Is there a viable alternative to Sadiq?

[Spartacus]

With the "what has the Mayor done for us lately" (cue Janet Jackson song) going off thread to LTNs I want to ask if there are any viable opponents in the race or will he get over the line by apathy of choice  ? 

Please, absolutely no discussions on the merits or lack of merits of LTNs (we have other rhreads for that) but feel free to say if a candidate is pro or anti them ! 

 

[jazzer]

Lewisham has just elected a new Mayor, not that one is actually needed, another level of costly and wasteful administration,  after the previous incumbent resigned to climb the political ladder in Westminster, that's cost or rather wasted £635K of council tax payers money.

 

What we need is  a London wide referendum to remove the role of London Mayor and all those five who have appointed a Mayor. 

Edited March 10, 2024 by jazzer

[Spartacus]

Well they took a turn I didn't expect 

[alice]

There is no party or person popular enough to beat Sadiq Khan.  The press give him a very very hard time but the polls and the betting odds show he is invincible.  I say keep the London mayor, but get rid of these local borough mayors. 

[malumbu]

In deed, the ballot box will show how popular he is.  I've no massive issues with him, he could have been a bit more radical/braver.    It may be worth reading his book on air quality www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/07/breathe-review-sadiq-khans-climate-emergency-manifesto-is-a-breath-of-fresh-air

[DuncanW]

The short answer would seem to be no, not in this coming election anyway.

If the Tories put up a heavyweight, London friendly (socially progressive) candidate, they might stand half a chance. But for whatever reason, they haven't fancied the odds the last two elections and have stood candidates who no-one had heard of and have shown themselves to be weak by any measurable standard. 

So looks like another easy win for Sadiq... he quite possibly won't fancy a third term, and next election will be against the backdrop of a Labour govt who might well be struggling to fulfil their agenda.

[HeadNun]

I would genuinely like to know how he, or his GP, can prove that his adult onset asthma is related to London air. 

[Angelina]

I think we need a buffer to protect London from the Government. For that alone, Sadiq is a force we need.

Local councils are a dismal experience though and could do with a big shake up

 

[Rockets]

My concern is that I think, that to be effective, you need a London mayor that is in opposition to the party in government and I do worry that when Labour win the next general election Sadiq won't be as keen to fight Westminster as he has been under a Tory government, that he will put his own Labour-party career aspirations over the actual needs of Londoners.

[Rockets]

The problem is he is getting caught out trying to mislead people at every turn: BBC News - Doubts raised over Sadiq Khan's clean air claims
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68533703

[Nigello]

If the local authorities did the job thoroughly then another parallel authority wouldn’t be needed. 

[malumbu]

ULEZ has reduced the number of polluting vehicles on the road, the mileage that they do and accelerated the move to cleaner vehicles.  Not sure if anyone can say this will not improve air quality.  You could argue that the improvements have been overstated, but not that in principle it wasn't a good thing to introduce this, certainly within the North and South Circulars.  Government was ordered to sort out air quality by the Supreme Court, Mayor Johnson proposed this measure to help achieve this and Mayor Khan implemented the scheme.

I'm more bothered about the backward move from supplementary vote to first past the post, we know why the government did this,

A nice link to the electoral reform lot about FPTP

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/first-past-the-post/

 

[malumbu]

I was looking for the thread about what has the Mayor done for us, but it seems to have gone.  Anyway he has quadrupled cycleways, well done.  Even the most staunch of his critics must welcome that.

https://lcc.org.uk/news/cycleway-4-open-today/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com

[Rockets]

Good news if you ride a bike, bad news if you use a transport mode that is being negatively impacted by the new cycleways.  Given cycling modal share is decreasing in London compared to other forms of travel any negative impact to public transport will be being felt by a growing number of people.

[Angelina]

Rockets - I think you are telling half a story.

Is cycling has reduced in relation to other modes of transport, do you mean overall numbers of cycling journeys have reduced and others have increased by the offset?, or that cycling hasn't increased as much as other types of journeys. And over what period? Winter?

Please share the data for the top modes of transport so we can see.

 

 

[Spartacus]

Found the only viable alternative worth a vote ....

BBC News - London Mayoral elections: Intergalactic space warrior Count Binface to stand
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68552817

[jazzer]

???

Edited March 14, 2024 by jazzer

[Earl Aelfheah]

I would like to see the Mayor given control of all suburban rail lines in London. Personally, I think Khan has done a good job despite a central government hostile to his administration. With Labour in power at Westminster, my hope is that he will get given more powers and a better funding settlement.

  On 13/03/2024 at 22:01, Rockets said:

Cycling modal share is decreasing in London compared to other forms of travel any negative impact to public transport will be being felt by a growing number of people.

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According to TFLs most recent stats cycle mode share increased to 4.5 per cent in 2022, up from 3.6 per cent in 2016. Don't know what evidence you have that cycling has 'a negative impact to public transport' (absolutely none I suspect). This is a thread about Sadiq Khan's mayoralty though. Maybe pick up your anti bike infrastructure hobby horse over on the transport section.

Edited March 15, 2024 by Earl Aelfheah

[malumbu]

For those of you who are not fond of the new cycleways, you may be pleasantly surprised if you try them.  They tend to be on segregated pathways, often away from the road, or quiet roads, some of which were already closed to through traffic.  C10 is an interesting one as it takes you through some of the grittier areas of SE London - think Jason Statham movies.  There may be confusion between Johnson's earlier cycle superhighways that would more often take away some of the main road, although I'm happy with this eg the embankment.  My big criticism here is that during commuting time they can be too popular, ie too many bikes, which if you are not familiar with the area can be overwhelming.  The new batch, certainly this side of the river, are more relaxing.

As for alternatives to Mayor Khan I see that the SDP are standing.  Although it doesn't appear to be really the SDP (ie the centre leftish lot of the 80s who could have changed things if history had gone in their way) but what is portrayed as a conservative left (perhaps left of Reform...)  www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67871119

" Speaking to the BBC, Ms Gallagher said London had become "more divided" and that the current mayor was "spending too much money on campaigns that are all about virtue signalling". If elected, her top priority would be to "defund divisive diversity and inclusive spending".

Her other two priorities would be to "depoliticise the police" and "improve public transport infrastructure and make all transport free for under-25s".

She added that she was "firmly against" the Ultra Low Emission Zone and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and would scrap both."

Well I quite like the public transport infrastructure and free transport, although I am not sure how she would do better than the current mayor on infrastructure  unless she would prioritise buses over private motoring (yay!)  Others will have views on the populist stuff she is saying, which leads me onto Reform which echo some of the above. 

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67312289

I tried to watch a bit of his interview on the London politics programme but after a few minutes though my late breakfast would be better spent watching Countryfile on catch up.  How woke am I!!

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000dk0q/politics-london

 

 

[Rockets]

  On 15/03/2024 at 10:21, Earl Aelfheah said:

I would like to see the Mayor given control of all suburban rail lines in London. Personally, I think Khan has done a good job despite a central government hostile to his administration. With Labour in power at Westminster, my hope is that he will get given more powers and a better funding settlement.

According to TFLs most recent stats cycle mode share increased to 4.5 per cent in 2022, up from 3.6 per cent in 2016. Don't know what evidence you have that cycling has 'a negative impact to public transport' (absolutely none I suspect). This is a thread about Sadiq Khan's mayoralty though. Maybe pick up your anti bike infrastructure hobby horse over on the transport section.

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Earl have you noticed how many bus lanes have been turned into cycle lanes….take a walk across any one of London’s bridges over the Thames and see how the bus lanes have been turned into cycle lanes and buses now sit in traffic with all of the other vehicles and TFL has said that bus journey times have slowed across London, although they have blamed roadworks for the delays.

 

Angelina, the National Travel Survey showed that London modal share is declining for cycles due to people returning to buses and tubes (I believe bus use had increased by 59% and was heading back to pre-Covid levels) there was a thread on it in October (National Travel Survey and cycling policy in London)

[Earl Aelfheah]

  On 18/03/2024 at 23:39, Rockets said:

Earl have you noticed how many bus lanes have been turned into cycle lanes….take a walk across any one of London’s bridges over the Thames and see how the bus lanes have been turned into cycle lanes and buses now sit in traffic with all of the other vehicles and TFL has said that bus journey times have slowed across London, although they have blamed roadworks for the delays.

 

Angelina, the National Travel Survey showed that London modal share is declining for cycles due to people returning to buses and tubes (I believe bus use had increased by 59% and was heading back to pre-Covid levels) there was a thread on it in October (National Travel Survey and cycling policy in London)

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This is disingenuous nonsense. Despite fewer workers commuting daily into central London, cycling is up on pre-pandemic levels, which is not true for other modes of transport.

The number of people cycling in central London has more than doubled since 2000 and cyclists now out number motorists in the City.

Edited March 19, 2024 by Earl Aelfheah

[Rockets]

Earl, the devil is always in the detail and the detail very much suggests it is not disingenuous nonsense - what is disingenuous are some of the headlines concocted by the pro-cycle lobby to present a good news story.  More often than not a lot of the pro-cycle headlines have been "selectively plucked" to create a story and you highlight a very real example of that.

 

We have discussed previously the claim that there are now more cyclists in the City/Square Mile than motorists (which was always a correct but slightly misleading headline as cars never really returned to the City after the bomb checkpoints were put in decades ago) - it is also important to note that walking is still the main mode of transport within the Square Mile by a country mile (although at the time of the report at 80% of pre-pandemic levels).

And the claim of a "massive jump" in cycling - look at the figures - even in the City (which has become the poster-child for the pro-cycle lobby on the basis of that more cycles than cars headline) the very report that gave that selectively plucked headline showed a very different story that cycling was at 102% of pre-pandemic figures.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2023/03/01/cyclists-now-outnumber-motorists-in-city-of-london/

 

Attached are the actual numbers from the report presented to the City of London Corporation which tells a very different story from the headlines. You can find it here: https://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/documents/s182959/Appendix 6 Transport Trends Graphs and Charts.pdf

 But yes, cyclists do now outnumber motorists in the City of London that is correct but for all of the investment in cycling infrastructure and sacrifices made to bus lanes etc would one have not expected a bigger jump in cycling in the City? Often the headlines are written by the pro-cycle lobby to distract people from the fact that the boom in cycling (as a proportion of all journeys) is just not materialising despite the huge amount of investment to make the cycling revolution happen.

 

[Earl Aelfheah]

You said that:

  Quote

Cycling modal share is decreasing in London 

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This is nonsense. Latest TfL report shows mode share for cycling consistently rising year on year over more than a decade:

 TfL travel in London -latest report

Like I said above, this is a thread about Sadiq Khan's mayoralty. Maybe pick up your anti bike infrastructure crusade over on the transport section.

Edited March 19, 2024 by Earl Aelfheah

[Rockets]

Earl, I was merely addressing your claims that what I had said was disingenuous - which it, quite clearly, was not. I always find it fascinating what happens when you look behind the headline stats touted by various lobby groups as the headline often tries to tell a different story - clearly there has been no massive increase in cycling in the City of London but there are more cyclists than motorists now.

 

In the meantime there is another argument when you look at the data about modal share too...see the attached. In fact, if you look at Figure 7 on page 16 of the TFL report you linked to it very much suggests modal share is shifting as tube, bus and overground see more passenger usage (look at 2022) - it seems that TFL is presenting data that backs up both sides of the arguments - you win when looking at stage-based analysis, I win on trip-based analysis - so clearly not nonsense after all....;-)

 

 

 

 

 

[Earl Aelfheah]

Sorry Rockets, just to be clear. Are you still claiming that

  Quote

Cycling modal share is decreasing in London 

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Because nothing you've posted above proves that statement. It all feels like a desperate attempt to obfuscate. 

Cycling modal share in London is not decreasing. 

Edited March 19, 2024 by Earl Aelfheah