This morning's commute and other commuting stories

What is this urgent panic folks have these days just to move forwards whether by foot, bike or vehicle?

It's a surprisingly interesting question. My answer, which sounds very abstract when stated baldly without a proper lead-in is that injustice is increasing at an alarming pace. One concomitant of increasing injustice is an increasing unevenness of land values, meaning that economic opportunities become very concentrated in fewer areas--just look at the immense increase in value that nonsense like Crossrail (a measure first conceived during the heyday of Underground lines and acquiring political traction in the 1970s, when Central London badly needed an economic stimulus) is now putting on land in Central London. As London First put it in a recent report:

London has seen uneven development across the city: the challenges of inclusion are particularly concentrated in some parts of the city and economic growth has been notably slower in the outer London “doughnut” than in the central business district [...]

Page 42 here: http://londonfirst.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/London-First-Report_FINAL_e-version.pdf

UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE CITY

The challenge of inclusion is not uniform across London. There are pockets where the
challenges are more intense – particularly in areas with high concentrations of relatively
low-skilled workers and high levels of social housing. This reflects the fact that there is no
single story to describe London’s economic development; rather, London is a patchwork of
prosperous and deprived areas, sitting cheek-by-jowl, each with its own economic make up. There is enormous variation in economic performance between boroughs, but also at an even more granular level within individual boroughs. [...]

[...] on the one hand there are boroughs (typically in inner London and the M4 corridor, for example Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham) which have strong local job creation and correspondingly low unemployment rates: indeed they typically import workers from the rest of London. Equally successful are London’s core commuter areas (like Richmond and Bromley) – which have significantly lower jobs density but high employment rates because local people use strong transport links to commute to
other parts of the city for work

(I've cut some bits that refer to figures, go to page 47 to have a look at them if you're interested.)

I always wonder if the process of building public transport to subsidise Central London land values can go on forever, or if it might not at some point make CL more unattractive, e.g. TfL expect that with Crossrail opening, the footway space in Oxford Street will routinely be insufficient for the number of people walking there throughout the day. What effect will this have on people's perception of the area? I don't know.

For the time being, the pressure for more and more people to go to fewer locations in order to be economically prosperous is what leads to more conflict and adversity on commutes into Central London in particular, while other areas are more and more deserted during the daytime except for child carers with children. Central London has been re-energised for a long time since the population of London started to increase again, and it was already back to considerable vibrancy in the late 1990s, but now it's just overcrowded--not that it won't be possible to crowd it even more, which huge development volumes currently in the pipeline will ensure.

Also, uses become less mixed by the same process, which means that people have to travel further to buy more specialist goods--e.g., the number of food shops has increased in recent years in residential areas owing to population increases, but the variety of the offering has decreased. By contrast, in Central London there are now disproportionately more lunchtime sandwich/bad sushi/whatever junk food takes your fancy shops than before.

Joe and Josie Bloggs experience this partly as more competition for space in the process of even getting to where they have to earn their crust--on the Tube, feeling like tinned sardines would feel if they could still feel anything, or not being able to fall over when the bus lurches because many buses are stuffed to the gunwales, standing in non-moving crowds at train stations if there's any disruption, etc. Obviously, I'm over-dramatising for effect, but most corrective mechanisms, such as 'peak spreading' (people trying to avoid the crush by travelling earlier or later) are not an option for many people. I suspect cycling is still by far the best option in this respect, but may be getting closer to saturation point, too.

All of this is absurd in a city like London, which is now so dense that it should be easy to reduce people's need to travel by spreading things they need closer to where they live, as the local markets for these increasingly exist, and enabling people to only go into Central London when they really want to. However, it's only happening with a few kinds of shops, like food shops. As ever, London is still gloriously unplanned, which causes a huge cost to the public purse in providing mainly radial public transport (when what, if any kind of public transport is needed, are more orbital services).

Anyway, sorry for length. I can't seem to relax about these issues. :)

This morning - Middle of Richmond Park is closed and the end of putney bridge to the embankment was an absolute shit show. 2/10

Super busy from Putney onwards this AM. Thought I'd miss the pro-mmuters leaving early this morning but found myself amongst them.

Bit chilly too.

I think I saw a culling notice in the park recently, dunno if that has anything to do with it?

Great selection of "ELF" douchebags skipping all the lights from Camden to Regents St in their oh so serious race team kit.

Cocks.

No - it's the central road past Pen Ponds that is being mucked up to make it more 'cyclist friendly', by adding humps, rumble strips, and blue paint.
There are a couple of barriers in place currently, but most cyclists seem to be ignoring them, and just cycling round them - you can still get through without a problem.

TfL expect that with Crossrail opening, the footway space in Oxford Street will routinely be insufficient for the number of people walking there throughout the day.

It's bad enough as it stands, seems like they'll have to pedestrianize the entire thoroughfare in that case.

it should be easy to reduce people's need to travel by spreading
things they need closer to where they live

The thing is though it appears as if a lot of local (London) retail space is being re-developed into yet more...'luxury' apartments.

A case in point I was cycling down Camberwell road recently and noticed that the old Wickes builders yard on the corner of Wyndham road was being turned into yet more apartments. I was concerned by the actual density of this development.

Property development in London is of wild west proportions and the councils, government, mayor etc are all in deep with it.

My home town is now a polyglot shit-heap alas.

It is noticeable when cycling (I guess as you're paying much more attention to traffic) how much effort drivers will go to put themselves a car-length ahead. Cutting in and out of lanes, screeching off from the lights only to merge 50 yards later, getting het up at a cyclist in primary position or someone crossing the road.

Cyclists are the same, squeezing along the gutter or between a couple of trucks, hopping on and off the pavements, jumping lights (often only to sit in advance of the stop line where they can't see the lights change).

It all just seems so much hassle for such a small gain. I wouldn't say it's a London-centric, city-centric thing though. Driver behaviour appears to be like that everywhere.

To the lady who shouted 'Oh come on, you can squeeze through there!' while I waited for a bus to complete turning a corner with its left side close to the kerb: don't mansplain.

What is this urgent panic folks have these days just to move forwards whether by foot, bike or vehicle

It feels self-perpetuating. When you're surrounded by people darting about in a stressed panic I find it's hard to remain calm and relaxed. I suspect a lot of people would be calm if there weren't such a number of rushing morons.

I make a conscious effort to avoid busy roads even if it means adding on time/distance to my journey.

I think the insecurity of people's jobs and (un)affordability of rent in London exacerbate levels of stress related to whether you're going to get to your job on time.

Ladies first...

I think the insecurity of people's jobs and (un)affordability of rent in London exacerbate levels of stress related to whether you're going to get to your job on time.

Yep, thats probably it.

Although I do wonder why people exhibit the same behaviour whilst driving 4x4s out in deep Surrey while I'm trying to enjoy a Sunday ride.

To the lady who shouted 'Oh come on, you can squeeze through there!' while I waited for a bus to complete turning a corner with its left side close to the kerb: don't mansplain.

Ladies first...

No joke geezer.

There was a spate of ladies coming to grief from left turning HGVs a few years back including an ex-colleague of mine.

It did get me thinking how do women perceive traffic danger compared to us blokes.

I have a preoccupation with reducing journey time. It's irrational, however it is quite deep seated.

I walk as fast as i can without breaking into a run
I always walk up and down escalators
I try out different permutations for regular journeys to see which is quickest
Etc

I know it'll only make a few minutes difference to my arrival time, if that, but i find it really hard to get out of the mindset.

I don't know if this is the result of 20 years of commuting or what?

I am actively trying to go around trafficky roads.

And I am very slow. Recently built my commuter as a sit up and beg, headwinds quite noticeably harder to negotiate. And I am a fat smoker.

It did get me thinking how do women perceive traffic danger compared to us blokes.

:/

It did get me thinking how do women perceive traffic danger compared to us blokes.

I would now do some thinking on the topic of 'confirmation bias'.

Great selection of "ELF" douchebags skipping all the lights from Camden to Regents St in their oh so serious race team kit.

Cocks.

I'm back into RLJing. Traffic controls are advisory for bikes, in my eyes. Why the fuck shouldn't I cycle how I want to, where there's fuck all provision for cycles on most roads, no chance of serious fines/sentencing for driver carelessness, and a complete lack of giving a shit by enforcement of things like speed limits, phone handset use, close passing, threatening driving, assaults and harrassment and abuse of people using cycles?

None of those^ are because RLJ. They're really not.

Fuck it I'm in the wrong thread aren't I.

Mental health thread that way>>> etc

I would now do some thinking on the topic of 'confirmation bias'.

Here come the PC scolds.

My mind is quiet open on this subject and I sure as hell don't want anybody to get crushed to death by left turning lorries just to 'prove myself right'.

It is a question that has been asked many times now.

I'm currently in Vietnam where everyone ignores all the rules. Mopeds everywhere, in every direction, on every side of the road (and pavement).

I saw a working pedestrian crossing light for the first time last night. It went green. Nothing else changed - certainly nothing slowed down to allow people to cross.

Be careful of what you wish for.

Before we ask the question again, is there any data to back up that the question is there to be asked?
Are there casualty figures by gender published anywhere?

Could be perceived as mechanical doping.

Stupidly windy this morning. Caught out by a few side streets

It's bad enough as it stands, seems like they'll have to pedestrianize the entire thoroughfare in that case.

There are plans like that. They have consistently failed for many years, so it'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with now.

The thing is though it appears as if a lot of local (London) retail space is being re-developed into yet more...'luxury' apartments.

Ironically, in a place like Westminster that would actually not be a bad thing ... if they don't also build high-rises. They haven't really started in Westminster yet, but the Paddington tower is probably meant to be a foot in the door with that council, leading to more such buildings elsewhere in the CoW.

A case in point I was cycling down Camberwell road recently and noticed that the old Wickes builders yard on the corner of Wyndham road was being turned into yet more apartments. I was concerned by the actual density of this development.

Yes, that sounds like a typical case--residential is grossly overvalued, commercial ridiculously undervalued at the moment. Of course, this will change again at some point. I'm not so much concerned about density but about lack of mixed use. I haven't seen the development in question, but its only nod to mixed use may well be a food shop on the ground floor or something like that.

Property development in London is of wild west proportions and the councils, government, mayor etc are all in deep with it.

Yes, the situation's pretty dire. It has to be said that councils are very different, though. Also bear in mind that they actually have very little power, and are still being stripped of power, by means of funding withdrawal, all the time at the moment. The Mayor does have some planning powers but has the problem of the previous administration having been a complete waste of time in that respect.

My home town is now a polyglot shit-heap alas.

Nothing wrong with polyglottism, but certainly plenty wrong with overseas buy-to-let-it-sit-vacant 'investors' who want to go to London for two weeks' shopping every year.

Strong post, thanks.