High Streets for All

Green walkways are a great idea, but they need to include safe crossing places. For example, a good route in the Mottingham/Eltham area is from King John’s Walk, via the Harmony Wood nature reserve and on to Mottingham Lane. The only problem is crossing the road, the very busy A20, at the Dutch house. A crossing is needed here.

The ideal example is the new New Malden - Raynes Park route where there are parallel walking and cycling paths.
A hedgerow feature would be good for biodiversity.

This is my favourite idea for London, and aslo the one that is really worth putting creative thinking and money behind it. The aim should be that London would emerge as one of the most innovative cities in Europe and a tourist magnet again, for partly different reasons. An infrastructure of our time. Like the tube network in old times. Walking and cycling could be combined with short communal transports - electrical of course - connecting small thriving parts of London as described in 10 min city and others.
Why not a contest for architects, transport experts and garden designers as well as security experts.

I think the pandemic has really highlighted how vital having green gardens and parks is to everyone's well being. Collect examples and improve people's favourite pathways used during lockdown. Create memorial gardens for those who have lost and continue to lose their lives from COVID.

Even just adding more trees, raised planters and more flora to our streets would be ideal.

There also needs to be an education campaign for cyclists to fit and use a bell when approaching pedestrians so as not to startle them.

Equally pedestrians need to use their eyes more to watch out for the rise in cyclists and especially e-bikes and e-scooters which travel very quickly. Often pedestrians inadvertently step out onto the road in front of a bike because they didn't "hear" anything coming. In this instance, it is not the cyclist's fault.

I think this suggestion is made by someone who has the luxury of living in a safe area. For others there is the comfort of using regular pavements on busy streets. So unless these quiet areas come with high profile and frequent policing it won’t work for many. I’m afraid there is also the problem of cyclists that exists now in that some do not respect the pedestrians space. Even with cycle lanes they chose to whizz through red lights regardless of the pedestrian who has just stepped into the road to cross it. I expect that without traffic lights and roads as some kind of structure the issue would multiply.

Such a great idea.

I think London as an urban forest does quite well for trees on streets. However I get annoyed when property developers want to cut down mature trees or property owners threaten to sue the council if they think a tree is too much in their face and the council cuts down the tree rather than contesting the claim. There is inequality in access to green spaces that should be addressed