Environment, transport and clean air

Please make clean air an urgent priority. No private person oor company has a right to ruin the health and shorten the lives of 9 million people. On top, it would reduce the carbon emissions if you effectively tackle this. Both are VERY important, especially to the young, who have not caused either of them but hve to suffer the consequences. Thank you!

The environment, air quality, housing, jobs, education, policing, health, social care, transport, are all factors in the daily lives on Londoners and those who come to the city for work and leisure.

London could be a welcoming, safe and happy place to work and live, however there is a lot to do if we want a city such as that.

I would like to see greater integration of transport services, including road/car use. As a Londoner I commute by rail and also have a car for domestic and commuting use. Please can we stop the vilification and punishment of car users? We not not bad people intent on polluting our city and destroying the planet.

A more progressive and forward thinking approach to car use would be to have greater integration of transport infrastructure, so that everyone has greater access to public transport.
 
 

Time based pollution reduction targets are not popularly available.  It would be good to see these and the progress we are making to achieve them.  More of a team effort approach that people can identify with and work towards would be welcome.

We now have taxis at the kerbside everywhere waiting for their next fare.  Also buses.  They tend to leave their engines running, particularly in the winter when the drivers wants to stay warm, adding to pollution levels.  Perhaps on the road to all electric transport manufacturers could be persuaded to install electric only heaters.

I think these are all great ideas but the timelines need to be more aggressive - 2050 is too far away given the current climate crisis. 

Also, I recently found out the biggest part of my own carbon footprint is actually my mortgage; because big banks have such an immense impact on the environment due to the thousands of staff travelling around, massive buildings they occupy etc. London is the financial services capital - I'd like to see more pressure on these big financial services companies to reduce their impact on the environment.

Cycling - promotion

I think London could learn much from other cities, such as cities in the Netherlands. It will require a lot of change, but I believe that if we provide people with safe cycle lanes without any major interruptions, people will engage with cycling.

Children need to be able to safely and healthily cycle to school. This means bike lanes should not be next to busy road, but ideally through parks and residential areas. School should be supported in creating more facilities for children to park their bikes and areas around the school should have limited traffic. New schools/child care facilities should not be built close to busy roads.

Decreasing idling

With regards to traffic and idling: I truly believe that the 'parking on both side if the street and having bidirectional traffic'-policy in many London neighborhoods leads to more dangerous situations and to more idling. It believe this is a relatively 'easy fix' and again looking at cities like Amsterdam, this unidirectional traffic policy for residential streets seems to work well and keep traffic flowing.

Green walls

Following examples of other cities in the world, I think London should invest in increasing 'Green Buildings' and 'Green walls'. 'Green walls' along side busy streets could be a good interim solution. I think that if the council provides the basic framework, locals will step up and take ownership of maintaining the green walls. The initiative should come with instruction and local support of the Borough.

Funding walking improvements has a double benefit because all public transport journeys begin and end with a walking journey - improvements to walking infrastructure result in fewer private vehicle journeys.

Improve pedestrian journeys through the following interventions:

1. Encourage low traffic neighbourhood initiatives from boroughs by starting with an urgent and fast review of bus services in and around the proposed low traffic neighbourhood with a view to trialling more routes and increased frequencies both within and from/to nearby likely destinations.

2. Add pedestrian crossings on LTRN junctions with missing facilities on all or any arms.

3. Provide safe and convenient formal crossings at all bus stops.

4. Create a programme to urgently convert all obsolete Pelican crossings to current standards in London.

5. Activate "pre-timed max" at all crossing capable of supporting it.

6. Create a programme of review of all signalised crossings to ensure the time pedestrians wait to cross is kept to a minimum reflecting safety of, and fairness for, people walking when compared with other road users - based on number of users, comfort and safety.

7. Ensure the minimum time that is given to cross a signalised crossing is based on a maximum walking speed of 0.6 m/s

8. Trial the introduction of displays for pedestrians that indicate the number of seconds that they may expect to wait until it is safe to cross the road - this would reduce unnecessary anxiety, keep pedestrians away from the dangerous and polluted area around the kerb edge and significantly reduce early crossings.

9. People living on and walking along TLRN should be better protected from motor vehicles.  More frequent crossings, wider footways and evidence based greening of both the immediate roadside spaces but also any neighbouring land controlled by TfL.

10 Clear all footway clutter

Extending the ULEZ is an assault on low income households, who cannot afford to change their cars, that meet the standards set by the government, to comply with a standard set by city hall that ignore the needs of low income families and the elderly who rely heavily upon their cars

Cycling needs to be aggressively improved across London. It takes far too long for proposals to build cycling infrastructure to them actually being started on in terms of constructing them.  I read about Westminster council blocking the CS11 from Chalk Farm to the West End. I think the fact that each borough has the ability to veto something which is inhertly inter-borough causes massive friction to cycling infrastructure actually becoming a reality, given that it can be seen through their actions, that some boroughs are very pro-cycling, and others seem to be more anti-cycling.  I think until this underlying issue is resolved, making London a true city for cycling, will never become a reality.

I'm a regular cycler within London, and I have several friends who have said their biggest blocker to cycling in the city is because it's perceived as dangerous.  When I've managed to tempt them on to a bike to try it out, the general response is they feel safe on segregated lanes, but not so safe on roads shared with cars.  We really need more dedicated cycling infrastructure if we are to encourage more people to start cycling in instead of taking road motor transport.

I agree with another user's comments that we need to discourage motor vehicles from stopping in the cycle boxes at traffic lights, this is far too common a sight (particularly from mopeds), it is dangerous and defeats the point of having these safe cycle spaces.

I'd also like to see penalties for cyclists who go through red signals, again, this is all too common a sight.

Great work with ULEZ and local low emission zones (Hackney). Please continue and strengthen. Please can more cameras be installed on roads to clamp down on speeding and anti-social driving which can prevent more people cycling and also increasing pollution from exhausts and braking. Fines could pay for the installation and maintenance of the cameras and the bureaucracy involved. Safe roads might mean less need for relatively expensive cycle lanes and other structural changes.

The Regent's Canal suffers from bad smoke pollution and everyone who lives and visits the waterway needs protection by tightening the rules on diesel engines / generators and stove sources of pollution.

Traffic flow in central London is as bad as its ever been. Ban petrol/diesel cars completely for 2 of the 5 working days a week will force car drivers to at least try public transport. There doesn't seem to be any co-ordination with road works. I was recently riding my scooter around Mayfair and was sent on several diversions that took me on a crazy circuitous route. Reduce car street parking, especially on bus routes. I'm not sure why buses have to use Bruton Street W1, but it seems buses going in opposite directions can't pass each other, leading to constant traffic jams. Just remove car parking from one side of the street and the problem would be solved. Encourage lorry/van deliveries to be made only between the hours of 8pm-6am? Long-term, how about reintroducing trams. In all the cities I have been to with trams, there never seems to be car drivers blocking tramlines like they do with our buses. Licence e-scooters and allow them to use cycle lanes; on the spot fines (by traffic wardens?) for those who ride them on pavements. Review traffic movement and make amendments. For instance, why are there traffic lights half way across Putney Bridge - I just can't see what purpose they serve. And traffic on Harwood Road SW6 (where it meets Fulham Broadway) provokes a constant stream of car horns and road rage where 2 lanes can't squeeze past the traffic lights. Reduce it to one lane with a few traffic islands and the problem would be solved.

I would welcome more strategic vision, and activity, seeking to enable householders to power and heat their homes sustainably.

I am very excited about the expansion of ULEZ and just wish it was done this year, but one step at the time I guess.

I have the impression that companies that operate in Central London updated their vehicles to be ULEZ-compliant and are now using all their old, polluting vehicles around the rest of the city, making some areas way worse than they were before. For example, the roads around Finsbury Park station are absolutely horrible. You genuinely can't breathe properly while waiting for the bus. The expansion of ULEZ will drag these polluting vehicles further away from busy areas and, hopefully, by then most companies will invest in replacing them too.

Meanwhile, I'd suggest a plan to increase the number of trees on busy roads as they can be a quick and cheap solution. Green Lanes (Harringay) between Green Lanes Station and Wood Green, for example, is awful and could really do with some more trees to help the local community to breathe better. I believe it would also help to make the area look nicer, which is also a nice improvement for the local economy :)

We must reduce air pollution. The steps being taken to reduce vehicle pollution are not yet strong enough. Particularly with commercial traffic. More incentives, or penalties, financial or other, must be created to promote electric vehicle use. Both for delivery vehicles and private cars. I have no personal knowledge, but I suspect the helicopters flying regularly along the air corridor above the Thames are also very big creators of air pollution.

I would like to see massive actions to combat the massively increased pollution levels on the Greenwich North Greenwich effecting residents and school children due to Silver town tunnel and increased traffic.  

Please consider acting on SUVs. These may be great for the occupants but they are a hazard for everyone else from their emissions and the behaviour of many of the drivers who speed over sleeping policemen (that's about as far of road as most go) and ignore pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

In addition to above proposals, it's essential that the Mayor mandates the air toxicity is included in HIPP reports. When homebuyers buy their property, they should know how polluted their area is. This would kick-start action by local businesses and residents. It would also incentivise people to consider new ideas such as going car-free.

Research by scientists has shown how visual queues are vital to incentivising change: https://theconversation.com/how-behavioural-science-could-help-us-reach…?

Only by making air quality relatable and visual for each and every person can we affect change, and enable radical solutions like going car-free. Having said that, radical here means only 'common sense' and something which is seriously overdue...

Do more to encourage cycling - for both commuters and delivery drivers by:

-Clamping down on cars, vans and scooters using the cycling box at traffic lights. It is dangerous. It can also be turned into a revenue stream for local authorities

-Incentivising (or dis-incentivising) food delivery drivers from using scooters. They all still have learner badges on, are dangerous weaving in and out of traffic, and don't need to use scooters. There are plenty of cleaner options available

-Greater fines poor road use. This could be fining cyclists more for jumping lights, bigger fines for road rage (from both drivers and cyclists), or introducing new laws to ban cycling with headphones in and then fining for that too!

-Fix the potholes. They mean than cyclists use the middle of the road (to avoid crashing) - angering other road users as well as causing congestion. Maybe fund via the cycle box PCNs or cyclist fines?

-Work out what to do with electric ride on scooter - people using them look like idiots, but they are clean and a v. effective way of getting around, just maybe only in cycle lanes..

-Stop redistributing the TfL cycle hire bikes. Think about it - an empty van has to drive one way ready to fill the bikes which takes up the same road footprint as a bus - all it is doing is adding congestion

Enable parking wardens also to give out fines for engine idling.

Acquire the new buses which remove pollution from the air

A few positive points here - particularly the emphasis on cycling routes and pedestriate routers. Also, the ambition to become a waste-free city is excellent, but it needs to be moved forwards, to 2030 - not the very distant 2050.

The main point though is IT'S TIME FOR LONDON TO GO CAR-FREE. Even electric cars emit toxic particles from their tyres. And electric cars are worse for climate change (when you include their manufacture in the carbon footprint). Oslo did it. York will do it in 2023. Birmingham and Brighton are about to vote on it. Madrid has gone mostly car-free.

The only way to get clean are in London is by banning all non-essential cars by 2022.

Every other solution is going to reduce pollution, to some extent, but without removing toxic air altogether. I.e. less toxic air but toxic air nevertheless.

Let's be the first city in the UK - the leader, not the follower - to go car-free. Hence 2022. If York can do it, we can do it too (and first).

Enough damage already to people's lungs, brains, and every cell in our bodies.

IT'S TIME TO GO CAR-FREE.