London's recovery starts with you

Our local high streets need more public realm, not just retail space. There should be an accessible but traffic-free public square or other pedestrianised area in every district, like the piazzas, plazas and squares in continental Europe (or Gabriel's Wharf on the South Bank). The best place / starting point for this might be the existing high street. At the heart of this public space should be places for residents to get together: restaurants, bars, and cafes; youth zones, centres for the retired, drop-in centres for the lonely, etc. Service-based businesses would also be found here: hairdressers, barbers, nail salons, any remaining financial institutions and solicitors.

There should also be meeting places that can be used by local clubs and groups; this should be flexible space that can be adapted into different configurations so that it can be hired by a range of different size community groups. The local public space should be in or connected to the library, leisure centre or any other community facilities. Thornton Heath library in Croydon is a good example; lots of community activities are held there.

Because the primary function of the public realm is a meeting place, then access should be primarily by cycling and walking, or public transport. But in order to transition to a car-free environment, users would have to feel safe on the surrounding streets, day and night. There would need to be vehicular access to the rear of any surrounding buildings for delivery of goods etc to the businesses but green delivery vehicles should be encouraged to maintain air quality.

The public realm should contain street trees and other urban greening measures. The public realm should be connected to a green grid, linking it to parks as well as the public realm in neighbouring districts.

The way we shop has changed forever, there's no point harking back to the old days of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Because people now lead much busier lives, an increasing amount of shopping is done online or in large malls or one-stop shops like large supermarkets. These are located away from high streets and need to be accessed by car due to the amount / size of goods being purchased.

The High Street needs to be reinvented because any shops located there will not be able to compete with Amazon or Tesco or, as a group of shops, with the likes of Bluewater and Westfield. Local shops need to offer something different, a unique selling proposition.

If we want to encourage small local businesses (like artisan / craft home industries) then we need to offer them retail space / pop-up shops that can be hired for just a day, or a week, or a month... like a physical Etsy marketplace or a year-round Christmas market. People who are just starting their own businesses, maybe as a part-time venture, need somewhere to sell their wares other than online (because it's hard to get to your potential customers when you're new); a local retail space with short term hiring options will enable businesses to test the waters without incurring large overheads in terms of premises, rates, staff, etc; or maybe they only make a limited number of items and can't stock a shop or website full-time. Perhaps the stalls would be used by local small-scale farmers or even allotment owners / community gardeners selling their glut of locally-grown produce. Residents should be able to look online to find out what businesses are using the stalls, or subscribe to get email alerts if a particular type of business hires a stall. All stalls should be easily accessible by greener forms of transport for buyers but would also need vehicular access for stall holders for easy transportation of goods.

You are single handedly killing London, you have removed the vibrancy and access for people who rely on or just wish to visit London by car.  The Friendly Streets initiatives have left the streets empty and unappealing, especially where streets were already quiet and/or designated Quietways and yet you still close them off to traffic including local residents, the cyclists are non existent and limited and my local streets are like a ghost town.  Many people don't feel safe walking in these empty streets and I feel for young people having to walk home after school during the winter, it is scarey and they have no choice.  It will result in more danger, violence and robbery in the capital.  Its a madcap plan which will kill London not help it get back on its feet.  The increased hours of the CC has helped to diminish footfall in the West End not fears of COVID as you have suggested.  People won't drive to London to spend their money any longer if they have to pay the charge or worse, a fine if they're not aware of the extended hours.  The measures you have taken and introduced are draconian, illogical and incomprehensible.  In Islington we only have 30% car ownership, one of the lowest boroughs and yet still you have spent thousands on reducing car usage and pushing drivers onto already crowded main road causing more pollution and congestion, people live on those too! The next biggest pollutant is gas boilers in residential and commercial premises, this should be the focus now.  You are alienating people from visiting London in every possible way which will kill the economy not revive it.  It's a travesty and your plans are making things worse. 

This is one of those ideas that sounds like a nice idea in theory, until you start thinking about it logically, and realise the idea is totally bonkers and impractical. 

The simple fact is we as individuals have a wide range of needs and many of those are specialised. Is every high street in London going to be equipped with a curtain shop for example? Of course not, so if you want curtains you are bound to have to travel further afield. The claim that 90% of people live within 10 mins of their high street suggests a very basic defintion of "high street" which might be little more than a corner shop. For most people, the nearest reasonably comprehensive town centre is likely to be anything up to 3 miles away. If you want the full shopping experience, the choice is quite limited - apart from the West End, it's really just Bexleyheath, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, Harrow, Wood Green, Enfield, Walthamstow, Stratford, Ilford and Romford (plus Brent Cross).

Although we might all be able to do our grocery shopping in the local high street, this often means higher prices, but also if you buy £100-200 worth of groceries in one go as many of us do (because we can't go more often), there is no way that can all be transported home without a car (and nobody suggest using a cargo bike!).

I'm all in favour of improving bus access to town centres - walking/cycling are not really that relevant - but making high streets harder to access by car will simply accelerate their demise as people switch to out-of-town shopping centres or online shopping - both of which are worse environmentally. But I think we may have to accept that the local high street has had its day and move on.

It's also highly unlikely that more than a handful of people will ever be within walking or even cycling distance of their work for similar reasons. I moved to be near to work, and was then forced to change jobs!

I think the idea of the 15 minute city is a good and practical one however I do think that we also need to focus on our central locations in London. Having written about the city for many years with my website www.citycountdown.com I know from talking to vendors how tough it is for businesses in Central London at the moment. So I think we need to be quite careful when we design our 15 minute cities so that they can still allow central areas to thrive.

I’m all in favour of this mission. It could bring huge benefits to us all. 

I live in the suburbs. There are shops close by, which is very handy, but they don’t amount to a ‘high street’. The nearest shopping centre is about 20 minutes brisk walk away, which is a little too far for me to do often. I would much prefer to cycle there, but it’s not safe enough and there’s no secure bike parking. I used to do it frequently, but suffered too many collisions due to careless drivers. Before covid I would often take the bus, but now I usually drive. Another centre is within 15 minutes by bike, but the same problems exist. I still cycle there sometimes, but poor driving feels a constant threat.

It ought to be a simple matter to make it more attractive to walk or cycle for a mile or three. But there are some major hurdles to be overcome. First is funding for infrastructure. The government’s promised allocation won’t go very far, and an extensive protected network is needed so that anyone can cycle with confidence almost door to door. Secondly, you have to bypass or change the attitude of the more backward local councils. Mine will oppose any significant change. 

Your mission will have succeeded when all people who are able see cycling as a realistic option for their shorter trips.

Car use: as I'm 75, I now avoid public transport. Our elder daughter lives 10 miles away. I can drive by car, or not go at all. Same with shopping. For a while I'll carry on driving; if electric cars become cheaper, I can change. Some shopping I can do by bus, next year?

I bicycle a lot. It's good for me; I enjoy it. I dislike seeing riders ignoring traffic signs, almost as much as seeing drivers ignore them. The police should take a firmer line; but they're underfunded and may have more serious crimes to deal with. I'm uncertain about bike lanes; my gut feeling is it's better for riders and drivers to learn to get along. I'm naive that way. A lot of bike lanes are badly designed. There's one running along about half a mile of main road near me. The road is busy, but the lane is crossed by 15 side roads, driveways, etc., and every time a rider has to stop and give way (not that there's ever a vehicle turning), so I don't use it. This afternoon, at about 6 o'clock, coming back from said elder daughter's, I sat in a traffic queue for 13 minutes. Beside me a new bike lane, in what had been a second vehicle lane. In 13 minutes four riders went past. 

My council wants to spend £10 million on a new bike/pedestrian bridge. They calculate that walkers' and riders' journeys will be quicker, and that the value of the time thereby saved will soon pay for the bridge. I believe many walkers and riders will take as long as before, because they're exercising; or perhaps they'll take less time, will not become as fit, and will become a greater burden on the NHS.

New restrictions on the freedom pass mean I'll do less. I suspect the lost value will far outweigh the cost of free travel.

Summary: much of what I see makes me think politicians are intellectually lazy, don't really think about what they're doing, and certainly don't explain themselves properly.

This consultation’s short term objective of improving cycling infrastructure by initiatives which severely impact on the free flow of traffic is premature at a time when the UK needs to be increasing productivity to recover from the economic impact of Covid.  The raft of vehicle restrictions introduced by TFL and borough councils in the last 2 months are already negatively impacting business productivity as fewer deliveries and jobs can be done in a day.  Ironically, I know businesses who are having to buy more vehicles and employ more people to meet the same demand.  

As a general note, I’m dismayed at the concerted effort by local councils and TFL to demonise vehicle users.  By using language such as ‘traffic from outside the borough’ or ‘traffic passing through’ they’re encouraging people to feel entitled to appropriate public highways for their own use.  I find it slightly repellent that people are quite happy for vehicles to pass through other peoples boroughs to deliver the goods and services they want but aren’t happy for vehicles to pass through their borough to deliver goods and services to people in other parts of the country.  It’s evident from social media sites how divisive this topic has become, particularly at a time when we should be aspiring to work together.

Isn’t this just the latest buzzword floating around city administrations around the world?  I can’t find any contemporary examples of a major city where the 15 minute city has been tried, tested and proven successful to date.  

When the UK was a major industrial producer, this kind of model existed where a whole town was employed for life by a dominant local factory, shipyard, mine etc.  But we’ve now lost most of our large scale manufacturing base and today the vast majority of private sector businesses employ less than 250 people in very diverse, often niche, sectors requiring employees with specific skills from a wide geographic employment pool.  Employees now spend an average of 4 ½ years in a job so prefer a commute to moving home. If we really want to experiment with 15 minute cities, wouldn’t it make more sense to start with central government i.e. create a new town for the Houses of Parliament and central government ministries and their employees?  

No one in London is self sufficient.  We all rely on vehicles and roads to deliver and the goods and services we consume.  Even basic needs like water, gas and electricity with a static delivery infrastructure require an army of maintenance engineers in vehicles to service them.  Wouldn’t it be better to focus on providing the charging point infrastructure for electric vehicles? The transition is already underway and this will speed up as the existing stock of old vehicles naturally becomes redundant and the cost of electric vehicles comes down. 

You're destroying London. The debate has become hysterical. Pollution has been constantly coming down over the years as cars have become greener. The cycle lanes do not and never will have enough users to justify the expense and the cost to all the other road users who rely on the free movement of traffic for their living and it's not just taxi drivers either. At the very most you''l get barely 10% cyclists and then only on certain roads and in certain weather conditions. This winter we'll see the catastrophic results of your virtue signaling, micro managing initiatives. You're letting a very small minority of belligerent cyclists call the shots. You're very lucky that their isn't really a motorists lobby.

 It's a disgrace.

Please focus on safe and substantial cycle routes. I have just visited Copenhagen and cycling in that city is a dream with its many cycle routes  clearly separate from the roads. Please make this happen in London. 

Talk of 15 minutes or short walk is pointless for two reasons.

a) somebody like me who is 77 and whose mobility is greatly impaired will take far longer than someone half my age to make a 'short walk' Pardon me but by putting this in you are starting off on  the wrong foot unless you are prepared to qualify the term.Surely accessibility for all is the aim and if this means a different form of distributive system then so be it..

b) shops and other services need a footfall to survive and thrive. In densely populated areas that means lots of shops,in areas which are not densely populated there is a distribution according to that footfall. Those who have a choice where to live can take availability of shops and transport links etc into account - it is on e of the reason s property prices vary.

Please make your missions operationally possible otherwise it is another paper exercise.

I strongly support the initiative outlined above. Having essentials within close walking or biking distance will provide an economic boost to our local businesses and create a more livable environment for local residents. Currently my local high-streets are less appealing due to heavy traffic. Personally, I am very concerned about the level of pollution and noise in my area, which is a result of motor traffic.

I live along a main road (A105 Hackney) but I still support closing nearby roads to through traffic. While this may lead to a short-term increase in traffic on main roads I believe that in the long-term the overall level of traffic will be reduced. We need to free up the roads for those that really need it, such as blue badge holders and emergency services.

Please also invest in a cycle & pedestrian crossing in east London. It is ridiculous that the Silvertown tunnel has been given the go ahead, locking us into car dependency for decades to come and making it completely impossible for London to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2030.

Do not focus only on cycling and walking.  Focus on traffic flow first.  Too many modal filters and low traffic neighbourhoods popping up with no regard as to the impact on traffic flow in the roads left accessible.  The resulting gridlock causes terrible local pollution and will impact the health and wellbeing of local residents.  I certainly do not want to live in a gridlocked area anymore.  Traffic congestion does no good for the economy and the economy needs every help it can get now.

Today I spent 40 minutes in a stationary traffic queue between Kings Cross and Gower Street due to the new cycle lane.  I was going to a Covid test and I nearly missed my appointment, had I done so I would not have been able to have an urgent medical procedure on Friday.  I had no choice but to take the car on this occasion because I'm at risk and can't use public transport or walk from my home in Islington. I cannot cycle.

The pollution was really dreadful.  I saw only 5 cyclists in the new lane.  Whoever planned this needs their heads examined and it's a sure way to lose the Mayoral election.  a) It causes huge traffic jams which results in very heavy pollution on an already polluted area. b) What cyclist would want to cycle in this pollution?  Instead, there is a lovely route bypassing Euston Road by turning off to the South and going along quiet pleasant residential streets. c) Surely the point of the congestion charge was to keep traffic moving?  I'm afraid City Hall has shot itself in the foot and all the angry motorists will not be voting Labour which is incredible sad as Sadiq Khan has done some really good work.

- I fully support the goal to make all neighbourhood amities accessible/safe by walking, cycling and e-scooter. Separate neighbourhoods and work places should also be linked safely without dangerous junctions in between.

- More out door seating for eating lunch outside work/offices. Ideally sheltered benches too for rainy days.

- More places to lock bicycles and secure places for when at office.

More local shared workspaces, these would include office type spaces, but also workshops, studios, kitchens, etc. We are all enterprising, we just need tools and facilities. Such spaces could also become training hubs and would encourage us all to share skills and knowledge.

I share the thoughts of Szkender. If people are to use to use cars then maybe have a reduction in congestion charge fee for more elderly people (who don't drive  large cars and are more likely to have underlying health conditions and are now going to find going on public transport really quite difficult - especially whilst COVID is still at large) but who don't  fit into the (poorly assessed)  "disabled" bracket?

London had always been a conglomeration of 'villages', and I love my local area. I'd like to see it thrive, and also see London retain its status as a 'world' city with easy access to the West End and all parts of London. Efficient, comfortable, clean, green, and accessible transport is essential. Simply forcing cars off the road is not the whole answer, Real alternatives need to be in place. I would like to see universal provision of electric vehicles; cars, bikes, and scooters that can be rented on the street at reasonable rates. Some of the bus route changes have been truly counterproductive (I'm thinking particularly of the 23 that now runs to Hammersmith, instead of Aldwych - why?). Good transport benefits both businesses and individuals.

It is very sad to see such a churn of small, local businesses. People work so hard to realise their dream of opening a small shop or cafe, but the rent and rates just kill them. So many of our local shops and restaurants are standing empty. I would suggest local enterprise zones where local people (not chains) are supported to start small businesses. More use could also be made of those spaces for community events.

Community gardens are a great way to increase social cohesion and reduce crime. 

Cancel the Silvertown tunnel which is a serious threat to the health and environment in one of london's poorest areas and invest in clean neighbourhoods. We could do with more pedestrian and cycle crossings at that part of the river and more space for cycling (separate from cars) throughout all of London still. Be bold, Sadiq. Silvertown is an environmental tragedy on your watch.