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news
Susan Hall (X)Conservative London mayoral candidate claims "virtue signalling" cycle lanes are causing "gridlock" and "havoc", would review cycling infrastructure if elected to end "war on motorists"
The Conservative Party's London mayoral candidate Susan Hall has committed to reviewing cycling infrastructure if elected, and lashed out at cycle lanes that she claims are "virtue signalling" and cause "havoc" and gridlock for motorists.
It should be noted that such a review would require the unlikely event of Hall first overturning a 26-point deficit in the polls in just five weeks to become the English capital's next mayor. Having launched her campaign in a cafe in Uxbridge on Sunday, Hall has again set her stall out as the candidate to end the so-called "war on motorists".
Speaking to the Evening Standard, Hall said she is "pro any form of transport" but questioned why "damn ridiculous" cycle lanes had been built when "we must remember there's only two to three per cent of the population that are cyclists".
"We must look at some of these cycle lanes that have been put in," she said. "I'll give you the example of Park Lane. It's damn ridiculous, quite frankly. It was virtue signalling by this mayor [Sadiq Khan] because there's a cycle lane that goes through the park right next door. The traffic then gets gridlocked. Fumes all over the place.
[Park Lane segregated cycle lane — Transport for London]
"A successful city is a moving city. When you've put some of these cycle lanes in that cause nothing but havoc, when you put cycle lanes in because you're virtue signalling; that is unacceptable. The other thing that nobody seems to bring up, which is so important when we have gridlocked streets, is how do we expect our emergency services to get through?
"It is very important that ambulances, fire engines, police can get through the streets as quickly as possible, as well as the rest of us. So, I am pro cycling, but equally we must look at everybody else that uses the streets. And this war on the motorists must stop."
> 'The War on the Motorist' deconstructed — looking at the truth behind the myths
Hall's campaign is focused heavily on opposing the current mayor's Ulez scheme, something she claims she would scrap on her first day in office. The Conservative Party candidate, looking to become the first Tory figure to hold the role since Boris Johnson and in turn prevent Khan achieving a third term, has also previously been outspoken about her desire to remove "unnecessary 20mph zones" and reverse low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs).
Earlier this month, Hall claimed LTNs — the schemes that prevent drivers rat-running certain roads in residential areas, in a bid to encourage active travel and tackle air and noise pollution — were "blocking ambulances" and preventing emergency services accessing routes.
LTNs (low traffic neighbourhoods) are blocking ambulances from getting to where they need to be.
I am listening to Londoners and will do all I can to help councils remove unwanted LTNs. Tell me if there's an LTN you want removed 👇https://t.co/48gzfeSLwI pic.twitter.com/towbJZbGIH
— Susan Hall AM (@Councillorsuzie) March 5, 2024
This came despite the London Fire Brigade, in 2021, saying that LTNs had no impact on response times. Likewise, police in Tower Hamlets last year urged the council not to scrap a Liveable Streets scheme, saying that it has resulted in a reduction in anti-social behaviour-related crime. Police in Hackney too have previously released a video urging people "don't believe any scaremongering" and adding that it is "just completely false" to suggest they could not attend emergencies because of the low-traffic schemes.
> Pop-up bike lanes don't slow ambulances according to… the ambulance service
In 2021, Hall also made headlines when commenting on a viral video of a child narrowly avoiding being hit by an impatient driver who refused to stop as he cycled past with his father. Hall claimed the child "should not be on the public highway riding a bike".
Speaking at her campaign launch, Hall argued Londoners had been "ignored" for eight years under Khan. "If he wins a third term, that would be giving him permission to ignore us again," she said.
"Crime has spiralled out of control after he shut police stations and failed to recruit police, rents have spiked because he has not built the affordable family homes Londoners deserve, and he has imposed his unfair Ulez expansion tax, hitting the lowest earners the hardest.
"I am listening to Londoners. My priorities are Londoners' priorities and as mayor I will recruit more police, build more affordable homes and scrap the Ulez expansion on day one."
In response, current mayor Khan said the choice between the pair, which he called a "clear two-horse race", was also "quite clear".
"Me, who's been delivering a fairer, safer, greener, more affordable London, or the Tories who would cancel that," Khan suggested to the BBC. "There's a possibility of a Labour mayor and a Labour government working together, rather than rowing against the tide of a Tory government.
"We'd have the winds of a Labour government at our back, bringing about real transformation in London."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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61 comments
Cycle lanes in London are needed because motorists cause considerable delays to cyclists, also cycling to and from work or school improves mental health and physical fitness therefore saving the NHS a lot of money. We had huge traffic Jams in London a long time before bus/cycle lanes and LTNs, the traffic jams in past were mostly caused by the same sort of people as they are now - one person per car motorists, they are the people who cause the delays to the emergency services.
Motorists cause delays for everyone - each other as well as buses, emergency services, cyclists and pedestrians but apparently that's generally seen as OK. As is the pollution and harm caused, the damage to the roads and infrastructure, the stress due to the traffic noise and so on and so on... And that's before we even begin to look at the hugely positive benefits that active travel provides for mental and physical health.
I have to stop behind cars in queues multiple times on every journey through Shrewsbury. It's a pain. While queue-jumping on the bike can be quite satisfying I would prefer it if the queue didn't exist in the first place or if I had dedicated cycle infrastructure that I and others could use instead of the short sections of poor quality shared pavement as an alternative to mixing with cars, vans and buses.
Susan Hall is just shit-talking about cycling and LTNs because they're seen as an easy target / scapegoat for people's frustrations. But she has NOTHING to offer the people of London if she is elected as mayor.
Tory mayor candidate - "we must remember there's only two to three per cent of the population that are cyclists"
TfL report 2023 - "In the financial year 2022/23, 24 per cent of Londoners reported having cycled in the past year, up from 21 per cent in 2019/20
Also, TfL report 2020 - "Car driver (journey) stages in 2019 were 14.7 per cent below the 2000 level. Growth has been highest in cycle journey stages, which have grown by 152 per cent since 2000, albeit starting from a relatively small base."
Build it and they will come.
Yup. Not sufficient*, but apparently necessary.
That's not great news as it means building more stuff / paying more money. On the other hand it gives a far better return on investment than e.g. more roads and filling potholes [1] [2] [3].
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2024/02/07/the-seville-cycling-revolu...
* Needs motor traffic volume reduction and at least initially measures to improve awareness / compliance of motorists - as I'm not aware of anywhere with complete or even majority separation of cycling from cars when there is mass motoring. Also places to store and park your bike and the market might need prodding in the direction of suitable bikes.
Don't let facts get in the way of a populist vote strategy
She thinks Crawley is in London
She also thinks Croydon doesn't have pollution problems, apparently; on the rare occasions I have to go there I'm always struck by the fact that the air is tangibly more polluted than it is in my own inner-city neighbourhood, it literally made the eyes sting and the throat sore (I haven't visited since the ULEZ expansion, hopefully it's improved as nearby areas, e.g. Crystal Palace, noticeably have).
Depends on which bit of Croydon you are looking at, I expect. The centre, West and North are like you describe; but the east and south are very different. Not that I'm defending her, of course.
Of course, there are the nice agricultural parts around the borders – I cycle in them regularly – but I would imagine introducing separate exclusion zones for such areas would be a logistical and administrative nightmare. I wouldn't dream of accusing you of defending her, that would be a terrible insult!
I was defending Croydon, really - and especially its dull suburban areas (think Terry and June!) - as it's where I grew up.
Fair enough, I grew up in a dull south London suburb too! Mind you, my wife grew up in Croydon and pretty much refuses to set foot in the place...
Yeah, I don't actually go there now (except for football) since my parents moved to Beckenham!
Life must be horrible being a right whinger, waking up every day wondering who (and how) they're going to spread their hate. Imagine being that insecure.
I'm having a bit of difficulty believing that in an emergency an ambulance wouldn't be allowed in a low-traffic neighbourhood. What happens if the person it's going to pick up lives in one?
Just repeat the mantra: "cycle lanes .. cause nothing but havoc ... virtue signalling ... gridlocked streets ... war on the motorists must stop ... squads of Ulez-enforcers dressed in black, faces covered with masks, terrorising communities"
And something about hardworking families.
Why not look up all the stories about people dying because the emergency services couldn't get to them because of an LTN?
Yeah there's hundreds of them.....
It has the smell of some of the taller stories the brexiters were telling in their heyday. And "just get rid of them" is reminiscent of "just leave". Happy times.
Susan Hall is a fool and a liar.
Fortunately all she's doing is burying the Conservative Party in its political grave.
And, based on her statements, a complete fruitcake. The real worry is not that people like her seek public office, it is that there are plenty of people out there who will actually vote for her.
I think, as is mentioned below, it's all about establishing her credentials as lurking down there in the Tory/ Mail depths- just like Braverman did. Let's just hope they never re-surface
What was that phrase recently heard? "Vice signalling"?
Trump-style political Punch and Judy.
True, framing your opponent as at best mistaken is one defining feature of politics. There does seem to be a recent (decade?) trend of noting that in fact many people aren't mathematicians or philosophers and aren't actually that fussed about truth per se. So why not ignore that and focus on selling the most salient stories, dropping those that don't take without care for consistency? Embrace conflict and make politics entertaining again!
Susan Hall should go back to New York if she hates London so much.
This should be good...
If Tories who want to run the capital think London is in New York, shouldn’t we be worried? | Marina Hyde https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/26/tories-london-new-...
Incredible. It's like they are deliberately trying to lose, unless they think that the electorate is really, really stupid, but the current polls suggest that they aren't.
I genuinely think that they are trying to lose, ever since Khan became mayor they have thrown everything they can think of at London, from slashing the police budget to refusing to allow him to control train fares (something they had promised would happen if their candidate had been elected) to forcing him to take unpopular measures as a condition of Covid bailouts. They know just what a bad place they have put the capital in and it's far easier to have a Labour mayor in place whom they can blame for everything rather than having to sort out the mess they have created. I mean, you only need to look at 60 seconds of any interview with Susan Hall to realise that she is both astonishingly stupid and deeply ignorant (doesn't know what a London bus fare costs, what a London bobby is paid or, hilariously, who actually owns Hammersmith Bridge), even amongst the ranks of the Conservatives there must have been hundreds of better candidates but none more likely to lose by a landslide.
Controversial attack ad on Sadiq Khan made solely by Tory HQ, source says
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/27/conservative-source-say...
Susan Hall is a person accustomed to dealing in half truths and blatant lies. That's why she went ahead with using a video clip for her campaign of panic following reports of a shooting incident on the NYC underground and pretended it was from London. Anyone who votes for her is accepting of the normalised lying of the Conservatives in the post truth world pushed ahead by Boris Johnson. Sadiq Khan may have his shortcomings but he's not an out and out liar and he does seem to actually care about active mobility and London as a whole rather than treating the Mayoral election process as an exercise in pandering to mistruths.
You could apply that statement to the entire Tory party.
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