The ban is right. I question where else repeated offending attracts mitigation like this. “Exceptional hardship” is lived daily by crash victims and bereaved families. My sympathy will always be with them—not the habitual road offender. Should we remove this provision?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Floating bus stop, Seville
Cycle track protected by temporary barriers, Seville
Studs used to mark space for cycling through high quality public realm.
Marked cycle route along a pedestrianised street
So Seville had some good infra, but as @johnstreetdales.bsky.social commented, it looked like it hadn’t moved on much for a while. But the contrast with Malaga was striking - much better provision, many more people on cycles…and scooters.
Figure 11: Real terms percentage change in the cost of transport since 2006
DfT traffic projections suggest that drivers will face increasing congestion in the coming years. The Department forecasts a 10% rise in traffic, resulting in an average 10 minute delay per month for drivers (17 minutes in urban areas), between now and 2035. The three main drivers of this forecasted increase in traffic are increases in GDP, population growth and decreases in the real terms cost of driving. Together, these factors accounted for around 90% of the traffic growth in the National Road Traffic Projections, 2022.
Deep in the Government’s new integrated transport strategy is a truth at odds with the rhetoric you hear in the media: driving a car has gotten cheaper in real terms, while public transport has gotten more expensive.
The Government is also clear that this will mean more traffic and more congestion.
Similar story around oil. capacity’s diminished but main solution suggested so far is to make price cheaper than market levels which will simply increase demand and make oil more scarce and reduce availability.
We do what we want to do rather than what we should do.
Stena have one of these in service. Reports I’ve seen are mixed on its utility vs giving an air of doing something good for the environment. Will be interesting to see if they catch on and are useful
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Can say the British Museum really charge foreign people for access to artefacts it looted from their country? Will it not just over time make other countries do the same and then you might get more of “we want our stuff back you took from us”
Yeah that seems like they’re trying to going maintenance with zebra budget. All those extras are needed regardless if a zebra is going in so really their cost even if zebra is being built should be separated out. No doubt in reality no council wants to show how far they are behind on maintenance
In Ireland this can summed up in one term -
It’s grand.
The irony is that there’s probably empty shops in these areas that could be converted to local hubs rather than adding more clutter and obstacles to the street and kerbside access
So all in all it’s probably a mix of costs > revenue but also as you mention buildings needing more maintenance and costs from energy to upkeep so landlords eye a sale (though how buoyant is resi market for new build at moment?).
In the Guardian article it says “leaving it unable to pay its landlords and creditors, with significant rent payments due at the end of March.” This suggests to me NCP don’t actually own many of their car parks which suggests to me why they can’t just sell off to balance books.
The problem often is bus gates are not 24 hours so people are encouraged to always “chance it” in case it’s out of hours when we need the infrastructure to be more binary.
I guess also for pedestrian streets we invest to show it’s a people only street but we don’t do same for bus gates
Just noticed the TfL report starts to refer to than as “oversized vehicles”
Indeed at its most basic form, why do we allow manufacturers to sell vehicles that can go above the speed limit? Why is it we have the ability now to limit vehicles to local speed limits but we choose not to?
IMO it’s better to club development money together for a superior hub where people may need to walk to more but has the funding to build to high standard than expect each individual home, work, leisure space to provide exclusive bespoke dispersed facilities where space limited and heavily fought.
I think a mistake we make is we’ve focused too much on thinking door to door for cycling to the detriment of larger dedicated cycling facilities that can act as community assets. A key example of this is both the success of dockless bike hub model but also the failure to find space to manage it.
Is LCDS not now defunct?
I don't care what you call it, but the UK really needs to embrace the safe systems approach to road design and street management if we are to stop death and injury on our streets, tackle health issues from inactivity and indeed, productiveuty,
We could have nice places too.
Camden Town Beer Hall
Out in Camden Beer Hall, then Roundhouse later. Like I’ve taken a Time Machine for the evening
With flow is pretty much useless. Contra flow would have been significant value. Probably the developer there is just repainting what was there originally but really they should have kept their hand in their pocket for this one. Pretty much useless
Agree! I think the only extra thing I’d have added to the discussion is the link many feel between car ownership and aspiration and there’s a belief limiting people are trying to suppress social mobility through traffic management measures to keep people down by “locking” them in their areas.
So I started looking into this to outline the conspiracy theory. But what I found was a genuinely beautiful piece of practical idealism. A small, attainable progressive change that would hugely improve people's lives. I was inspired by it.
Google has started doing that weird dotted line for rail trips too when you put in a generic place name rather than a specific address.
Apps have consistently been underestimating car journey times as they ignore picking up and dropping off cars. Even if there’s parking, no guarantee it’s available
18-34 Londoners say they want to live where there's dockless hire, say cycling schemes & transport policy is important according to new Lime & SpareRoom surveys. 67% say cycling makes London more "liveable" & nearly 1/2 see cycling as a "green flag" for dating.
airqualitynews.com/cars-freight...
A schematic map titled “Mullingar TFI Bus Services” showing two bus routes, MU1 in green and MU2 in blue, with stops and key locations. Both routes start at the town centre near Mullingar Station (marked with a train icon) and run through different parts of the town. MU1 heads southeast to Ballinderry Road, passing stops including Clonmore Road, Greyhound Stadium, Hillside Drive, Millmount, and Ballinderry Road terminus. MU2 travels west and north in a loop, reaching Mullingar Business Park, Ardleaun Heights, Rathgowan Park, Farranshock Park, Ashefield, and Lough Sheever Corporate Park. Hospitals (Regional Hospital and Saint Mary’s Hospital) and a cathedral are marked with icons. An orange dashed line indicates the railway running north-south through Mullingar, connecting to Sligo and Dublin. A legend in the bottom right explains symbols for bus routes, railway, terminus points, business parks, churches, hospitals, and the rail station. The map notes that service to Presentation Convent stop will start later. The map is dated January 2026 and is not to scale.
Mullingar’s new MU1 and MU2 town buses start 22 Feb, linking key destinations every 30 mins via the #Transport for #Ireland network. Extended hours, Leap Card and Free Travel Passes support commuting, healthcare, social trips and sustainable travel.
www.nationaltransport.ie/news/youre-s...
Which does make you wonder why can’t we make push for more universal use of public transport, walking and cycling at the expense of private car. It’s the exact same reasoning
Capital > Maintenance in eyes of people who hold purse strings
I'm always amazed at the economic vitality of Utrecht: Businesses are thriving, cafes are full, streets are clean, buses run on time.
The main street through town holds buses, service vehicles, and people -- walking, on bike & cargo bikes.
Want a city that works? Invest in people, not their cars.
Does anybody know how to get a greenway added to Google Maps? For the Ballina end of the Ballina to Killala Greenway (a work in progress), they don't seem to want to accept my route.
It's important because Google Maps is directing people, such as touring cyclists, onto the 80km/h Killala Road.
The only thing it highlights we can be doing more of to me is appraising bike hire design, especially e-bikes, with a view to accreditation for safe design. The wider issue is same as ever. Need more safe infrastructure for cycling.
