| London living |
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Last year, three important road schemes were completed – Trafalgar Square, Shoreditch and Vauxhall Cross. While the schemes caused a considerable amount of disruption to road users, the work was crucial to the development of London as a world-class city and did much to redress 15 years of underinvestment. Since last December, we have had no major traffic problems at any of these main schemes. Shoreditch has now been fully completed, Trafalgar Square was officially opened at the end of May and Vauxhall Cross will open, along with the new bus interchange, in the summer. Traffic lights Most traffic signals in London are continually changing in order to react to shifting traffic demands. This is nothing new and has been the practice for years. Some signals have timings that stay the same for certain periods, such as during the morning and evening peaks, but may change at various times throughout the rest of the day and week. The majority of signals, however, change their timings from second to second in response to traffic detected on the approaches. Streetworks Research has shown that it is the privatised utility companies who are responsible for 95% of all streetworks carried out in the capital. In over 85% of these works, the authorities were only notified by the utilities firms within 24 hours of the start date. Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has repeatedly expressed concern about the level of disruption these utility works are causing and the fact that utility companies also define what is and is not an emergency or requires urgent attention. Utility works are classified into four categories all with differing periods of notice required: • In 8% of cases the authorities were only notified two hours after “emergency” works had already commenced • In the case of “urgent” works (53%), just two hours’ prior notice was given. • Given that over 61% of utility works were claimed to be either urgent or emergency, these works were therefore carried out with under two hours notice, leaving inadequate time for the police or relevant authority to provide sufficient traffic management. TfL is working with the government in looking at legislation to give it greater ability to crack down on rogue streetworks. It hopes to obtain primary legislation, as anything less than this will not provide the authority required to prevent disruptive works being carried out at inappropriate times. The Mayor has always been honest about his desire to give higher priority to vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians. We all have to realise that our roads cannot cope with the levels of demand we see today. People need to use alternative forms of transport, apart from their cars, if congestion is ever going to improve. TFl is committed to casualty reduction and to protecting London’s vulnerable road users. |
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