Following the Conservative walkout which effectively stopped the debate on retaining a 20MPH limit, there has been communication that the issue may not be dead after all.
Reportedly, an email from Richard Tracey, AM, claims:
"The Conservative Members did not walk out to avoid the Blackfriars debate and we are
still in direct discussion with the Mayor and his Transport advisors
about the situation...
We walked out of the Chamber because Labour and Green Members refused
after several invitations to condemn and disown Labour candidate Ken
Livingstone, who last week described, in a most offensive and
unacceptable way, Edward Lister, the Mayor's Chief of Staff and former
long-time Leader of Wandsworth Council, as "the Radko Mladic of local
government"
However, the BBC reported Andrew Boff as saying:
"This is part of ongoing action that the group is taking in response to the Labour, Lib Dem and Green party groups voting en-block to prevent Conservatives from taking up the proportional number of committee chairmanships"
Cycalogical's view is this. If you walk out of a debate, you cannot dodge responsibility for the consequences of doing so by putting the blame on a totally unrelated issue. Or issues. Ken Livingstone is not a member of the London Assembly, and he's free to insult Edward Lister, or Ratko Mladic, or anyone else. If he's overstepped the mark (and personally I think he has) then he will have to take the consequences. That's the rough-and-tumble of politics. It's not as if no Conservative has ever stooped so low.
If the Conservative Assembly Members are genuinely trying to press the Mayor to retain the 20MPH limit, and are successful, then I don't much care if there's a debate or not. But if this is just obfustication, then I don't much appreciate that the Tory AMs have chosen to play politics with an issue that affects people's lives.
Lastly, they might take note of the following paragraphs in the 2010 Cycle Safety Action Plan:
The vast majority (98.7%) of cyclist casualties occurred on roads with a 30mph speed limit.
...the following interventions have been identified to improve cycling safety in new infrastructure for the future:
Work to ensure that all new road infrastructure contributes to improved safety of cyclists, including speed reduction measures, junction improvements, and awareness of cyclists’ needs.
Speed reduction measures. You got that now? Would you like me to write it bigger and in red?
Identify ‘high risk’ locations on the road network for cyclists and advise on and implement site specific preventative measures.
Blackfriars Bridges collision record puts it firmly in the 'high risk' category by any reasonable standards.
Support those Boroughs that wish to implement speed reduction measures such as 20mph zones in line with MTS.
Speed reduction again.
Work with London’s engineering community to provide practical experience of cycling in London for engineers.
...Yet they continue to come up with schemes like Blackfriars Bridge
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I emailed my Conservative Assembly representatives to ask them about the walk out, and Cllr Victoria Borwick replied with this email:
ReplyDelete"Dear Nicolas
We did absent ourselves from the chamber over an issue unrelated to the
Blackfriars bridge motion. I think it's important to remember that the
motion would have not achieved any change in any proposal as the London
Assembly is a scrutiny body and has few direct powers.
All our members have discussed the issue at length in our party group
meetings, once with the Mayor present, and we know it to be of
considerable concern to all the users of the bridge. We still, as an
Assembly, have little in the way of hard data about the likely effects
of any decrease in the current limit and would like to see a better
appraisal of the issues. Amongst those are the possible introduction of
a 20mph limit over the whole of the City of London, the effect of
introducing a limit which the police, on many occasions, have said is
unlikely to be enforced, the effect on congestion of a reduction and
whether or not any vehicle can reasonably attain 30 mph.
The safety of road users is paramount. It was this primary concern that
I and other assembly members objected to the original proposals for the
modification of the bridge. These have now been revised, restoring the
south-bound cycle lane and reducing the confusion of the original
northern junction plans.
I can assure you that the action we took at today's meeting will not
have an impact on the detailed consideration of the issues related to
the bridge.
With regards
Cllr Victoria Borwick"
Although she does not sound too negative about 20mph limit remaining on Blackfriars Bridge, I'll pick on this:
"We still, as an
Assembly, have little in the way of hard data about the likely effects
of any decrease in the current limit and would like to see a better
appraisal of the issues."
Which would mean that TfL hasn't done a very good job modelling this bridge.
And this:
"Amongst those are the [...] effect of
introducing a limit which the police, on many occasions, have said is
unlikely to be enforced, [...] and
whether or not any vehicle can reasonably attain 30 mph."
"unlikely to be enforced": isn't that what speed cameras are for? I am quite sure there is no technical reason why cameras cannot be installed, either on the bridge itself or on the approaches (whether instant or average speed).
"whether or not any vehicle can reasonably attain 30 mph": during rush hour no, that is not possible. But traffic also happens outside of rush hour, especially when like in this case there is a school in the vicinity. See http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/06/has-itv-managed-to-get-transport-for.html