London's recovery starts with you

Some of the changes being introduced to encourage cycling have been done with: very little local consultation; no explanations of which car routes are still permissible as some are blocked off; and no integration with local schemes made for other reasons.  The result in Balham, for example, has been heavy congestion on the main A24 even in the middle of the day in the middle of summer, which is causing a lot of unfavourable comment from residents for many miles around and polarising public opinion unnecessarily against the principles involved.  TFL need to co-ordinate much better with local schemes and consider how essential car and emergency journeys can still be made.

We urgently need a fossil-fuel-free London.

I have friends who recently discovered they could walk to work in 40 minutes. Imagine how many other people could do that, and would do that if the roads get quieter, given over to green pleasant walkways, segregated cycle lanes.

Electric vehicles - the experts at Kings' College etc - all say the same: even electric cars give off lots of toxic air when braking. They also require fossil fuels to make, mostly.

Time to get a car-free London, following the front-runners, Oslo, York - with a modest plan in the city centre. London has excellent public transport, and with some improvement to cycle lanes as is happening and could happen further still, we'd have only essential cars (those with disabilities, emergency vehicles).

Many delivers can happen by bike and should be incentivised to do so (for food/small items).

It's a win, win - helps us reduce the chance of irreversible climate change by showing a major capital city can live truly sustainably, with resilience, by walking, cycling and public transport.

Local parking is a requirement for quality of life in London - cars are required for modern life. I am a cyclist and think cycle ways are important to getting London greener.

We need to protect local parking - be more imaginitive rather than just suspending it to put in cycle lanes. Lets narrow streets - lets make more one-way streets - lets stop local trips by car being necessary. lets think big - use vacant lots for secure local parking - use herringbine parking - use rising bollard schemes to protect areas allowing parking for local permit holders but also excluding through traffic to allow cycle lanes.

I dont see these being considered very much - the technology is there to do them - maybe it needs Mayoral encouragement because its managed at borough level - i.e. no cuitywide vision

I support all of this.  However in order to achieve it the Mayor's office needs to crack on and override the noise from the very vocal obstructors ( car drivers, property developers etc) .

Developing safe, connected cycling and walking routes - In my area, our local councilors put it to the vote, and surprise surprise all the car owners were up in arms at having to lose parking spaces so they objected.  Result:  the only thing we're getting are a few pointless signs directing cyclists to quiet routes.  An this is hailed by the councilors as a great achievement !

I think what is needed is an aggressive policy to disincentivise private passenger vehicles and better organise delivery vehicles: more road and parking and emissions tax, road charging, discourage single passenger use through differentiated charging, road closures including segmenting the centre of town so that it cannot be crossed from east to west or north to south, exclusive bike/scooter routes, wider pavements, incentivise deliveries at specific off-peak times. Driving has to become a burden to be undertaken only when there are no viable or suitable alternatives.

This says nothing about not necessary "reconstruction" (Demolition + Construction) which is a big source of greenhouse gasses.
If we had kept Aylesbury Estate and refurbished it, we could have done this for the price of demolition, and when it comes back up it will be a rich man's world just like Canada Water Masterplan where all the services and facilities possible are piled on to the bad flats of the rich which don't have parking not even for electric or hydrogen fuel of the future unlike other flats down the road at Convoy Wharf which are much better than those of British Land for this reason alone. (this distribution is in itself against the London Plan)
In order to make these bad flats attractive they are destroying the best leisure centre of Southwark with the only deep water pool thoroughly run down by the Council and are going to put a "British Land" pool which can't hold a candle to the near 4 meter deep 33 meter pool at Seven Islands and we are going to generate loads of greenhouse gasses to move the Leisure Centre 50 meters and to put 25 meters or rubbish only 1.8 meters deep on top of a train line to make the rich flats look attractive!
What is more the poor have been quarantined as far away as possible avoiding with segregation the need for poor doors and too poor to play policies but achieving the same results!
We need to rethink the waste called for by Labour Authorities and not have to ask for more money from central funds to give it to developers for bad solutions like Aylesbury or Canada Water with the example of Seven Islands where we loose for ever certain sports like training divers, diving, scuba, synchronized swimming etc.!

Scaling up energy and adaptation programmes to retrofit buildings and accelerate community and renewable energy projects

- subsidised installation of solar panels on high buildings within London

- making sustainability improvements mandatory for organisations/companies

related to reuse: normalisation of rainwater collection and re-purpose rainwater (instead of drinking water). Make rainwater collection madatory for Green Spaces, new building projects (to flush toilets for example) and school buildings.

Developing safe, connected cycling and walking routes, and support a shift away from cars to public transport

Improving infrastructure, improve/change mindset of commuters and employers.

Support employers with provision of bicycle parking (and security), bicycle repairing facilities at work, consider financial incentive

Funding communities to increase green spaces and support low carbon and circular economy businesses

Use local initiatives, support schools, make involvement in Green Project mandatory for Primary and Secondary Schools. Try to get larger organisations and companies involved. The aim is not to make more money or evade tax in any way, but to improve the living conditions for us all.

Improve access to green spaces for all - all neigbourhoods / councils deserve easy access to Green Spaces. Some communities may need more active support than others. Actively and openly appreciate local (small and big) initiatives

Listen to the voices of children and young people.

I absolutely support the Green New Deal. However, not enough is being done at present to improve, maintain and support the fantastic existing and potential leisure walking network that London has. It's fine to encourage people to walk more when travelling for occupational reasons, such as work, school, shopping etc, but almost as many people want to walk just for health, exercise, interest, fresh air and socialising, especially in green spaces and beside water, and much more funding needs to be directed towards this. In his original manifesto, the Mayor pledged to  "open up more walking routes around London and work with local authorities and TfL to improve the London Loop and Capital Ring walks". Although a small amount of funding has been made available to boroughs for this, it's peanuts compared to that which has been provided for cycling improvements. London must do better!

Electric motorbikes current incentives

At the moment PIMG is a very good incentive for electric motorbikes and it allows to be competitive in prices with petrol motorbikes, but PIMG alone is not enough to incentivise companies switching.

Electric motorbikes also don’t pay road tax 

Electric motorbikes possible incentives ideas

As PIMG alone is not enough to incentivise Companies to switch from Petrol to an electric solution. There are few ideas that we would like to share with you in order to help zero emission electric motorbikes adoption in your Borough:

Allowing evening and night deliveries just with electric vehicles (In Kingston Upon Thames Borough one Domino’s franchisee is using our electric motorbikes for Night deliveries). For example from 9pm to 5am.

zero emission and  zero noise streets, allowing just electric vehicles

Allowing free parking only for electric motorbikes

Local Grant for zero emission motorbikes fleets for businesses

Percentage of motorbike fleets composed by electric motorbikes (example 10% before 2021 and 50% before 2024)

Allowing only electric motorbikes using bus lanes

Electric motorbikes fleet advantages for Local communities:

No air pollution

Electric motorbikes are the vehicle type with the least carbon emission during the vehicle’s lifecycle (Operation, direct and indirect, Maintenance & Disposal, roadway) when compared to electric cars and electric vans

https://travelandmobility.tech/infographics/carbon-emissions-by-transpo…

No noise pollution

Electric motorbikes avoid noise pollution.

Lower investment

Electric motorbikes are more efficient and cost effective. They are very light vehicles and they use less electricity compared to electric cars to move the same weight (passenger + goods)

Less road space occupied

Electric motorbikes occupy less space on the road, especially parking bays. This allows more space for pedestrians in accordance with the Government’s goals to increase walkability in urban areas. 

Consequently, I would very much appreciate your assistance in encouraging the Borough Council to take some extra action to incentivise the switch from petrol to electric motorbikes and contributing to reach the stated 2035 emission targets.

I would like to share you some thoughts about a spefici topic: electric motorbikes and how they could be considered by Local Authorities to improve air and noise pollution in city centres and residential areas. 

At the end of 2019 there were 1.2 million registered motorbikes in UK. They are a contributor to air and noise pollution in our country. The majority of petrol motorbikes in UK are used for B2B purpose e.g. food and last mile deliveries. A switch from a petrol motorbike fleet to an electric one is possible and it could be a quick transition, considering that they don’t require a charging infrastructure. This means easier adoption with no public or private investments. They use a normal three pin sockets and batteries are removable meaning users can charge off board.

Petrol motorbikes, used for food and last mile delivery, are affecting local communities causing air and noise pollution.

It is crucial that the amount of destructive building work in London is stopped.  The city at the moment is full of noisy, dirty building work, mostly for offices which are unlikely to be needed after Covid and blocks of "luxury flats" (such as is happening in Somers Town). As things look now, I suspect that there will be a crash in property values in London after Brexit and so ALL new office and flat developments, causing pollution and damage while they are built, and removing gardens and greenery long term, will soon need reconsidering. It is a hard problem because some powerful members of central government seem to have personal links with developers and the mantra is "build build build" . So the main issue might be how to oppose central government.

I support the idea of a Green New Deal for London. But I would want it to go further than what you suggest here - it is the single most important issue of our times. Can't we aim for a zero carbon London by 2025/2030. Also how can we encourage environmentally friendly organisations to locate in London and discourage those carbon intensive businesses from being here (e.g. Shell) - could we use business rates or another tax to do this?