11 September 2018
There are many reasons to regret the fact that so many children these days are driven to school instead of walking or making their own way by public transport. Among the problems are lack of sufficient exercise, congestion and road danger caused by build-ups of cars near school gates, and exposure to toxic fumes, which recent research has found is actually more of a problem inside a car than outside.
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22 July 2018
London’s first ever walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, has unveiled the capital’s first Walking Action Plan. It sets out how London will become a city where walking, for those that can, is the most obvious, enjoyable and attractive means of travel for all short trips.
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02 January 2018
Hostile Streets - Walking and Cycling at Outer London Junctions was published by the Greater London Authority's Transport Committee at the end of November. Shortly afterwards I went along to a meeting of Islington Living Streets to see a presentation about the report given by Caroline Russell.
Caroline Russell is one of two Green Party Assembly Members (AMs) and is a member of the Transport Committee. She was the Rapporteur for this particular study, which was carried out at her initiative........
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17 December 2017
"If we could reduce speed limits to 20mph in these built-up areas then anybody who's got children, anybody who works with children, anybody who sees what we see, would have to be supporting us."
Words spoken by a surgeon at Birmingham Children's Hospital as part of a video telling a true story. Along with a policeman, an ambulance driver, a parent and the young victim of a road traffic collision, she makes the unanswerable case for 20mph limits on urban roads........
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05 December 2017
A new report by the London Assembly's Transport Committee presents the conclusions of a study into the problems faced by people on foot and on bikes when they are faced with travelling along or crossing main roads in outer London, particularly at major intersections.
Hostile Streets - Walking and cycling at outer London Junctions concludes that even very recent junction improvements, such as removal of the gyratory system at Archway, have seriously neglected the interests of everyone except.......
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03 December 2017
A newly published study into congestion on London's roads concludes that a long-term strategic solution requires a shift to active, sustainable and space-efficient modes. Road space should be reallocated to walking, cycling and public transport; there should be distance-based road-user charging; there should be workplace parking levies; and new developments with minimal or zero parking.
Understanding and Managing Congestion was commissioned from Integrated Transport Planning.......
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05 October 2017
Last week saw the first Healthy Streets conference, held appropriately enough in Walthamstow, the location of pioneering Mini Holland and Villageisation schemes. More than 300 attendees were there to explore the connections between public health and transport strategies. Topics covered included health-led street design, re-allocation of road space, behaviour change and measures to improve air quality.
Public health specialists: "Active travel is the wonder drug"
Healthy Streets is.......
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16 August 2017
Transport for London (TfL) is consulting on a proposal to make changes to the pedestrian/cycle crossing of the North Circular Road between Palmerston Crescent (north of the NCR) and Palmerston Road (south of the NCR). The intention is to make it easier and pleasanter for both pedestrians and cyclists to cross.
The existing shared crossing would be relocated slightly to the west and converted into separate pedestrian and cycle crossings. Motorised traffic would no longer be able to turn.......
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26 July 2017
Londoners have until 2 October to give their views on the draft Transport Strategy that was published by the Mayor of London in June.
The strategy is described as "the start of an ambitious plan that will reshape London over the next 25 years. It sets out a bold approach to achieve an essential vision – to create a healthier, fairer city; one that is not only home to more people, but that is a better place to live in." The complete draft document is over 150 pages long, but there is a.......
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19 April 2017
The Department for Transport (DfT) has today announced a competition seeking proposals that would encourage more people to make journeys by bicycle and/or on foot.
The text below is an abridged version of the announcement extracted from the www.gov.uk website. To read the complete announcement visit
www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-competition-innovation-in-cycling-and-walking/competition-brief-innovation-in-cycling-and-walking
This competition seeks proposals for.......
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14 April 2017
Living Streets, the "UK Charity for Everyday Walking", has published a Blueprint for Change, designed as a guide for city leaders to help them create Walking Cities:
"safe and inviting to people of all ages, where every child can walk safely to school, and communities have quality spaces to thrive. Walking cities mean better cities for everyone."
Living Streets' Chief Executive, Joe Irvin, sets out the charity's rationale:
Our streets deserve to be so much more than corridors for.......
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05 March 2017
Healthy Streets for London, published last month by Transport for London, is an important document which outlines in broad terms the strategy that will be adopted by the Mayor of London and his Walking and Cycling Commissioner in order to increase "active travel" by people living and working in London.
The health benefits of daily activity are shown in the diagram. Conversely, the disbenefits stemming from current inadequate amounts of activity among the general population are.......
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28 January 2017
The parent of a child at Oakthorpe Primary School is petitioning Enfield Council to improve pedestrian safety in the vinicity of the school, which is Tile Kiln Lane, near the junction with Chequers Way.
The online petition, on change.org, reads as follows:
Produce adequate road safety for Oakthorpe Primary School before a child is injured.
My child has been attending Oakthorpe Primary School on Tile Kiln Lane since September 2015 and very early on I noticed that there was a major problem.......
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18 October 2016
Palmers Green is to be the trailblazer for a project which will return to children some of the independence that has been taken away from them in recent years.
London's first Play Quarter will build on the existing Play Street schemes in and around Palmers Green - in Devonshire Road, Old Park Road, New River Crescent, Riverside, The Mall and Orpington Road. Those streets are now not only home to more active, happy children with new friends next door, but they have also become friendlier,.......
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03 December 2014
A newly published guide to street design sets out the latest thinking on how roads and streets in cities, towns and villages can be decluttered and redesigned to make them not only pleasanter to look at and to use, but also significantly safer.
Street Design for All - "a compilation of current thoughts and practices in the art of Street Design" - reflects the work and ideas of professional road engineers and of campaigners for improvements to the "public realm".1 It provides an easy to.......
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23 June 2014
The debate about the "Mini-Holland" cycling improvements along Green Lanes has so far been pretty polarized: on the one hand, advocates of cycle lanes along the whole street, on the other some fierce defence of the right of drivers to park in Green Lanes close to the shops they want to visit. Cycle lane supporters claim that there is evidence to suggest that reducing car parking would boost shop sales, those defending the interests of local businesses dismiss this argument as.......
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02 April 2014
A London Assembly study has highlighted the increasing vulnerability of pedestrians in London and is critical of the policies of the Mayor of London and Metropolitan Police.
Feet First: Improving Pedestrian Safety in London is a newly published report by the Assembly's Transport Committee, which comprises members from the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democratic and Green parties.
In their executive summary the Committee set out the current state of affairs:
More pedestrians are killed or.......
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22 January 2014
The Enfield Independent has reported that a campaign has been launched to improve safety for pedestrians crossing Green Lanes at the Fox Lane junction. This is just one of several hazardous crossing points facing pedestrians in Palmers Green........
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22 October 2013
Enfield Council has announced that the public consultation on a new zebra crossing in Aldermans Hill showed that the public were in favour of the plan. The zebra crossing will be installed near the junction with Old Park Road (see photograph).
Over the past five years eight people have been injured crossing the road near the location of the new zebra.
Work to install the crossing and relocate pay and display parking bays will cost £35,000........
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22 July 2013
Enfield Council are consulting residents about a proposed new zebra crossing on Aldermans Hill. The proposal is for a crossing just to the west of the junction with Old Park Road - situated approximately where the small black car is on the photograph. There would be a pedestrian refuge in the middle of the road.
Residents have until 23 August to respond to the survey. The Council's website has links to a leaflet, a detailed plan and an online questionnaire........
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