The Mayor of London was very careful at today’s City Hall Question Time to stick to his brief. He said that the rate of cyclists killed and seriously injured on Transport for London roads has gone down since he was elected. Those roads are 5% of the road network; that means the Mayor is ignoring […]
Ken, Boris and their Freedom Pass policies
I couldn’t make it along to yesterday’s Age UK Mayoral hustings so like most of London I had to make do with the Guardian’s excellent live blog of the event. Andrew Gilligan has also published his take on the day. From reports and mailings it seems our old friend the Freedom Pass has re-entered the […]
Will the London 2012 Games be the greenest ever?
I get asked this several times a week, and there isn’t an easy answer. Colleagues on London Assembly committees and the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 have both spent years scrutinising the organisers’ delivery on the green promises. Can the world’s biggest sporting jamboree really go green in a city like London? It all […]
Beneath the headlines, who really funds London’s Cycle Hire scheme?
Boris Bikes, Barclays Bikes and, perhaps pejoratively, Banker Bikes. London’s cycle hire scheme has a variety of names based on the perception of where the funding comes from and who most benefits from the bikes. The Mayor hugs the scheme tight, squeezing every last drop of personal credit he can from it while Transport for […]
TfL’s phoney “war” on fare dodgers
As I reported last month, penalty fares are going up this weekend. Expect a flurry of reports repeating Transport for London’s rhetoric of a “war” on fare dodgers who now face penalties of £80 for cheating the system. But this is the phoniest of wars which seems to tie-in with the Mayor and TfL’s desire […]