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news
Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson LBC debate YouTube stillJenny Jones discovers Boris Johnson and staff involved in cycle scheme planning despite them saying they're not
Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones has discovered that contrary to repeated statements by Mayor Boris Johnson that neither he nor his advisors get involved in details of individual cycling schemes, that isn’t in fact the case. In a blog piece published on road.cc today, she welcomes the involvement of Mr Johnson and his staff – but with the proviso that they take heed of expert advice and prioritise safety of vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians.
It’s been said that Boris “doesn’t do detail,” and he has categorically insisted in replies to questions put to him by Ms Jones that neither he nor his staff get involved in the minutiae of schemes.
However, a Freedom of Information request by Ms Jones has discovered that both Mr Johnson and his advisors have indeed attended meetings where specific details of cycling schemes are discussed. Some examples are given in her blog piece.
The Mayoral election campaign earlier this year saw a stormy exchange between Mr Johnson and Ken Livingstone in which the Labour candidate repeatedly pressed the mayor about whether or not his former transport adviser, Kulveer Ranger, had said that making sure the traffic kept moving freely at Bow Roundabout was the main priority there at the time the installation of a Cycle Superhighway was being planned.
In October last year, cyclist Brian Dorling was killed by a lorry at Bow Roundabout and a second cyclist, Svitlana Tereschenko, lost her life in a similar incident on another part of the junction shortly afterwards.
In her blog, Ms Jones wonders why the mayor has been so reticent about the involvement of his staff in such schemes, asking if it may be to avoid being associated with “second rate” junction design.
However, she reiterates that she is keen for the mayor and his staff to take a closer interest in the process, provided that the focus is on safety rather than on smoothing traffic flow.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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10 comments
CDM regulations mean that if you take design decisions you take on all the formal responsibilities as a designer with regard to the users safety, and can be held (personally) responsible for any design failings.
A politician choosing option A or option B from layouts presented to them isn't a designer, but a politician saying, "how about option A, but with that part half a meter narrower" is getting there....
Just a thought.
I'm not sure the involvement of Kulveer Ranger or anyone else made much difference.
TfL surface transport seem completely unable to design decent cycle infrastructure anyway. I do think they need some different management in that department, as currently they are still stuck in the 1960s and have been for many years.
Does anyone else get ABSOLUTELY F•••ING SICK of reading about London constantly?
Yes, we know it's the capital, GET OVER IT, there is life and indeed issues far beyong the M25 you know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No. It's of immense interest to me.
I imagine this website depends on advertising. No readers = no revenue. I think Road.cc is getting it right.
Oh, and stop shouting your Americanisms. I think if anyone needs to 'get over it' it's like, totally you, dude.
With about 1 in 6 residents of England living in the capital, I would suggest that a large portion of readers would be interested. Apart from that, developments there may well have a knock on effect in other parts of the country.
Andrew Mitchell has made the bicycle unfashionable for Tories. I doubt we'll see any member of that party on a bicycle for a few months, lest they be confused for a pleb-hating toff.
The irony is that I imagine several senior Tories, including the PM, Chancellor and Boris himself, probably secretly view Mitchell as a pleb because he went to Rugby, not Eton
The PM went to Eton, Boris went to Eton on a Scholarship, but the Chancellor went to St Pauls.
I think Rugby is posher than St Pauls, although I could be wrong (being a bog-standard comp boy).
Does the fact that they attended the meetings really mean they're 'INVOLVED'? Perhaps they were just interested in observing what was said.
I>3 Shimano:
From reading Jenny Jones's blog piece, Boris Johnson has evidently claimed in the past that he and his advisors do not attend these meetings, yet Jenny Jones has uncovered evidence to the contrary.
It is also clear that she has no problem with the fact that he attends these meetings - on the contrary, she thinks it's a good thing if he is paying close attention to issues concerning cyclists' safety.
However the key issue is whether the aim of his involvement (or that of his advisors) is to improve cyclists' safety, or to make sure cycle safety improvements only go ahead provided they don't reduce traffic flow, against his wish to "smooth the traffic".