Green Party Manifesto released

After publishing my post about Caroline and Sian yesterday, we now have the Green Party manifesto - so here's an update on Sian Berry's policies:

Sian Berry

Sian Berry is a Green Party Councillor in Camden, previously worked as a roads and sustainable transport campaigner at the charity Campaign for Better Transport and cycles to work.

She has previously signed up to the LCC's 'Sign for Cycling' vision (currently the only other candidate backing this ambitious challenge is Caroline Pidgeon). Sign for Cycling is a commitment to:

• Triple the number of miles of protected cycle lanes on London’s roads, 
• Introduce a ‘Mini-Holland’ for every London borough and 
• Action to end lorry danger. 

The Green Party transport manifesto begins:

"Greens will prioritise investment in walking, cycling and public transport to help people out of car dependency. Our policies won’t create new traffic or make air pollution and congestion worse."

The Green Party manifesto is a detailed document with many proposals to improve cycling and reduce car use. Of particular interest to this campaign, they are proposing to:

• Increase funding for major cycling projects with a requirement for safe junctions and segregated space, so that Londoners of all ages can cycle safely. 
• Introduce a rush hour HGV ban.
• Bring in a city-wide road-charging system to extend the congestion charge and a 20mph default speed limit on all Transport for London roads.

There are also proposals about pedestrian/cycle bridges over the Thames in East London, car-free Sundays in the West End, expanding the Cycle Hire scheme and addressing the failure of the justice system to adequately prosecute driving offences which result in serious injury. 

The manifesto does not include a commitment to spend a certain percentage of Transport for London's budget on cycling, but she has previously discussed very significant increases in investment. 

Finally, the manifesto also highlights their commitment to working with campaigners to get the best for London:

http://saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.co.uk/

Caroline and Sian on bikes

In a follow up to my post about Zac and Sadiq, today I am writing about the mayoral candidates Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat) and Sian Berry (Green).

Both candidates have been vocal about their ambitions for cycling, have plendged serious investment and they are currently the only candidates to sign up to the LCC's Sign for Cycling vision.

Sign for Cycling includes three main pledges which align closely with the aims of this campaign:

• Triple the number of miles of protected cycle lanes on London’s roads, to help people of all ages and abilities access the road network by bike. We need high-quality, protected space on main roads and at junctions to avoid forcing cyclists to mix with heavy or fast moving motor traffic. 
• A ‘Mini-Holland’ for every London borough - ‘Mini-Holland’ schemes create cycle-friendly town-centres. They encourage people to make local journeys by bike or on foot, help regenerate communities, and bring more customers to local businesses. 
• London’s next Mayor must act to end lorry danger. This must include upgrading the Safer Lorry Scheme and using planning powers over major construction projects so that only the safest lorries, are allowed onto London’s streets.

This establishes both candidates as frontrunners in terms of cycling ambition and policy, here are some of the details of their proposals.

Caroline Pidgeon

Caroline Pidgeon is a long standing member of the London Assembly and advocate of cycling and road safety. She is keen to make the point that improving London for cycling improves the environment for everyone and her policies are for the benefit of all Londoners. Key policies:

• She is unashamedly pro cycling in her proposal for a central London lorry ban to reduce congestion and keep cyclists safe.
• Increase the congestion charge to reduce the number of motor vehicles in the central London zone.
• Nearly double spending on cycling to 3% of Transport for London’s budget by the end of her term in office to match the number of people cycling (and further increases if more people cycle).
• Face the tough political decisions "I want to carry on the cycle superhighways – even the controversial bits – but I also want to look at outer London, because I think that there’s a real opportunity there to get more people out of their cars and on to bikes for those shorter trips."

She has appeared in a video interview with Chris Boardman, which is worth a listen if you have three and a half spare minutes.

Sian Berry

Sian Berry is a Green Party Councillor in Camden, previously worked as a roads and sustainable transport campaigner at the charity Campaign for Better Transport and cycles to work. 

We don't yet have details of the official Green Party policies for the election (we will publish when we do). Previously she responded to Stop Killing Cyclist's 10 by 2020 campaign and detailed her ambition for cycling:

Making cycling an easier and safer way to travel would make our city better in so many ways: reducing traffic and congestion, cutting the pollution that causes nearly 10,000 early deaths every year, reducing noise, allowing more space to be given to pedestrians, play and life on the streets, and helping citizens stay fit and healthy too.

• Responding to a call for 10% of Transport for London's budget to be spent on cycling she said she would work towards this if elected, but recognised she would need to ensure bus and tube services didn’t suffer as a result. She suggested funds could be found by:
• Cancelling the planned new motorway bridges and tunnels in East London.
• Introducing a Workplace Parking Levy using existing powers, similar to her proposals in Camden. 
• An overhaul of the congestion charge (see below).
• She proposes replacing the Congestion Charge with a scheme covering all of London (not just the small central zone), with the funds raised used to provide sustainable transport options.
• On physically protected cycle lanes she says "For me it’s the number one measure that would get a wider range of people cycling, and get current cyclists using their bikes for more journeys... If New York can do it, we’re well overdue this kind of road space revolution in London!". We agree.
• She supported having two cyclists positions on the TfL board - one for inner and one for outer London - and reducing the number of business representatives.

Boris' Air Pollution Legacy

At the end of Boris' term, London is still experiencing high levels of illegal air pollution with health impacts for tens of thousands of Londoners. His response to this has been to propose a scheme he's called the 'Ultra Low Emission Zone' (ULEZ). This article looks in to the details of this, why it isn't going to give us clean air and what different mayoral candidates are proposing:

• The Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) and the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ) are referring to the same small area of central London. Essentially the ULEZ is an update on the CCZ with additional environmental considerations. 
• It means vehicles have to be at the latest EU standards (Euro 6 for diesels, Euro 4 for petrol), So this doesn't ban diesels.
• It begins in 2020.

Other measures to reduce air pollution:

Currently the mayor has just got buses to the Euro 4 standard at the end of 2015 (by retrofitting Euro 3). The mayor has pinned his hopes on Euro 6 and so many of the buses in service are two generations older and very significantly dirtier.

Impact

• 9'500 deaths in London each year: http://www.healthyair.org.uk/twice-as-many-deaths-caused-by-air-pollution-in-london/
• Cardiovascular diseases account for 80% of all premature deaths due to air pollution. That's around 20 Londoners a day are dying from Cardiovascular Diseases linked to air pollution, mostly heart attacks and strokes. 
• Royal College of Physicians latest report: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

It is obvious that the proposed ULEZ is coming in too late, lacks of decisive action and will fail to make any significant improvement apart from in a very limited area of central London.

Mayoral Candidates:

Zac (Conservative): Backing Boris' inadequate plans and promising more of the same.

Sadiq (Labour): Although showing a willingness to go further than Boris, his policies currently lack decisive action to deliver clean air for all Londoners. 

• Consult on bringing forward the Ultra-Low Emission Zone and expanding it along major arterial routes or a wider section of central London. Lack of details on what he would like to introduce.
• Call upon the Government to introduce a diesel vehicle scrappage scheme to support those who wish to change to a greener car. But not using his mayoral powers to ban these vehicles...
• Deliver the electric charging infrastructure, in partnership with the private sector, necessary for a major expansion in the use of electric vehicles.

Caroline (Lib Dems): Caroline Pidgeon's experience as an assembly member shows in her policies for clean air, which they say aren't just ambitious, but are deliverable in practice by a future mayor:

• Immediately add a £2:50 surcharge for diesels in the zone,
• Start the ULEZ in 2018 (2 years earlier)
• Ban diesel vehicles up to and including double-decker buses (not HGVS, presumably due to lack of alternatives) from the zone by 2024

Sian (Green Party): The Green Party are proposing a raft of policies to tighten up and improve the ULEZ in addition to making sure it is expanded to a wider area. This includes:

• Immediately introduce a higher congestion charge for all but the cleanest vehicles in central London, to create a Very Low Emission Zone. We will invite boroughs to opt in some or all of their area to expand this zone into illegally polluted parts of inner and outer London.
• Begin consultation immediately on a scheme to replace the ULEZ that will cover all of London and be effective in complying with the law. This could be combined with the new traffic demand management scheme we will develop to replace the Congestion Charge. 

Conclusions

While Sadiq is clearly leading Zac with his ambition for clean air, neither of the leading candidates are proposing decisive action on air pollution. In contrast, both the Liberal Democrats and the Greens are proposing immediate actions which would start giving us cleaner air from day one with plans to tighten the rules significantly over the next 5 years.

However in order to improve the health of the millions of Londoners living away from the centre, it's clear that clean air measures must be applied far beyond the limited zone currently proposed.

If you want to highlight the problem of air pollution, Stop Killing Cyclists are holding an Air Pollution Protest outside the Department for Transport on the 27th April - gathering from 5pm, main  action 6-6:30, join after work, details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1124784950872843/

London Assembly motion on HGVs and safety - Wednesday 4th November

The following motion for the next London Assembly meeting has been proposed by: Darren Johnson AM (Green Party) and seconded by: Andrew Boff AM (Conservative Party). Supportive comments have also been made by the Labour Group and Lib Dems. It is hoped that the London Assembly will reach a consensus on this crucial aspect of cycling and pedestrian safety:

This Assembly notes the tragic deaths of eight people cycling in London so far this year, seven of whom were killed in collisions with Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs).

Despite positive initiatives led by the Mayor, TfL and the MPS, this Assembly believes there are still too many dangerous HGVs on London’s roads.

We therefore call on the Mayor of London to work with the Government and commercial partners to implement the following policies:

• a rush-hour lorry ban, subject to the completion of a full impact assessment;
• the construction industry to adopt Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety (CLOCS) standards across the board, including direct vision lorry cabs;
• confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part;
• comprehensive enforcement so that rogue operators do not permit unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

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GLA motion on HGVs and Safety

London Mayor's response to Save Our Cyclists' demands

Cycle safety and HGVs

Question No: 2015/2647
Darren Johnson

While your recent announcement on cycle safety and HGVs contains some welcome measures there is a very strong feeling that you should do more. Many hundreds of Londoners have been in touch with me since your announcement in support of the following measures.

• A rush hour lorry ban.
• The construction industry to adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part.
• Stronger enforcement so that operators are not allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

Will you agree to implement these?

Written response from the Mayor 

I strongly support any measures to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. TfL is already delivering road safety improvements for all road users, including cyclists, but while there are no easy or quick fixes that can be applied, we believe we have a strong programme in place to make London’s roads safer for all road users.

I have asked TfL to examine the practicality and potential implications of restricting certain vehicles at certain times as part of its wider freight programme. A full assessment of the implications of any peak time restriction is needed to avoid unintended consequences, such as an increase in vans on the road or an increase in HGVs at other times of the day.

I fully support the adoption of the CLOCS Standard by the construction industry and will work with TfL to promote the aims of the CLOCS programme and to encourage construction organisations to commit to adopting the CLOCS Standard.

I support any measure that exposes bad practice and increases our understanding of how incidents occur and what needs to be done to prevent future collisions. CIRAS is a whistleblowing scheme widely used in other transport sectors to allow confidential reporting of bad practice by employees, but does not currently cover HGV operations and is not available to members of the public to raise concerns. I have asked TfL to investigate whether CIRAS would provide any additional benefit to the existing range of measures in place to report, investigate and manage bad practice.

TfL and its partners are committed to enforcing against unsafe operators in London, who are a danger to other road users and who damage the reputation of those operators who work within the law. We work with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), City of London Police and other agencies to target those operators we know to have a poor safety record. We have recently set up a Freight Compliance Unit (FCU), formed of officers and staff from TfL, the MPS and DVSA and the FCU shares information on operator compliance in order to ensure that enforcement is intelligence led and our efforts are coordinated.

I encourage Londoners to report any illegal activity or failure to comply with the law via the RoadSafe London website, which is run by the MPS.

Save Our Cyclist's concerns raised with Mayor

Darren Johnson was set to raise Save Our Cyclists concerns at the Mayor's Question Time today (see question below), however the session was disrupted by protesting cabbies.

Hopefully they were able to continue later and we will be back with more details once we have them:

Question Title: Cycle safety and HGVs
Member: Darren Johnson

While your recent announcement on cycle safety and HGVs contains some welcome measures there is a very strong feeling that you should do more. Many hundreds of Londoners have been in touch with me since your announcement in support of the following measures.

• A rush hour lorry ban. 
• The construction industry to adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part.
• Stronger enforcement so that operators are not allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

Will you agree to implement these?

Greens respond to call to end lorry danger

Darren Johnson, a green member of the London Assembly has responded to the call for action on HGVs. He and Jenny Jones AM are supporting our demands for a rush hour lorry ban, CLOCS safety standards, confidential reporting and stronger enforcement.

We welcome his announcement that he will be tabling formal questions to the mayor asking for these measures to be implemented. His message is as follows:

Many thanks for your message. I am responding on behalf of the Green Assembly Members, myself and Jenny Jones AM.

We completely share your concerns and support these safety demands to help eliminate deaths and injuries from HGVs on London’s roads and make cycling safer for everyone. While I welcome the Mayor’s recent announcement on left turns and mirrors, the Mayor and TfL need to do more and I will therefore be tabling a formal question to the Mayor asking him to implement these demands (a rush hour lorry ban, CLOCS safety standards, confidential reporting and stronger enforcement).

Promoting cycling and decreasing road danger have been consistent priorities for the Greens on the London Assembly. We will continue to urge the Mayor to urgently redesign the most dangerous junctions, impose a default London-wide 20mph speed limit, segregate cycle superhighways so that they meet ‘Go Dutch’ standards as well as crucial safety measures for HGVs. 

If you would like to be kept informed about our work on cycling then please email Rachel.Carlill@London.gov.uk and we will add you to our email circulation list (emails are approximately once a month). Please be assured of our continued commitment to making our streets safer and more attractive for cyclists through our work with cycling campaigners, through putting pressure on the Mayor and TfL and through our formal committee work here at City Hall.


Darren Johnson AM
Green Party Member
London Assembly
City Hall
Queens Walk
London SE1 2AA

Call on the Mayor and GLA to End Lorry Danger

Dear Friends,

7 out of the 8 cyclist fatalities this year have involved HGVs [1]. Much more could be done to protect cyclists and pedestrians from lorry danger:

• A rush hour lorry ban. When we asked earlier this year over half of our supporters wanted a lorry ban in the rush hour [2] when 40% of cycling fatalities involving lorries occur. 
• Construction industry HGVs have killed 5 cyclists this year already [3]. The construction industry must adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths. These standards should be made mandatory in every public section construction contract in London.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice needs to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part [3].
  
• Stronger enforcement. Operators must never be allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

These urgent measures are the starting point for a target of zero lorry deaths on our streets. Safe segregated routes will be key to eventually eliminating road danger but we must start with action to save lives in 2015 not 2025.

Please forward this message along with your own demand for action to:
mayor@london.gov.uk; jennette.arnold@london.gov.uk; caroline.pidgeon@london.gov.uk; darren.johnson@london.gov.uk; campaignsbyyou@38degrees.org.uk

This list includes all the parties represented in the GLA. We need to make sure HGV danger is firmly on the agenda as the parties look forward to the next mayoral election. We will be publishing their responses so please copy us in.

Kind regards,

Fred

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References:
[1] - www.london24.com/news/cycling/london_cycle_deaths_2015_1_3964719
[2] - When we asked earlier this year over half of our supporters wanted a ban in the rush hour: http://saveourcyclists.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/supporter-survey-2015-responses.html
[3] - http://saveourcyclists.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/higher-safety-standards-needed-for.html

Response from the Green London Assembly Members

Following our emails to members of the London Assembly expressing our concern about the lobbying from Canary Wharf, I received this email from the Darren Johnson AM (also responding on behalf of Jenny Jones AM):

Many thanks for your message. I am responding on behalf of the Green Assembly Members, myself and Jenny Jones AM.  

I share your concerns about the scale and ferocity of the lobbying from some sections of the business community against the plans for an East-West cycling superhighway. This is a long over-due addition to making cycling safer in London and has our support.  Whilst the Canary Wharf Group have every right to lobby against a particular transport project as part of the democratic process, it is nevertheless still very disappointing that they hold such outdated views and that they expending time and energy actively blocking key measures that will improve cyclists' safety in London. Thankfully, the public consultation has generated a strong reaction amongst those businesses which are keen to support the superhighway and I will be pressing the Mayor not to dilute the plans. 

I also share your concern at the apparent attempt by the Canary Wharf Group to keep the lobbying anonymous, especially when a leading member of the Transport for London Board has not declared his affiliation to the strong views of his employers. The Assembly's Transport Committee which I sit on was assured that legal advice was being sought on this, following complaints. Whatever the outcome of the legal advice on the position of Peter Anderson, it would be unimaginable that any member of the Board should not be asked to declare them.  As chair of TfL's Finance and Policy committee, Peter Anderson is clearly in a very influential position. The key issue for me is the issue pecuniary interest, with Mr Anderson being seen to advocate a position which he believes is in the commercial interests of his employers. Such a pecuniary interest would appear to make his position untenable in chairing or taking part in any discussion on this at the TfL board. I will be pursuing this matter formally with the Mayor. 

On the wider issue of the superhighways, it is clear from many of the Mayor's recent answers to my formal written questions that between three or four more highways will be built by May 2016, when Boris Johnson's term as Mayor comes to an end. He will have failed to deliver on the promise to build 12 superhighways which he made back in 2009. A promise he repeated, with the addition of the East-West superhighway, in his manifesto of 2012. My concern is that most of the current projects contained in the cycling vision, including the superhighways, will not be finished by 2016 and could be abandoned by an incoming Mayor.  

The plans for better junctions and the initial three mini-Holland schemes also need the support of everyone who believes that safer cycling is one of the key priorities for reducing traffic congestion and pollution in London. Whilst I can understand why defending the proposal for an East-West superhighway is particularly important, I am also keen not to lose sight of the bigger picture. 

Promoting cycling and decreasing road danger have been consistent priorities for the Greens on the London Assembly and will continue to remain so. If you would like to be kept informed about our work on cycling then please email Rachel.Carlill@London.gov.uk and we will add you to our email circulation list (emails are approximately once a month). Please be assured of our continued commitment to making our streets safer and more attractive for cyclists through our work with cycling campaigners, through putting pressure on the Mayor and TfL and through our formal committee work here at City Hall.

Darren Johnson AM
Green Party Member
London Assembly
City Hall
Queens Walk
London SE1 2AA
020 7983 4388
http://www.london.gov.uk/profile/darren-johnson