London is one of the busiest cities in the world for road traffic, over 1 million vehicles enter the city every day and the city itself contains 2.6 million vehicles* (* source TfL) .

It relies on a road system that has not changed since medieval times, but this year something has changed leading to what many describe as the “worst traffic jams in London’s history”.

The source of this gridlock is due to the London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan rolling out a new scheme in July at a cost of £250,000, where Transport for London (TfL) imposed new cycle lanes across the city, reducing many roads to a single lane each way for cars, creating massive tailbacks spewing pollution on pedestrians and cyclists.

All of this is part of a £250 million Government initiative to encourage people to travel on bicycles and minimise the use of public transport when the Covid-19 threat was at its most dangerous.

They call it the ‘Emergency Active Travel scheme’, and it was rushed through past Parliament, often without any consultation with local residents or businesses.

Many local authorities have used the funds without any foresight to rapidly increase the number of cycle lanes and impose ‘LTNs — Low Traffic Neighbourhoods — on residential areas, even if not required. This includes bollards and road closures on high traffic roads.

But now it seems that many councils will need to U turn on their active measures and even rip up the cycle lanes and bollards they’ve put down. Even Sadiq Khan has been forced to backtrack on some of London’s schemes. Next month, selected cycle lanes and bollards will be ripped up to the delight of residents and struggling local businesses.

It is a highly embarrassing reversal for the Mayor and TfL, which has admitted that the cost of returning roads to former states is unknown.

Residents fight back across UK

In other parts of Britain, we are seeing councils forced to U-turn due to rising resident pressure.

Councils are desperately trying to work out how quickly they can get rid of their schemes and appease furious residents, some of which are taking to the streets in protest.

All over the country, expensive, traffic calming schemes are being abandoned, months after being built, at a huge cost to the taxpayer.

In many cities and towns, without any consultation, council contractors moved in over the summer to block roads with bollards and planters, turning many residential areas into no-go zones.

In the months since, councils have become alarmed by the groundswell of opposition to their schemes, which in most areas crosses party lines.

In some parts of the country, local businesses are reporting customer losses of up to 80 per cent since the restrictions came into force.

It gets worse, the councils are also being slammed by clean air campaigners, horrified by the ensuing gridlock across towns and cities.

Source: Morningstaronline.com 2020

Department of Transport Defends Schemes

The Department of Transport continues to defend the schemes, but even the Transport Minister is unable to escape the pressure.

Grant Shapps, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, was informed that his local council was presented with a 1,200-signature petition complaining about the new traffic scheme killing the high street. He ended up writing to the council, challenging the policy his own department had put in place.

Shapps also wrote to other local authorities, warning that he might withdraw funding if they continued to abuse the Government scheme.

This week, when interviewed by The Daily Mail he said ‘Clearly there have been individual instances where schemes have fallen well below par. Some emergency measures have been hurried through by councils, with little to no consultation of residents, meaning they have failed to deliver for locals or offer genuine improvements.

‘I’m determined to make sure the schemes rolled out as a result of the next round of funding work from the get-go for the whole community. We’ve been consistently clear that councils must engage with local communities — and have publicly reminded all authorities that plans have to work for everyone.’

The truth is that, at the moment, they’re hardly working for anyone. In a recent survey by Transport Focus, a research agency funded by central Government, cycle use has remained static throughout the pandemic at about seven per cent of traffic.

At a time when local businesses are in dire need of support, the last thing your councils should do is prevent customers from reaching your shops and prevent local residents from coping with the challenges of the pandemic crisis.

What do you think about residents and businesses fighting back against these measures? What are these active measures going to do to towns and cities in the future? Let us know in the comments.

[“Car Crash: 12 march 2009” by jenineabarbanel is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]

Police warned a number of ‘rubberneckers’ at a recent accident in Essex to stop filming on their mobiles as they drove past or they will be arrested and charged with using their mobile phones while driving.

Police noticed several drivers using their mobiles to capture the car wreckage, as well as passengers.

Emergency services arrived at the A13 in Thurrock, Essex, where an Audi car had been rear-ended by an HGV causing the vehicle to smash into a flat bed truck.

As a result of the accident, one person sustained injuries and was taken to Queen’s Hospital in Romford. It is not believed their condition was serious.

The crash caused large queues of traffic on the A13 and M25, leading to the road being shut for most of the day.

Essex Police have released a new photo of the incident showing the car involved wedged under a lorry in front, (see below).

The Police issued a severe warning to drivers who used their mobiles to film the incident as they drove past.

‘Thankfully the driver of this car hit from behind by an HGV on the A13 earlier wasn’t seriously hurt. To the 20 or so drivers who drove by one handed to film it with your phones not watching the road ahead, keep an eye on your (mailbox emoji) …as we’ll be in touch.’ taken from a Tweet by the South Essex Road Policing Unit.

In September this year, a 25-year-old man died in a crash on the A1089 shortly before it joins the A13. Emergency services were called to reports of a collision between a blue Volkswagen Crafter van and a stationary HGV. An air ambulance was sent, but sadly the man died at the scene.

Police need to take tougher stance on mobile use at wheel

Since 2006 there have been police powers to stop mobile phone use at the wheel under the Road Safety Act, where motorists can earn 6 points and a £200 fine, but that does not seem to deter people.

In 2018 we saw the roll out of “vulture cameras” on selected roads such the A3, with tech capable of detecting in the day or night if a driver is using a mobile phone while driving, but the deployment is still limited to a handful of locations and drivers soon learn where they are.

The concept of ‘rubbernecking’ at accidents is nothing new, with some motoring bodies suggesting that at least 30% of all traffic jams are caused by rubberneckers on the opposite side of a road slowing down to look at the gory details of the accident, or even a broken down vehicle.

But the combination of ‘rubbernecking’ and mobile phone use at the same time needs to be cracked down upon as much as possible, or we will just see continued lawlessness on Britain’s roads, recorded and posted on You Tube as and when they like.

Do you think the police should crack down hard on ‘rubberneckers’ who film accident scenes on their mobiles? What sort of penalty should they receive? Let us know in the comments below.