Londoners’ lives could be at risk if Boris Johnson’s new congestion-busting traffic proposals are introduced in busy pedestrian zones.
By Heather McKay and Sam Barker
Londoners’ lives could be at risk if Boris Johnson’s new congestion-busting traffic proposals are introduced in busy pedestrian zones.
Wimbledon residents already have an advantage however, as long-term Merton Council plans have steadily improved pedestrian safety since 2003.
Opponents to Johnson’s proposals say SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique), an initiative which streamlines and speeds up sluggish traffic flow, will clash with London’s Year of Walking.
The programme is expected to encourage more people to walk in London, and Mr Johnson confirmed the 2011 date at Mayor’s Question time on May 19.
Green Party and GLA member Jenny Jones said the schemes conflicted in areas with high footfall, such as Oxford Street, and could increase the number of pedestrian casualties.
Ms Jones, a former mayoral transport advisor, said Mr Johnson must make London safer for people on foot.
She said: “Pedestrians and cyclists are vulnerable road users and if you speed up the traffic you make vulnerable road users much more vulnerable.”
Ms Jones added that the system recognises vehicles but does not recognise pedestrians.
SCOOT would make traffic flow so efficient that it would leave little opportunity for pedestrians to cross the road.
Ms Jones fears Mr Johnson’s proposals have left pedestrians with little option but to run across the road.
She said: “He is putting pedestrians at the bottom of the heap as far as traffic is concerned and that it is not a good idea in the Year of Walking.
“Every other developed city in the world recognises that walking and cycling are real bonuses to the economy and that you have to make traffic flow around them.”
Merton Council’s long-term unitary development plan has already indentified problem areas for pedestrians, and Wimbledon’s infrastructure priorities walkers over vehicles.
Wimbledon’s residents enjoy such benefits as pedestrian-friendly traffic-calming measures, dropped kerbs, wider footpaths and the proposed pedestrianisation of Wimbledon Station forecourt.
Ms Jones says she supports the idea of London’s Year of Walking, but disagreed with the SCOOT proposals.
“In an urban pedestrian setting it is entirely inappropriate and I will be fighting it,” said Ms Jones.
She confronted Mr Johnson at Mayor’s Question Time, where he committed to reassessing SCOOT introduction in problem areas.
SCOOT has been used in cities such as Beijing and Santiago.
