Reducing emissions from transport

Cycling and walking infrastructure certainly needs better planning and maintenance in a similar way to the roads. For example, a lot of the existing cycling lanes end up with debris, glass pieces which don't get cleared out and that results in lesser people using it. Allowing cars to park on dotted cycling lanes doesn't help with the safety aspect either.

You do not need to be worrying about things like this when the world is over populated. If we are not prepared to face up to the big problem of over population, especially in London, then we shouldn’t be wasting our time on temporary measures.and we should stop using the environment as an excuse to raise taxes

The increase in congestion has been caused by increased allocation of road space to cycle lanes, cars prohibited from using bus lanes at all times, TFL's no right hand turns etc. elitist low traffic neighbourhood schemes etc. TFL's mismanagement of the road network and war on the motorist is costing the economy millions and worsening the air quality in poorer neighbourhoods i.e. LTN's pushing traffic out of wealthy areas onto main roads. Everytime politicians meddle they make things worse.

Please keep disabled people at the forefront of decisions, we don't have the options many other people have because of inaccessible public transport and an inability to cycle or walk. If you make it more difficult to drive, without making public transport fully accessible, you are confining disabled Londoners to their homes, making them more vulnerable and isolated than they already are.

Roads need to be opened. LTNs need to be stopped and the existing ones need to be scrapped. Open the roads and traffic will flow more freely thus reducing pollution. Stop licencing private hire cars. They are a huge cause of traffic jams. Too many private hire cars on the road.

Reducing most polluting cars is a good idea in my view. As for congestion, I feel that this is exacerbated by some of the measures that have been introduced. Less congestion equals less pollution. Speed bumps may be out dating and adding to pollution and nuisance to people cling by them. Speed limits have been reduced so are these still required? Get London moving with cleaner vehicles, less obstruction for traffic that there is, encourage cycling and more boat transport seems a good idea. But also the trains are so congested that this needs to be addressed. Living in Earlsfield, there is constant development of new flats etc but the trains have always been so full. Maybe have set times for deliveries by larger heavy vehicles or at least restrict them out of rush hour and school run times.
Look at traffic flows not just by ward or borough but overall so that local council’s don’t just push resident’s decongestion measures which may just worsen traffic on the whole. Instead of restricting general traffic, focus on that which causes greatest nuisance.

How can we do more to tackle transport emissions?

Consider prohibiting or severely restricting private car ownership for able-bodied individuals. There is very little reason private car ownership should be as widespread as it is in London, a major metropolis with excellent public transport links and several car sharing services.

Increasing funding for the rollout of LTNs in and around London would be a fantastic way to encourage the use of public transport and discourage the daily use of cars. In my street, air quality, congestion, idling vehicles and speeding are all huge problems. I worry enormously about the safety of my six year old child in his own street (which is a minor, residential road). We don’t own a car but don’t have a problem with people who do… We need to encourage people to use those cars less, and/or to invest in electric vehicles and increase electric car infrastructure. Walking, cycling, and scooting (all popular and clean ways for kids to get to school) should also be the norm, and everyone should feel safe to use these modes of travel. As it stands, it often doesn’t feel safe to cycle, and when traffic is very heavy, it sometimes doesn’t even feel safe to walk. Streets that prioritise pedestrians, cyclists and green space will, over time, achieve all the aims of reducing air pollution, combating climate change and making our streets better, more accessible and healthier places to live. This inevitable progress towards cleaner, greener living just needs to happen faster.

ULEZ is a tax on the poor as those with medium to high incomes, solid financial backgrounds and disposable cash can afford to purchase, lease or hire new vehicles. Large businesses can make changes to their fleets, however the little man is forced to drive an older ‘more polluting car’ as he cannot afford finance payments in the hundreds of pounds each month. Road fund license further punishes this man. The scrappage scheme almost seems like it was done in silence! If the ULEZ agenda to force people into cars that don’t pollute but are charged by fossil fuels and produce more CO2 emissions in manufacturing one than continuing to run an older diesel vehicle, they should offer 100% backed government loans to everyone to allow people to have the chance post covid where incomes have been hit to purchase a vehicle that doesn’t cost them a fortune to move around London.

The scrappage scheme sounds good. Additionally, I suggest there are enforceable fines for engine idling, which is a huge problem in our city. It’s proved very effective in New York.

There's a clear lack of investment in less polluting transport infrastructure in Lewisham (no cycle hire stations, not allowing escooters or dockless bikes), this is preventing me from adopting these transport modes.
I also feel like we are lacking a unified offer where we could for instance subscribe yearly to use both cycle hire and escooters schemes across London. At the moment we have to create accounts and buy subscriptions with each provider separately.

We have completely changed how we travel around London. During lockdown we learn to ride our bikes on the quiet safe streets and started cycling the kids to school and found it was easier and safer than driving. Then our car was stolen a year ago and we made a conscious decision to go car free and not pollute the atmosphere.

We need more safe and permanent cycle lanes. Traffic has to be reduced quickly and fast to protect our children whilst they are young.

Please encourage and enable LTNs across all Boroughs. Increase congestion charge again and extend operating hours. We now walk nearly everywhere or take public transport and our car is now barely used - we didnt need to change it for the ULEZ expansion. Discourage heavy vehicles in central London. Subsidise cargo bikes for businesses. Increase emissions charges and also make parking etc no different for EVs.

I personally have found that the introduction of larger/wider cycle paths and LTN's has contributed to more stationary the traffic on the roads and longer travel times for vehicles. The cycle paths introduced in the Greenwich/Charlton area are extremely under used.
LTN's seem to have forced the same number of vehicles to use less road which inevitably will cause more concentrated levels of pollution and longer traffic queues.

Removing polluting vehicles is the way forward, however, it seems the Government and Mayor's office grossly overestimate the amount of disposable income everyday Londoners seem to have so they can prepare for this. The scrappage schemes did help a proportion of society, however, there are a large number of people who didn't qualify for any help. Myself being one of those.

The fact that there is a charge to pay to drive in the ULEZ indicates the problem is not as severe as it genuinely is.
Someone who is wealthy can pay a daily charge and pollute freely. At the other extreme, someone struggling to make ends meet may be forced to pay the charge by credit card as this is more "affordable" than buying a new car.

If the problem is this serious more effort needs to be made to remove these cars from our roads. We should be looking at funding schemes that are more than £2,000 (this is far too low).
This could include buying cars back from residents in the ULEZ zones at market values + a percentage, interest free loans to buy lesser polluting vehicles, grants at a minimum of £5,000 per resident.

Public transport is OK at the moment but there could be more improvements made here too. Costs is also prohibitive for season tickets in to Zone 1.

The main consideration is that switching to electric cars will not solve the climate crisis. We need a fundamental transformation in not just public transport networks but in public sentiment, and a shift away from the mentality of using private transport first. Electric, accessible trains and buses, running regularly enough so that public transport becomes the immediate go-to. Londoners must be able to live and work in London without owning a private vehicle at all regardless of physical ability.

Encourage a cultural change by investing in a system that does not allow private transport to be easier than public transport.

1. Do much more to educate inexperienced cyclists about how to ride more effectively and confidently on road. A great many new riders are suffering because they don't know the simple techniques for managing the behaviour of drivers around them: they're being crowded on the road, having a miserable time when they don't need to.
2. Educate drivers about the relationship between speed and emissions, and techniques to help themselves manage speed.
3. Do more to promote a societal culture of bike ownership as well as use. Where are Londoners expected to store their bikes when they get home? How are they expected to get from home to the cycle infrastructure that's been built? Propose constructive alternatives to car use for disabled residents, or families with children.
4. Be honest about the interests of the consumer car market and how they relate to the interests of city. The interests of both buyers and sellers are best served by continued growth (or delayed decline) and externalising its costs. If you want car use and ownership to diminish faster, say so. If national government doesn't, draw attention to this. If you want out-of-Londoners to stop driving into the city, make constructive proposals.
5. Review the impact of new cycling infrastructure on driver behaviour. Are people driving more aggressively (and making more emissions) in the absence of cyclists? What is happening at the points where cyclists and motor traffic interact? Are people being put off cycling by this?
6. Rigorously segregate measures for consumer vehicles and measures for commercial vehicles so that the needs of the latter are not used as a rationale for subsidising the interests of the former.

Restrict couriers and HGV access—force them to work together to reduce vehicle movements. I’ve had deliveries arrive from two different couriers within minutes of each other. Add a charge for home delivery that isn’t applied if customer opts for delivery to a location like a Post Office or one of those locker systems. Reduce HGV deliveries during AM and PM heavy periods. Apply parking enforcement far more actively: lots of congestion is caused by morons ‘just nipping into the shop’ or ‘just stopping for a second to drop someone off’.

Continue to build out LTNs and segregated cycle infrastructure: I’m struck by the improvements in places that built this out during the pandemic… there are some routes I never thought would be enjoyable, but now I fly through and barely interact with cars. It even encourages me to ride on rainy days since I know I won’t have issues with speeding cars and poor brakes.

A proper car share scheme would be amazing: allow me to form a small group with, say, five other families sharing access to three cars and then easily book one of them via an app and manage insurance, repairs, etc as a group. We could take 50% of cars off road and have higher utilisation. Put in rain gardens/planters in each space freed up that way so we see real benefits to doing so.

Much as I will hate it, some kind of per-mile charge (based on emissions!) is necessary. If you want to drive your bloody Land Rover/Audi to the shops you can pay more for the privilege than the driver of a Ford Focus or a pure electric vehicle.