cwjlawrence

More than 9,000 people in the capital were dying early each year due to dirty air in 2015. I don?t think that being hit by a car is what you should be worrying about. Stop driving = Save lives Of course the deaths due to pollution are probably more likely caused by all of the hot air emanating from the East Dulwich Forum than car exhausts!

Here?s some good news to cheer you all up on a cold Monday night! Coming back from my daughter's primary school last Friday, I counted 54 unique bicycles between leaving Dulwich Hamlets (not including she or I), cycling along Calton Ave and down EDG to Melbourne Grove. You?re not misreading that - it was 54 bikes in a 5 minute cycle ride. It was like being in Beijing in the 70s! I've never seen anything like this in East Dulwich and certainly not in the dark on a foggy day in winter! 10 years ago, I wouldn't expect to see anyone cycling and even last year there maybe be only 1 or 2 people, and probably MAMILs at that. Contrast this with this scene of this number of cyclists (of which only 1 or 2 were MAMILS!) going to and from school/work. In my son's class at school, there has been a real shift in how his classmates get to school with children now cycling from Clapham who used to get driven over in rush-hour traffic. If this is what it?s like in winter, just imagine what it?s going to be like come the spring - an active travel paradise! And some even more good news - just to put my money where my mouth is! I?m happy to give away our daughter?s really nice Pinnacle bike (that she?s just grown out of - would suit aged 6-8) to a good home that will use it to cycle to school. Please just PM me :-)

Hi Folks, If you've not read the Southwark Climate Strategy, then I'd recommend reading it. Legalalien kindly provided a link to it in a post on the Lounge: http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s89802/Appendix%201%20Climate%20strategy.pdf Below is the excerpt from the Borough and Regional Action section on Travel. @Rockets - where is the aim to reduce car usage by 50% stated? I don't think it's in this strategy document but please do correct me if I'm wrong. I presume it's in another Council document - if you could post the link then that would be great. Thanks, Chris Borough and Regional Actions This strategy promotes action at a borough and city level to make Southwark and London a greener place to travel. Actions at this level include: - Developing accessible, safe cycle ways and walking paths - Creating traffic free zones and pedestrianised areas - Building more electric charging points - Providing accessible workplaces for cycling and walking - Encouraging employers to increase flexible home working to reduce the need to commute - Increase the use of hubs for home delivery of goods to reduce delivery traffic - Introducing a borough wide controlled parking zone with higher charges for more polluting vehicles and second vehicles. - TFL to require all taxis to be EV's before 2030 - Greater use of cargo bike schemes by regional institutions. - TFL and the council to make the temporary street adaptions (including pavement widening) following COVID 19 permanent - Develop a small business grant for those who use carbon neutral 'last mile' distribution - Implement a diesel surcharge of 50% - Create 'diesel free zones' banning privately owned diesel vehicles from using key routes during core hours - Ban privately owned cars from using key routes during core hours - Consolidate delivery sites to reduce daily journeys by 50% - Incentivise companies to electrify their vehicle fleets - Introduce a car parking levy on work placed car parking - Decarbonise the council?s fleet - Move to new developments and regenerated estates to being car free - Continue reviewing tube stations to increase accessibility - Prioritise the air quality improvement actions that also have a carbon reduction benefit.

Hi Rockets, Have you applied for a new hanger? If it is for you, then it is probably worth getting the demand sent in - below is the note that I received from Southwark Council when applying for a new hanger. I don't think there are spaces in current hangers to rent when I looked last week, so best to apply for a new one I suggest. Best wishes, Chris Hi, Thank you for your enquiry regarding cycle hangars in the London Borough of Southwark To make an enquiry regarding available spaces please go to the following website - https://www.cyclehoop.rentals/ New hangar application If all spaces are allocated or there are no hangars currently in your area, you may apply to have your location added to the register of potential future bike hangar locations. To allow us to best process your application please provide the below details, and send to [email protected] Applicants Name Applicants Address Applicants Post code Applicants Email address Proposed Bike Hangar location (street address and description) Once submitted, this will go onto our register for assessment and prioritising. To support your local installation you can gather support and submit with your application on the attached form. Installation is generally completed on an annual basis as funding allows, and applicants of the shortlisted locations are advised if possible prior to consultation of their site. Please ?x? this box below if you agree for our contractor to contact you directly regarding works start date, delays or other related queries. Regards, Southwark Council

Thanks for posting this legalalien.

That's wonderful news. It's my favourite shop on Lordship Lane - can't wait for them to reopen.

Hi Rockets, Thanks for your thoughts. I found the video quite thought provoking especially the sentence about every car being driven 500m causing a 1kg loss in polar ice. I like your LTN smoking analogy by way of reposte - although I think you're stretching it a little! Of course I'm not missing any point of yours; don't worry I'm not suggesting that you're voting for an increase in pollution and a degradation in the quality of air through a desire to increase car usage. Or at least I hope that's not what you want - I doubt you're a metaphorical turkey voting for Christmas! Whether any of us like it or not, I suspect that we're at the beginning of a journey (please excuse the turn of phrase) whereby driving cars with combustion engines in our city will be socially unacceptable. However, my personal view is that our energy should be better spent thinking of ways to reduce pollution in our lovely part of London rather than trying to roll back to the previous status quo - which I'm not sure was nirvana. So here's an idea - instead of our endless posting on this site (which I doubt has any effect to further our separate aims), why don't you and I get together and brainstorm some positive ways to reduce pollution. Just a few ideas off the top of my head now - why don't we work with Alleyn's and JAGs to put up banners on EDG asking drivers to turn off their engines whilst they idle. Or even a banner saying "Every car being driven 500m causes a 1kg loss in polar ice"! I'll drop you a PM. Best, Chris

Hi Rockets, Have you seen this video on the BBC? let me know your thoughts having watched it :-) Best, Chris https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/viewpoint-its-time-to-end-our-love-affair-with-car/p08s48hr

@dougiefreeman and @Dulwichgirl82 - thanks both for your responses to my posts. I am really struck by actually how aligned we all are in what we want. Dougie - I do take a little exception in your comments that I may have a complete disregard to peoples' issues. I can assure you that this isn't true - :-). Also, I'm not pro closure - I just want to be able to live somewhere that does not have the levels of pollution and traffic that we see in East Dulwich (and I'd like it sooner rather than later!) The perfect strategy would be that people would only use their cars if they absolutely had to - e.g. musicians needing to carry their double basses, tradespeople and of course the list goes on. But the problem is that cars are just so convenient that of course relying on people to only make 'necessary journeys' is never going to happen. Hence, my point that we need to make it difficult for people to drive their cars which is probably through direct or indirect taxation - which in itself discriminates against people who can't afford this additional cost. Dougie - my apologies if I have made my points badly or that they're unclear. But, please don't suggest that I have a complete disregard to others. That is not a fair comment. I completely respect your position and points of view and I hope that the opposite is the same. Dulwichgirl82 - I think your points are very prescient. I get quite angry when I cycle along EDG - but I guess my ire is (probably in some cases very wrongly) at the drivers rather than a council trying to make things better (and quite potentially not getting it right). We want the same outcome I think!

@dougiefreeman thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed post. I suspect that we're actually very well aligned and after exactly the same outcome which is a cleaner less polluted East Dulwich in which we can all live. I don't think that there is anything in your post that I disagree with, apart from the fact that I think we all need to be affected very significantly. Please excuse the turn of phrase, but the journey of travel over the last 30 years has been towards greater of car journeys and therefore the infrastructure of the city has adapted to the use of cars which will be difficult to unwind.

Hi Slarti, Good question - I fear that I'm not going to give the answer that you want though :-) I'm not pro closure but I am extremely pro a massive reduction in pollution. You may have read my post this morning about the pollution I was on the receiving end of on both Carlton Avenue and Hillsboro - it was disgusting and poisonous - and these are streets that should have benefited from the road closures! I personally feel incredibly guilty about the amount that I have used my car over the last 15 (approx) years of living in East Dulwich. I am trying extremely hard to now not use my car at all - and yes - it is very difficult to do so but it's all I can do, to reduce the amount of driving that I do and hope that others do the same. I may be a bit stupid, but the problem I keep coming back to is that cars are so amazingly convenient that to get people to avoid using them is extremely difficult. Take this morning - I cycled back along East Dulwich Grove and there were people sitting in the lights at Alleyns/JAGs crossroads with their engines idling. If people are thoughtless enough to keep their engines running at a junction of 2 schools then what hope of getting them to get out of their cars? My personal view is that it is necessary to make car driving not so convenient and other forms of non-polluting transport more convenient. I would do this through a number of measures - but unfortunately, I think they amount to the same thing - making it less easy to drive. Having grown up outside of London, I can see that we are blessed here with really good public transport and there nothing stopping us (apart from ourselves) to reduce traffic. Of course, there are very good reasons why people need to drive, but if I can reduce my car journeys by over 95% then I think that the majority of our community can too. One thing that I hope we can agree on is that the road closures certainly are making us all think about our communities more and I dearly hope that the result will be a longer term set of strategies to reduce driving and make East Dulwich a nicer place for my family and of course yours also to live in. Best wishes, Chris

Well done for doing something proactive but my personal view is that you're campaigning here against the wrong thing @dougiefreeman. We should all be campaigning for proactive ways to fundamentally reduce traffic rather than tinker on whether it's OK to pollute street A rather than street B or street C. What is required is a significant reduction in pollution rather than just arguing on which street it is better to poison people. My 8year old daughter was left coughing and choking for about 1 minute after a Land Rover with terrible exhaust fumes drove along Calton Avenue this morning as she cycled to school. And in turn, this was just after cycling up Hillsboro Road in a fog of disgusting white pollution from a car spewing noxious fumes. Even now - 2hrs on, I'm still coughing from this. Thanks so much to these people who think it's OK to poison me and my children. What is clearly needed is people to get out of their cars. I know that several people on this thread seem to dislike cyclists and their perceived holier than thou attitudes, but after the pollution I was on the receiving end of this morning (on quiet streets) then people need to wake up and smell the coffee (hopefully rather than the poisonous fumes!) Apologies for the rant - it must be the fumes making me light headed!

@Spider69 - I think that the lack of traffic next to the school opening makes a very good picture as opposed to the backed up traffic poisoning the children. I keep coming back to my previous point which is that all of our aim should be to fundamentally reduce the volume of car journeys. My 8year old daughter was left coughing and choking for about 1 minute after a Land Rover with terrible exhaust fumes drove along Calton Avenue this morning as she cycled to school. And in turn, this was just after cycling up Hillsboro Road in a fog of disgusting white pollution from a car spewing noxious fumes. Even now - 2hrs on, I'm still coughing from this. Thanks so much to these people who think it's OK to poison me and my children. What is clearly needed is people to get out of their cars. I know that several people on this thread seem to dislike cyclists and their perceived holier than thou attitudes, but after the pollution I was on the receiving end of this morning (on quiet streets) then people need to wake up and smell the coffee (hopefully rather than the poisonous fumes!) Apologies for the rant - it must be the fumes making me light headed!

Hi Dulwichgirl, I think you make some really great points here. I've only been in ED for about 15 years, so a relative "blow-in" as Louisa used to call us :-). I've always dreamt of Lordship Lane being traffic free - it seems so perverse that having somewhere that purposefully attracts pedestrians is somewhere with terrible pollution. And I think it's always been that way - I used to get very angry pushing my children in their buggies many years ago when they were at the same height as the car exhaust fumes. My theoretical solution was to make LL one way with cars coming back along CPR which I'm sure would not have too popular with the residents of Crystal Palace Road! I completely agree on your points of equality - we should be trying to work out how to improve air quality for everyone and of course not just the lucky few. This is why personally I would like to see a significant reduction in car journeys - wherever the pollution happens it is still pollution. My personal preference would be to increase the tax on car usage, either through a congestion charge or an increase in car tax and petrol. But of course, this would raise the objection that it's unequal insofar as if you're rich then you'll be able to afford the increased taxes. @Dougiefreeman - I'm certainly not referring to you as a "whinging moaner" and I don't agree that only the view of cyclists has been heard. I know cyclists can come across as holier than thou - but actually what a great way to get around in a city. No pollution, don't take up much room and get people fit and healthy. What's not to like?! :-)

Hi All, I'm not going to try and convince anyone of my views of why the road closures are a positive thing (it does appear that most peoples' minds are rather fixed either pro or con) and I can also completely see the argument that they are not good. Both arguments are compelling and it's unlikely that too many people will move from their points of view. Hence it does seem a bit of a waste of time trying to convince people. So 2 points, if I may: I do strongly believe that the current volume of car usage is far too much in our city and there does seem to be a general consensus to that point on this thread. Away from just the pollution and the space they take up, driving 1500kg of car to move 70kg of person doesn't seem too intelligent a thing to do in built up areas. Secondly, cars are great way of getting around, you can sit comfortably in your own space, listening to the music/radio that you want, with no physical effort required and ultimately a car will take from where you want to go from to where you want to go. The car is a really great way to get around (excepting the impact on the environment in the broader sense of the word) and definitely the path of least resistance - I can't think of another method that is "easier" for an individual. So, with these 2 statements, how do you stop/reduce people driving in our cities? 1. Increase car taxes (e.g. Congestion charge, increase car tax, increase cost of petrol) 2. Reduce available parking so as to make it far more of a hassle 3. Introduce significant parking charges 3. Only allow specific cars on specific days (cf Singapore) 4. Close / block roads to make other forms of transport the preferred option 5. Change road usage away from priortising cars - e.g. more cycle lanes, more bus lanes 6. Improve public transport so it is just easier not to drive 7. Rely on peoples' good will to stop driving. 8. +++ I'm sure that there are a lot of other additional ways that could be used. So, why don't we have a positive discussion on what would be the better way to do this rather than us all restating our positions on why road closures are either right or wrong? What are peoples' views? Are there too many cars and car journeys? And if so, what would be the best way to reduce both the number of cars and journeys?