Modern Vespa

A good idea that Boris is extending across London, to remove unncessary curbs, signs, traffic lights and other distractions so that traffic can flow freely. Apparently slows the traffic a little but the number of accidents falls and there are less jams overall.

It works - High Street Ken is almost bearable to navigate now after they took out a lot of the bollards and signs! Plan is to extend it from Mayfair, Fitzrovia, Regent's Street and Piccadilly. It should make the lives of those of us who scoot into central London a little easier.

they've been doing something similar in hackney for a while - they've removed miles of railings from the kerbs and surprisingly there hasn't been an increase in the number of people leaping out into traffic. there has been a dramatic drop in the number of cars running into the railings, however.

If there aren't any railings, wouldn't it be hard to hit them? Even for a Londoner

Al - ever the smartass

You may just have missed the irony there

cheers al. check out the daily donk - there you will find the reasons for my state of mental... um ... paralysis. unfortunately the irony wasn't intended this time dammit

i guess what i meant to say is that there were all kinds of cars smashing into these things prior to their removal. a certain kind of logic would argue that removing them would lead to cars mounting the pavement and mowing down loads of pedestrians, but this hasn't happened - confirming the hypothesis that removing rules, regulations, and restrictions often leads to safer driving habits.

Half of me is hugely in favour of this sort of thing. Even if it only turns out to be a failed experiment, I think it will give interesting data.

The other half of me thinks that, since it effectively depends on people putting aside the "me first" attitude which is so prevalent in city driving, it has no chance of success and will end up in a lot of accidents.

I've seen similar things working in Holland (and I know that Holland is one of the countries cited by those who support this type of scheme), but I think that:

(i) there are more people in Holland who do use or have used cycles and scooters as well as cars, so there's more understanding and acceptance of other modes of transport

(ii) there's more willingness to accept and obey the sort of rules that force you to modify your individual behaviour for the good of the community.

(iii) in the villages and cities where I've seen similar plans working in Holland, they have removed barriers but crucially they have put in markings to make things like cycle lanes fairly clear.

genie-

I kind of knew what you were saying, but just couldn't resit winding you up a bit.

I always wondered if the railings in London contributed to the problems more than reduced them. Definitely herded the masses into uncontrollable throngs at many crossings, and probably generates a false sense of turf for drivers.

Our former mayor had some traffic engineers speak here a couple of years ago on the whole business of roads, traffic & pedestrian controls, and the like. Was quite surprising to find out that many forms of traffic controls are their own worst enemy.

More than anything, the visual impact of all that crap erected in London to control peds and vehicles is just abhorrent. If nothing else, it will make the city look and feel better.

Al