missing. Why are so many of our major arteries clogged, and why are they so miserable to be in? Where is the comparison between those streets that have Cycling Superhighways on them and those that don't - particularly in relation to prosperity? Why is it that some streets are clearly failing and others succeeding? None of that. Just the time taken by car journeys.
It's a miserable document, produced by people who lack any kind of vision or empathy with the city they're supposed to serve. Consultation is open until 15th July. Since this comes from the top I don't think there's much that can change before the next mayoral election, but at least you can contribute to the debate
