Monday’s Friday Reads – 2 December 2019

1. 1] To those in the know, or posessed of the time to look at a real, actual map for a minute or two …
   The Central London walking network already exists. I note that one of the proposed routes almost reaches KingsCross/StPancras, but no other termini …
   And that for the really interested, people could do worse than look at Ian Visits London Alleys – most recent sample is shown in the link.

   2] The Wired article on Tram-Train fails to mention the determined opposition to this very useful idea inside DfT. Who, apparently are trying to substitute “guided busways” wherever they can, shudder. ( See also whatever the Heathrow western approach proposals are called this week!)

2. Paris’s suggested delivery tax not only drags the likes of Amazon firmly into the tax net and possibly helps reduce the number of delivery vehicles, but will provide a small tipping of the scales back in favour of actual shopping in town centres. This should be to the benefit of public transport, which in many parts of the UK, is now haemorrhaging off-peak passengers.

3. Man if Kent:. Making everyone’s shopping more expensive in order to benefit public transport is putting the cart before the horse.

   It’s very likely that Amazon etc should be taxed for deliveries, but it should really be done on a per vehicle or per mile basis to encourage the minimum number of deliveries and vans.

   It’s hard to unpick though, how many Amazon deliveries are things which people would drive to pick up? Or drive around Curry’s to choose and then have it delivered anyway… And the ability to reuse the space for big-box shops on the edge of town can give us more housing etc etc.

4. “A seamless transition from a scooter to a bus — covered by a single payment — is part of what the future in multimodal transportation should look like, transportation leaders and experts argue”

   This is so pathetic. Single fare systems have been around for more than 50 years. They need no modern technology. But they are still missing in all British cities bare one. Maybe address why?

5. But I don’t want to go shopping in town centres. I can’t imagine a more tedious and boring way to pass the time, especially when it’s clothes shopping.

   However I do appreciate that there is a carbon cost of these deliveries (however I suspect far lower than all the separate car journeys they replace – let’s admit it, outside London very few people are going to a high street outwith a car because public transport is expensive (especially for families), and inconvenient when shopping) and an issue with having a single mega-company that is a tax avoider provide the main retail outlet online.

   And Amazon are making a huge investment in electric delivery vans now, at least in some areas, and that will inevitably roll out everywhere. So now we will be balancing an electric van delivery (one house to the next) versus a petrol/diesel car journey (house to town centre and back). Nah, home deliveries are clearly more environmentally friendly.

6. The central London walking network seems like yet another attempt to prioritise direct routes for cars and force pedestrians to chose between an unplesant walking environment or being late.

   (I’m entirely in favour of removing parking and making pavements wider, but it should be done to all roads, not just ones where it won’t inconvenience drivers. Ideally you’d start with the roads which are already an overcrowded direct walking route between popular destinations.)

7. I like the idea of a Sheffield to Rochester Tram-Train! I wonder if it would use HS1 from St. Pancras to Gravesend? 😉

8. SHLR
   ONLY if it is diverted via the Waterloo & City Line …..

9. As someone who likes to walk in central London, it’s fellow pedestrians that really slow you down, not traffic!

10. SHLR
    It’s actually operating as an extension of the Rainham Thameslink service. The Yorkshire folk are too mean to pay the HS1 supplement 😂

11. @Alistair
    I’m sure there are economists who could argue that shopping is made cheap because the retailer does not carry the external costs that the retailer imposes on society. A delivery tax goes some way to address this.

    @Sykobee
    Town centres tend to be inclusive destinations in a way that largely only-accessible-by-car out-of-town retail parks are not. As with the diesel v petrol arguments, focussing on only one aspect can give a skewed answer. I’d argue that town centres can be environmentally benign, and contribute a lot to quality of life. Delivery vans cause innumerable problems when attempting to deliver in narrow streets, often parking on pavements, to the detriment of both pedestrians and other road users. Their method of propulsion does not change this.

12. @BOB, 11:33
    On the basis that traffic does seem to disappear if you make a route less attractive it would surely be good to start anywhere, and it would be politically easier to start narrowing less busy streets.

    @GREG 16:54
    Mornington Crescent!

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