£50,000 to ride a bike?

Submitted by jamiewallace on January 26, 2006 - 11:52.

Crazy thought.

There's a lot of talk about incentivising or rewarding people for leading more sustainable lives.  Instead of a rather unappealing nanny state in which we're penalised for 'not doing the right thing', how about patting us on the back when we do?

Here's the idea.

One day every month a random cyclist somewhere in the congestion charge zone would receive a very nice surprise.  Lorraine Kelly would pop up from behind a pillar box and swoop on an unsuspecting cyclist, camera crew in tow, brandishing a huge out-size charity check.  Yes, that cyclist will have just won £50,000!

Totally bonkers?  Let's work through it a little:

A ridiculous sum of money?  It is a lot, but over a year that would amount to £600,000.  In terms of TfL's budget, it's chicken feed.  Even in terms of cycling budgets it's not that huge.

Who would pay?  Perhaps you could get a sponsor for each month.  One month it could be Evans Cycles, the next Trek bikes.  TfL might sponsor another, and even someone like Pret a Manger or Innocent drinks could probably be persuaded. 

Would it work?  I don't know, but I think it might.  There is a whole cohort of potential cyclists out there who are just waiting for that trigger point which snaps them out of their longstanding state of inaction.  They want to start cycling, know they have friends very like them who cycle, but haven't quite motivated themselves to take the plunge.

A load of amateur cyclists would invade central London? This is a risk, and you'd need all sorts of supporting advice on safe cycling.  Perhaps on prize days Ken could also impose a 20mph speed limit?

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When Lives Collide

Submitted by jamiewallace on January 22, 2006 - 18:45.

This is the name of an extremely moving exhibition at the Oxo Gallery (until January 29).

It recounts the stories of those who have either lost friends and family to road 'accidents', or have been victims themselves.  Each story is accompanied by a large portrait photo.

It nearly left me in tears by throwing into sharp relief the misery that surrounds the daily carnage on our roads.  It says so much more than the bald statistics we've grown so used to, but I still think they're worth repeating here:

In London

• 300 lives lost every year
• 2 in 5 road deaths is a pedestrian
• 1 child killed every 2 weeks

In the UK

• On average, 10 people killed every day
• You have a 1 in 200 chance of dying in a road crash
• Pedestrians and cyclists account for 1 in 3 road deaths

In Europe

• 40,000 road deaths each year
• Road crashes are the leading cause of death and hospital admission for those under the age of 45

Across the world

• Over 1 million road deaths each year

RoadPeace (the source of these statistics) also estimate that a 20mph speed limit in residential areas would reduce child road deaths and serious injuries by 67%.

There is a campaign to introduce a 20mph speed limit in urban areas - why the the powers that be resist this is beyond me.  Allowing metal boxes to hurtle around at 30mph (and a lot of the time a lot faster as enforcement is so poor) just inches from pedestrians is lunacy.

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Euston please, and go easy on the ultrafine particles

Submitted by jamiewallace on January 15, 2006 - 18:24.

So that's official: jump in a cab and you're exposing yourself to high levels of pollution.

The BBC has reported that a team at Imperial College London have found that taxi travel results in more exposure to pollutants than travelling by car or bus, riding a bike, or walking.

Examine the figures a bit more closely, however, and you find out it's a little more complex than this.

On average, individuals were exposed to the following ultrafine particles counts per cubic centimetre:

Taxi - over 100,000
Bus - just under 100,000
Car - 40,000
Cycling - around 80,000
Walking - just under 50,000

So what do we make of this? You're twice as safe driving than biking? You're twice as safe walking than cabbing it? Come again?

There's a risk that these sorts of studies leave us even more confused than before. Not least when you consider that another Imperial study found that if you were walking along Marylebone Road you should walk on the inside (and not the edge) of the pavement to minimise exposure to PM10s, and that one side of the road was worse than the other, but when it came to carbon monoxide, it didn't really matter where you walked.

I hope that's clear.

Surely what we all crave at the end of the day is to be told that if we're going about our business by car, taxi, bike, bus, on foot or by bloody pogo stick, we're not being exposed to dangerous pollutants. read more | add new comment

Will Twigg twig?

Submitted by jamiewallace on January 11, 2006 - 12:56.

Knock me down with the proverbial.

In what I felt was a slight act of desperation I wrote to my MP at the weekend.  Couldn't she, as my elected representative, do something to help my cause?

Here's what I did:

I logged on to the www.writetothem.com website (well worth a quick shufti if you have a moment), bunged in my postcode, clicked on 'Kate Hoey', filled in the template, composed my letter and sent it off.  Couldn't be easier. Time of sending:  16:48 on Sunday, January 8.

And here's the really weird bit.  At 16:26 on Tuesday January 10 I get a response!  And no, not just a holding 'Kate Hoey has received your email and will respond to you within 4 weeks', but the following:

"I am writing from Kate Hoey's office regarding the web-based urban route planner you have set up at walkit.com

Kate is extremely encouraged by what she has seen on the site and has given her  full support in a letter sent to Mr Derek Twigg, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Transport who is responsible for Walking as transport."

Kate Hoey, who I've never been a great fan of, has rocketed up in my estimation. 

Perhaps I should have tried this approach sooner.  Last year I did go to an UnLtd-sponsored event at the House of Lords and got chatting to the husband of an MP.  When I suggested that I didn't really think it was my MP's job to help me launch my site he looked horrified.  He really gave me quite a hard time - "what do you think she's there for?" he said.  "Of course you should get in contact with her".

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You are Barking if you take the tube...

Submitted by jamiewallace on January 6, 2006 - 14:16.

OK, I’m on Platform 9 at Waterloo station, pretending to be one of the 80,000 commuters (God forbid) who descend on this corner of London every morning.  I’m also pretending that I’m an insurance broker (God forbid x 2) who works in the Gherkin and I’m going to compare walking there with going by public transport.

 

It’s 8.30 and it’s pandemonium.  I follow the stream of stressed City workers down into the bowels of the Underground system.  Not a smile to be seen.  We quickly come to a halt on a ramp down to the Waterloo and City line platform.  Sheer weight of numbers means that it’s physically impossible to get near the train, let alone on it.  The temperature begins to rise (blimey, what can this be like in mid summer?) as we shuffle along, everyone desperate to get on the next departure.

 

8.42 and I’m finally in a tube.  And it really feels like I’m in a tube.  I’ve squeezed myself on, and I’ll be squeezed out the other end.  And because it’s winter, everyone’s in their coats and scarves but, of course, when there are hundreds of you packed like kippers in a tin that’s rattling along at speed, the temperature soon rockets even further.  Everyone seems to be loathing the experience.

 

8.47.  Arrrgghh!  One of those maddening delays.  We just grind to a halt.  This must be the simplest tube line in London and they still can’t avoid stoppages…

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