Transport News July 2008
Bike fashion show award
An outdoor catwalk show that put the spotlight on cycle fashion has won a top award.
The Wheels & Heels event in Columbia Road was honoured at the London Smarter Travel Awards this month.
Organisers from the Council’s Streetscene team collected the Marketing and Travel Awareness Event of the Year gong at a dinner held by Transport for London (TfL) in Holborn.
The awards recognise outstanding sustainable travel work done by London’s local authorities, schools and businesses.
Wheels & Heels saw the flower market transformed into a catwalk for cycle style at London Fashion Week’s most unique event in February.
The show was a collaborative project between Hackney and Tower Hamlets councils and TfL. Its aim was to encourage more young women to take up cycling by demonstrating you can be safe and chic.
Cllr Alan Laing, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said:
“This award is a fantastic achievement. The event was a brilliant success. It really highlighted the Council’s efforts to promote cycling as a sustainable and healthy form of transport – well done to the team involved.”
Local designers were represented at the event, which attracted many residents, and received significant media coverage.
Low speed what doctor ordered
20 mph zones in residential areas have been applauded by the British Medical Association at its annual conference.
A leading public health expert speaking at the conference added that failure to introduce 20mph zones is effectively ‘killing our children’.
Dr Stephen Watkins said a child hit at 20mph faces a five per cent chance of dying, compared to 50 per cent at 30mph.
Hackney was recently praised for leading the way in making London’s streets safer.
The Council is the only London authority to have introduced 20 mile per hour zones over 55 per cent of its streets.
Hackney recently agreed to extend the scheme further, potentially across the whole borough.
Mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe, said: “Protecting the safety of children, pedestrians and cyclists is a top priority for the Council.”
Steps win prizes
The winners of Hackney’s Walk To Work challenge in April have been announced – with prizes going to the individual and team who clocked up the most steps.
Rafal Zapart, from the Council’s waste management team, walked a spectacular 665,960 steps and won a massage and two personal training sessions with Core Fitness.
Berger Primary School in Homerton scooped the team prize walking 7,429,776 steps to win a healthy lunch for the group. Individual runners up were Grainne from Berger Primary School, who marched 555,771 steps; Igor Kirovski from Burberry, who managed 474,281; and the Council’s Mary Anna Wright with 326,616.
Team runners up were Burberry with 2,587,106; the Council’s media team at 1,843,274; and its waste management team with 1,460,730.
Walk to Work was a capital wide competition that aimed to encourage people to leave their cars at home and put their feet first.
Road safety drama
Pupils from 10 Hackney schools learnt important road safety messages through song and dance when they saw a play performed by an innovative theatre group.
Hackney’s Road Safety Team organised a tour by the Tiny Giants Theatre Company of a production called Courtroom. The play is based around an imaginary trial following a serious road accident, with the school children acting as the jury.
The show reinforces work carried out by the Road Safety Team in the borough’s schools last year, which helped over 14,000 children learn about road safety issues such as how to stay safe as a pedestrian, and what passengers need to remember in the car.
The latest figures for last year show that the number of children killed or seriously injured on London’s roads has fallen to the lowest rate since records began.
In 2007, the total number of children killed or seriously injured fell by 16 per cent from 392 to 331.
Dalston diversion update
Major roadworks in Dalston to allow the extension of the East London line to Highbury and Islington will begin on 19 July for around 10 months.
Transport for London needs to replace a Victorian road bridge that runs above the new line, so will put traffic restrictions on Dalston Lane between the junctions of Queensbridge Road and Kingsland Road, which may lead to some delays.
Phase one of the restrictions will close the southern footpath and retain two-lane, two-way traffic with a northern footpath in place for pedestrians. This will last for around four months.
Phase two will start in mid-November. It will see traffic reduced to one-way eastbound with the northern footpath retained. Westbound traffic, including buses, will be diverted from Dalston Lane along Queensbridge Road, Richmond Road and Kingsland Road. This will last for two months.
Phase three will see two-way traffic restored with the southern footpath reinstated and the northern footpath closed. The work is scheduled for completion by the end of May 2009. The work will allow the East London line to connect with Highbury and Islington via Canonbury in 2011.
To help bus passengers safely cross Dalston Lane by using an existing pelican crossing, the bus stop near Beechwood Road will temporarily be moved east to near Laurel Street. It is expected to return to its current location next March.
Enter the zone
Lorry drivers with highly polluting diesel vehicles now have to pay up to £200 to enter London, as the second phase of a scheme to improve residents’ health begins.
The first phase of the Low Emission Zone for lorries over 12 tonnes began on 4 February.
The second phase came into force on 7 July, and affects all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. Those entering the Greater London Authority (GLA) area must comply with the Euro III standard on the amount of pollution they emit.
The zone operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year and covers all public roads inside the boundary, except the M25. The M1 south of London Gateway Services; the M4 east of Junction three; and the M4 spur to Heathrow are all included.
London has the worst air quality in the UK and among the worst in Europe, which worsens asthma and causes the premature deaths of an estimated 1,000 people each year in the capital.
Nick Fairholme, Head of the London Low Emission Zone at Transport for London, said: “A huge effort has been made to ensure that those affected by the zone are aware of the scheme and know what action they can take to comply.”
Huge fans for passengers
Fans on the Tube should help make passengers feel cooler this summer.
With plans for air conditioned trains on parts of the Tube network not due until 2010, other solutions are being sought to beat the heat in packed carrriages.
A scheme in which pumped-out water is used to cool platforms at Victoria Tube station is being repeated this summer, along with upgrade works on ventilation shafts for the Victoria line to double capacity.
The Tube network is the oldest in the world – and temperatures in the summer often exceed 30°C
London Underground’s Managing Director, Tim O’Toole, said: “The Underground’s Victorian heritage is both its charm and its burden.
“Today it carries over a billion passengers a year and, as passenger demand continues to grow, so does the need to increase capacity and upgrade the network.”
Major changes to bus routes
New bus routes 425 and 488 were introduced on 5 July. Route 425 runs between Clapton, Homerton Hospital, Well Street, Mile End and Stratford. Route 488 runs between Clapton, Homerton Hospital, Hackney Wick and Bromley-By-Bow.
Route S2 no longer runs, with new route 488 replacing it between Clapton and Bromley-By-Bow. Route 276 is re-routed between Stratford and Hackney Wick via Bow Church, with an increased weekday off-peak service.
Page updated: 5 Aug 2008