Examination of witnesses (Questions 394
- 399)
WEDNESDAY 9 DECEMBER
MR DEREK
TURNER and MR
NICK LESTER
Chairman
394. Good morning, gentlemen. May I ask
you to identify yourselves and perhaps make some general opening
remarks.
(Mr Lester) Thank you. If I might start off, I
am Nick Lester, Chief Executive of the Transport Committee for
London. I have to bring the apologies of Councillor O'Neill, the
Vice Chairman of the Committee, who has unfortunately been called
away by his work at the very last minute. The only introductory
remark I would like to make is to welcome the opportunity to give
evidence before this Committee. The Transport Committee for London,
which represents all London's 33 local authorities, is committed
to supporting the Government's policy for reducing the impact
of transport and improving the efficiency of transport within
London and the whole concept of integration which is built into
the White Paper.
395. You have brought with you Mr Turner,
have you not?
(Mr Turner) Yes, my name is Derek Turner. I am
the Traffic Director for London. I am mainly in charge of the
development of the `Red Routes' network designed to implement
and control the strategic road network. The Government has also
asked me to do some work on developing new technology for enforcement,
particularly on bus lanes.
Chairman: Thank you.
Mr Olner.
Mr Olner
396. Will your boss be the new mayor of
London?
(Mr Lester) I cannot answer that question. The
current arrangement for the Transport Committee is that it will
continue to be a joint committee of London's 33 boroughs, with
the inclusion of a representative from the Greater London Authority.
The Bill as it was published last week provides that we will continue
to do a number of functions on a London-wide basis on behalf of
London boroughs, but of course we will work very closely with
the mayor and with Transport for London and the Greater London
Authority. So there will be a co-operative partnership between
the London boroughs, industry, the mayor and the Authority.
397. Given that one borough's traffic problem
is not always another borough's traffic problem, how do you get
this strategic role through, particularly on your `Red Routes'
and various things like that?
(Mr Lester) Perhaps I can leave Mr Turner to talk
about `Red Routes'. Clearly there are both local and strategic
issues with all forms of traffic. Every road has individual buildings
and occupiers who have very little interest in local traffic needs.
Those put together are why the strategic needs have to be considered
case by case.
Chairman
398. Can I ask Mr Turner perhaps to kick
off. Given that the important objective is to speed up the flow
of general traffic, how can this be achieved with `Red Routes',
whilst at the same time encouraging a reduction in commuting by
car?
(Mr Turner) It is important to recognise where
we are starting from. The existing road network suffers a high
degree of congestion caused by illegal parking and ignoring what
were existing yellow lines. The `Red Routes' initiative sets about
reorganising the whole of the management of the strategic road
network, and by removing the illegal parking it actually enables
us to re-allocate the road space. Where possible, that road space
is re-allocated in a balanced way so that all road users benefit,
but trying to avoid increasing the overall capacity for flow of
traffic. What we are about is trying to smooth traffic, make it
more reliable, slightly quicker, but without actually attracting
more traffic. We have now had about four years' experience, and
there is no evidence to show that we are actually increasing the
flow of traffic through the corridor. On the main roads, quite
rightly in my view, we are actually seeing some increase, but
that is because we have attracted traffic out of side roads which
are rat runs and put it back on main roads where it belongs. To
encourage that, we are adopting an integrated approach by actually
funding the local authorities to introduce some traffic-calming
measures in the adjacent side roads. To respond to Mr Olner, my
organisation actually does transfer into Transport for London
under the mayor.
Chairman: Thank you
very much.
Christine Butler
399. What are you doing to promote cycling
in London, Mr Turner?
(Mr Turner) Obviously there is a degree of conflict
about mixing cyclists on strategic roads. If possible, the government
policy is to attract and increase the amount of cycling, but actually
to ensure that the cyclists are cycling in safe conditions. On
the `Red Routes' network what we have done is that we have promoted
safe crossing points to complement the London cycle network which
is the boroughs' initiative for local roads. The cycle network
intersects at about 306 locations with the `Red Route' network.
At these locations I am providing the investment and the technical
expertise to get the cyclists across the road. We are also developing
a number of initiatives along the main roads to make cycling more
attractive and better, by providing advisory cycle lanes, where
there is sufficient room, and also cycle advance areas at traffic
sinals The cyclists get to the front of traffic queues, which
is the safe place for them to be, so they start off in advance
of the traffic. Other areas where we are trying to improve and
encourage cycling are by creating cycle tracks, particularly where
the footway is underused. We can actually segregate cyclists and
pedestrians on the footway.
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