[Travel] Large areas of London to be car-free (6 week timetable)

[beorhthelm]

I'll hazard a guess you have access to Google.

google reckons average is 10 miles. i dont know if this supports your position or not. anedotally i'd note the vast majority of traffic in London is trade or cabs, who certainly need their vehicle.

 

[Stat Brother]

google reckons average is 10 miles. i dont know if this supports your position or not. anedotally i'd note the vast majority of traffic in London is trade or cabs, who certainly need their vehicle.

That'll be the average commuter journey in an RAC survey.

Google also says 56% of ALL journeys are less than 5 miles.
While 6% of all journeys are 1 mile or less.


From those halcyon days of February:-

How London got rid of private cars – and grew more congested than ever

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...rivate-cars-and-grew-more-congested-than-ever

 

[Westdene Seagull]

People commuting long distances out of towns and villages should be assessing if they can work from home and if not why are they living so far from their work if it doesnt come under an average journey.

During 'normal' times I can work from home but I still need to go to the office two or three days a week. The salaries in Brighton are poor hence why I took a job a distance away. I'd imagine most people who travel more than the 'average' journey do it for the same reason - or just to have a job. I get a bit bored of the oft used phrase of 'just get a job closer to home'. And it's only going to get more difficult to find a decent paid job close to home moving forwards.

 

[Gwylan]

google reckons average is 10 miles. i dont know if this supports your position or not. anedotally i'd note the vast majority of traffic in London is trade or cabs, who certainly need their vehicle.

According to TFL, in 2016, 31.8% of commuters came in by car - I don't know what percentage of traffic that represents but that's going to be quite a hefty number.

Of course, this will include some trade and some car shares, but there'd be very few of the latter. I used to work in a block of flats and the couple in the flat below would drive to their jobs in the same part of London in their own cars, while the guys who shared the flat above drove to their jobs in the same office in their own cars (it should be noted we were five minutes away from a tube and their office was next door to a tube station). Londoners don't like sharing their cars

 

[Stat Brother]

During 'normal' times I can work from home but I still need to go to the office two or three days a week. The salaries in Brighton are poor hence why I took a job a distance away. I'd imagine most people who travel more than the 'average' journey do it for the same reason - or just to have a job. I get a bit bored of the oft used phrase of 'just get a job closer to home'. And it's only going to get more difficult to find a decent paid job close to home moving forwards.

West Sussex has been hell bent on building new houses for X number of years.
No obvious increase in well.paid jobs, these houses aren't cheap.

The obvious assumption being:-

'live here and drive to work'.

Fine if you have the road capacity.

Near me, over the last 10 years, the A259 has gone from being busy at key times to log jammed all day.

Meanwhile there's no extra buses, not that they could move, only a nod to cycling and obviously less trains with certainly no new track.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

West Sussex has been hell bent on building new houses for X number of years.
No obvious increase in well.paid jobs, these houses aren't cheap.

The obvious assumption being:-

'live here and drive to work'.

Fine if you have the road capacity.

Near me, over the last 10 years, the A259 has gone from being busy at key times to log jammed all day.

Meanwhile there's no extra buses, not that they could move, only a nod to cycling and obviously less trains with certainly no new track.

And there in lies the problem. Either they should build the supporting infrastructure for people to commute ( by a number of means ) or get business to provide decent paid, secure jobs locally to prevent people from travelling. Equally business needs to be forced to use WFH more. The culture of the company also helps. Prior to my current role I worked as a contractor at Legal and General. Well paid but bloody hell - an utter shambles ( them not me ! ). I left to work for my current employer in Havant DESPITE the commute and the pay cut. Recently I've had a number of approaches for a role at L&G ( which is about a mile from me ) for about 15% more money. Not on your nelly !!!!! I'd rather take less pay and the commute. Especially as L&G are selling off large chunks of their business and making people redundant - nice bit of job security .... not.

So to stop people, like me, travelling for work something needs to be done to entice employers to be good employers and provide good and secure jobs. I'd happily walk to L&G if the job was a good one ( still not going to cycle ).

 

[beorhthelm]

Meanwhile there's no extra buses, not that they could move, only a nod to cycling and obviously less trains with certainly no new track.

if there were lots of buses the cyclist would complain about them too. always blocking up the cycle lane.

 

[Stat Brother]

I have 3 new build estates engulfing my village, not a single piece of infrastructure has been added.

Only after the builds are the roads now being altered.

As the council can't be trusted there ought to be laws in place that the developers and council need to provide the infrastructure, transport, schools, medical, community hubs, before the housing is built.

 

[Stat Brother]

if there were lots of buses the cyclist would complain about them too. always blocking up the cycle lane.

If buses and cyclists are interacting then everybody should be complaining.


The bus stops down past Mithras House are fantastic for cyclists, the path goes behind the stop so everybody is separate and safe.

Unbelievably WSCC paid X millions for a cycle path linking Clymping and Bognor, with the cycle path going through the stop between shelter and road.

The only saving grace being nobody uses the bus stop as they're in the arse-end of nowhere.

 

[Stat Brother]

( still not going to cycle ).

I might as well use that aside as my start off point!!!

Just because I'm tediously bombarding NSC with an ever increasing amount of studies, Guardian articles, reviews and really tedious blog posts from Holland, doesn't mean I believe this opportunity to reshape our transportation and urban planning will be seized upon.

My natural pessimism is firmly in control, I reckon there's about a 1% chance of us collectively coming out the other side of this and saying 'blimey what were we thinking with all those cars'.

I can already hear the glee from posters, in X months/years time as they retell how much money was wasted, how everything is worse now and most importantly how right they were.

I agree, but i'll still be pleased the country tried (assuming it does)

 

[pastafarian]

google reckons average is 10 miles.

im not cycling that

 

[Gwylan]

im not cycling that

That's roughly the distance I cycled for my last London commute - takes about 45/50 minutes, a perfectly reasonable commute time

 

[pastafarian]

That's roughly the distance I cycled for my last London commute - takes about 45/50 minutes, a perfectly reasonable commute time

i guess you didnt transport much gear to or from work and didnt stop off on the way home to pick up the family grocery shopping

 

[blue-shifted]

im not cycling that

It's a bit of a trot yes.

A couple of points.

With more space available on trains, I wonder if they will relax their rules on bringing bikes, so it may be possible (for many, not you necessarily) to combine train and cycling.

Also I got myself a battery assisted e-bike recently. It definitely takes the edge of the hills at least.

 

[blue-shifted]

i guess you didnt transport much gear to or from work and didnt stop off on the way home to pick up the family grocery shopping

I do the family grocery shopping on my bike. I just stick it all in my dad sized rucksack

 

[Stat Brother]

 

[pastafarian]

It's a bit of a trot yes.

A couple of points.

With more space available on trains, I wonder if they will relax their rules on bringing bikes, so it may be possible (for many, not you necessarily) to combine train and cycling.

Also I got myself a battery assisted e-bike recently. It definitely takes the edge of the hills at least.

Yeah i was thinking of treating myself to a brand new vespa for jolly purposes, the have an electric version too

 

[Gwylan]

i guess you didnt transport much gear to or from work and didnt stop off on the way home to pick up the family grocery shopping

About twice I week I stopped to pick up the shopping - I had two panniers and could fit a lot in

 

[southdownswolf]

i guess you didnt transport much gear to or from work and didnt stop off on the way home to pick up the family grocery shopping

With panniers or a seatpost bag, this is fairly easy to do. Obviously, fitting a whole weeks shop in one go would be a bit hard for a family, but a few items a day is easy.

 

[Saunders]

if there were lots of buses the cyclist would complain about them too. always blocking up the cycle lane.

Nobody especially a bus should be going in a cycle lane. I am not saying it doesnt happen but when it does it is usually poorly "designed" or should I say squeezed in lanes like they have along the narrower part of lewes road and where they cant put the lanes behind bus stops and the lanes disappear. I generally dont have a problem with buses at all except when they are playing block north street to let their buddies out. Then again that is poor design narrowing north street and not thinking how that would affect buses passing and pulling out of bus stops.