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Car-free days coming to London?Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle (image via Prudential RideLondon website)

Car-free days coming to London?

Mayor looking into traffic-free days as well as pedestrianisation of Oxford Street
by Alex Bowden
Fri, Sep 23, 2016 10:43
11

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said he is “supportive” of the idea of car-free days in the capital. The news comes as Paris prepares to ban cars from 400 miles of streets on Sunday to mark World Car-Free Day.

World Car-Free Day takes place every year on or around September 22. Other cities taking part this year include Brussels, Bogotá, Jakarta and Copenhagen.

In the UK, Park Place in Cardiff was closed to traffic at 8pm on Wednesday, opening again at midnight on Thursday, while Lambeth will close Cornwall Road tomorrow (Saturday).

When Paris first had a car-free day last year, Airparif, which measures city pollution levels, said levels of nitrogen dioxide dropped by up to 40 per cent in parts of the city, while there was almost one-third less nitrogen dioxide pollution on the Champs Elyées compared to a similar Sunday.

On that occasion, traffic was banned from around a third of the city’s roads. This year it will be half.

The Guardian reports that a YouGov poll last year found that a majority of Londoners would support a similar car ban in central London. 63 per cent of those questioned supported a day where cars were banned from the central third of the city with 24 per cent opposed. Furthermore, when asked whether they would be in favour of making such an event a monthly occurrence, 58 per cent said they were.

In 2014, Boris Johnson said he was “blown away” by the popularity of Jakarta’s car-free Sunday and said he would look into it, but nothing transpired.

A spokesperson for Khan has said: “The mayor is looking into a range of dynamic proposals on improving public spaces, including traffic-free days and plans for the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street. He is overseeing hard-hitting new measures to tackle London’s polluted air, and is supportive of events like car-free days that both lower toxic car fumes and encourage pedestrians to get out and enjoy their streets more.”

London
world car-free day
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Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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11 comments

Avatar
jhsmith87 | 8 years ago
1 like

I have lived in Wolverhampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle-under-lyme & Cambridge. Cycling in Cambridge is by far the happiest/safest experience thus far. It certainly isn't because it has less cars but it has better infrastructure & more bikes around. I've still had a fair few near misses but generally cars are more aware/considerate. However the most enjoyable cycling experience within a city was in London on July 31st. Why? Because it was RideLondon. Cycling through the Capital on completely empty streets was one of the strangest & most surreal experiences in my 29 brief years on this Earth. But a good one nonetheless. I love cars. And I do love to drive, but I cannot stand being stuck in traffic. I look forward to a mostly electric, self driving future which reduces congestion, pollution, accidents & allows us all to live more harmoniously. That reality cannot come soon enough!

Avatar
ct | 8 years ago
0 likes

Cardiff had one this very week.

Although rather disappointingly it was a single road and was seen more as a test of pedestrianising it than anything else.

It was very succesful mind, plenty of interest and complimented some University things really well, this been Freshers...

Avatar
congokid | 8 years ago
2 likes

Much as I like the idea of car free days, which other cities do and have done for decades, this sounds more like a sop to the motor industry, big business and other vested interests.

This initiative - if it could even be called that at this stage - isn't going to make a serious dent in London's ongoing pollution crisis, which is the main problem, and while our motor-centric transport infrastructure remains unchanged, neither will it encourage people to think about using alternative modes of transport for everyday journeys during the rest of the week.

Mr Khan, you need to be thinking about effective long term measures that will make a real difference, not tinkering around the edges of a catastrophe which is claiming thousands of lives annually.

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oceandweller replied to congokid | 8 years ago
0 likes

congokid wrote:

Much as I like the idea of car free days, which other cities do and have done for decades, this sounds more like a sop to the motor industry, big business and other vested interests.

This initiative - if it could even be called that at this stage - isn't going to make a serious dent in London's ongoing pollution crisis, which is the main problem, and while our motor-centric transport infrastructure remains unchanged, neither will it encourage people to think about using alternative modes of transport for everyday journeys during the rest of the week.

Mr Khan, you need to be thinking about effective long term measures that will make a real difference, not tinkering around the edges of a catastrophe which is claiming thousands of lives annually.

While I agree absolutely with the sentiment, I'm not so sure about that "claiming thousands of lives annually". There aren't thousands of deaths from traffic collisions in the entire UK per year, let alone London (one of the safest major cities in the world, in all sorts of ways) so presumably you're including extra deaths resulting from  vehicle emissions? Is that across London, or the entire UK or what? Coz it sounds a bit high for London alone & it's not clear how much authority Sadiq Khan has to introduce car-free zones/days elsewhere.

Pedantic, I know, but humour me. Facts are important & if you ignore them you end up with Trump, or Putin's Russia - having lived in apartheid South Africa, I've seen what happens when people believe whatever makes them happy regardless of reality.

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congokid replied to oceandweller | 8 years ago
0 likes

oceandweller wrote:

presumably you're including extra deaths resulting from  vehicle emissions? Is that across London, or the entire UK or what?

A study commissioned by the Greater London Authority and published by King’s College London estimates 9,500 or so premature deaths in London annually due to air pollution.

Avatar
Eric D replied to oceandweller | 8 years ago
1 like

oceandweller wrote:

There aren't thousands of deaths from traffic collisions in the entire UK per year.

Down from 3,508 in 2003 to 1,713 in 2013.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/fil...

Avatar
ibike | 8 years ago
2 likes

“Looking into” car-free days...  Isn't that a bit last century?

Even if implemented it isn’t enough to reduce air pollution one drop. He needs to drastically re-allocate road space for cycling to encourage people out of their cars (every day of the year).

Avatar
tritecommentbot | 8 years ago
0 likes

He's not really looking at it at all. Paris said they're doing something a day ago, and Khan's office basically tried to put out a story to piggyback off it by saying it's possible it could happen in London.

 

There's no actual intent here. Khan's a spineless populist, his term will prove that.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/22/paris-ban-traffic-london-...

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Jackson replied to tritecommentbot | 8 years ago
0 likes
unconstituted wrote:

Paris keeps making moves on this which is class but does anyone really think Khan has the nads to pull this off properly?

No

Avatar
OldRidgeback replied to tritecommentbot | 5 years ago
2 likes

tritecommentbot wrote:

He's not really looking at it at all. Paris said they're doing something a day ago, and Khan's office basically tried to put out a story to piggyback off it by saying it's possible it could happen in London.

 

There's no actual intent here. Khan's a spineless populist, his term will prove that.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/22/paris-ban-traffic-london-...

Well he's taking a lot of flak for the ULEZ plans. I wouldn't call that spineless. I had a talk with a guy moaning about the ULEZ, and he stopped doing so when I pointed out how many people suffer asthma in London due to traffic pollution.

Khan also had the nads to cancel Boris Johnson's ridiculous (and expensive) Garden Bridge project.

I don't know if you've ever seen Khan's twitter feed, but he does take a lot of criticism, much of it extremely racist. From what I can tell, there's a nasty undercurrent of right wing Daily Mail poison being slung at Khan, which he takes on the chn.

Avatar
Legs_Eleven_Wor... replied to OldRidgeback | 5 years ago
1 like

OldRidgeback wrote:

tritecommentbot wrote:

He's not really looking at it at all. Paris said they're doing something a day ago, and Khan's office basically tried to put out a story to piggyback off it by saying it's possible it could happen in London.

 

There's no actual intent here. Khan's a spineless populist, his term will prove that.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/22/paris-ban-traffic-london-...

Well he's taking a lot of flak for the ULEZ plans. I wouldn't call that spineless. I had a talk with a guy moaning about the ULEZ, and he stopped doing so when I pointed out how many people suffer asthma in London due to traffic pollution.

Khan also had the nads to cancel Boris Johnson's ridiculous (and expensive) Garden Bridge project.

I don't know if you've ever seen Khan's twitter feed, but he does take a lot of criticism, much of it extremely racist. From what I can tell, there's a nasty undercurrent of right wing Daily Mail poison being slung at Khan, which he takes on the chn.

I like the guy.  I especially liked his response to a BBC journalist: 'home is south London, mate'. 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2017/dec/07/home-is-south-london-mate-sadiq-khan-asked-about-coming-home-to-pakistan-video

I cheered at my telly when I saw that. 

You're right in that a lot of the flak that comes his way has nothing to do with his policies, and a hell of a lot to do with the colour of his skin and/or the god he chooses to worship.   He gets shit for crime and for transport issues, when in fact his powers in both respects are limited (the Greater London Authority Act 1999 and the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 notwithstanding).   If Westminster cuts budgets, what's he supposed to do?  Hold a raffle at City Hall and put the proceeds towards hiring more coppers?

He's been utterly shit for cycling, but a lot of that is the fault of the aforementioned budget constraints, as well as the individual councils stopping the expansion of cycle lanes.  

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