Time is running out to have your say on City of London LIPS

Regular readers will remember my recent post on the City of London Local Implementation Plan - the plan and budget which will affect the street development and cycling programme in the City for the next 3 to 5 years.

The City has some catching up to do if it wishes to stay ahead! 
The LIP makes lots of very promising noises about cycling;

2.60 Provision [for cyclists] needs to be planned for now, or unacceptably poor conditions will result or intensify. Standards that were possibly acceptable when cycling was a minority activity, such as narrow cycle lanes, shallow or non-existent advanced stop lines and minimum levels of employee and visitor parking provision will not be adequate.

3.12 The City Corporation considers that there is the potential for 10% or more of journeys to and from the City to be made by bicycle.

3.1 Achieving this step-change increase in cycling will be essential if the transport objectives set out in Chapter 2 of this plan are to be met. No other mode of travel has the potential to have this degree of influence on the achievement of the City Corporation’s transport objectives...

...but fails to put its money where its mouth is and actually stump up any cash to go about achieving that aim of 10% mode share.  In fact, the City has allocated just 0.45% of the LIP budget to cycling, which will allow the City to implement a handful of two way streets for cycling at best.

The LIP is currently available for public consultation, but in order for it not to be waived through regardless they need to hear from many many people who think that the City should be a market leader and doing more to invest in a comprehensive cycling plan.

You can download my response, and are more than welcome to use elements of this in your own response, or, you can hop on over to the Cyclists in the City blog which has a template email you can use and the list of Councillors you should send your response to.

But hurry! Consultation ends on February 21st, so time is running out.



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5 comments:

Paul M said...

I like your submission, and I probably echoed a lot of your comments when I wrote mine.

The 20mph thing is quite complex. the City would likely dismiss a zone as too expensive - as defined, no part of a roadway can be more than a certain distance from a traffic-calming feature, 50m for through roads and 70-80 m (I think) for cul de sacs. That could be humps, but those are out of favour, or build-outs, or perhaps parking bays on alternating roadsides, but still quite a cost implication.

A 20 limit is much cheaper, as it doesn't require calming measures but does require more repeater signs, but a zone would be more effective. All the same, Portsmouth used limits at a cost of about £330 per street, and while speeds are still above 20mph they have fallen 2-3 mph on average, and apparently each 1mph represents a 6% reduction in collisions.

The City will still object though, because they think all those road signs are not very pretty. This is perhaps one for a borader based campaign eg with Living Streets, 20splenty etc?

ibikelondon said...

Hi Paul,

Let's just hope that all these submissions actually come to something. It certainly seems that there is a real pent up appetite for better cycle facilities in the City.

With regards to the 20MPH zone I agree that the best way to win this over would be via a broader group of people such as 20s plenty and Living Streets. I'm not convinced that a 20mph zone will be implemented on the back of the current LIPs, but I think it is worth sowing these ideas and how they fit in to the aims of the LIP in the minds of the planners and boards so that they start to come round to the best way of thinking.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on this and seeing how developments go.

Tomas B said...

Sent mine off today, would have loved to go as in-depth as your submission as it was really good.

Alas time is short, i managed to add slight additions to the cyclists in the city blog.

The 20mph limit would be a great achievement, and as i said in my email, it wouldn't greatly increase motorists travel times - the hard part is convincing them of that.

Anyway, to the future we shall look and hope they consider and implement you suggestions!

Tom

ibikelondon said...

Well done Tomas for doing your bit!

I agree the 20mph thing could be a big win. Not the be all and end all, of course, but a big win all the same.

Will keep you posted just as soon as I hear of any developments.

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