2A Montagu Mews South
London W1H 7ER
hugh@hugh-small.co.uk
Mr. Stephen Locke
Chair, London TravelWatch
169 Union Street
London SE1 0LL
8 November 2015
Dear Mr. Locke,
Westminster Living Streets, the local branch of the
national charity that campaigns for pedestrians, supports your call for greater
levels of priority for the bus (16 September), and we are glad that expansion
of public transport at the expense of vehicles which use road space less
efficiently has caused a 24 percent decline in vehicle miles in central London
in the last 15 years.
This expansion of public transport has put more
pedestrians on central London’s streets, because walking ‘the last quarter
mile’ is an indispensable and healthy part of the user’s journey. My concern is
that the road capacity made redundant by the decline in motor traffic has not
been reconfigured for the increasing number of pedestrians who must now share the
road with motor vehicles. For example, standards for pedestrian crossing times
have not increased since the 1950s despite the aging and slowing of the
population. This neglect of the pedestrian portion of the public transport
user’s journey has led to a steady increase in pedestrian casualties in
Westminster over the last few years.[1]
I suggest that TravelWatch should urge the public
transport operators to address the safety issues in this part of their
business. A specific example is TfL’s failure to reduce maximum bus speeds to
15 mph on Oxford Street as the GLA Transport Committee requested some years ago.
At the inquest on the latest of the eight pedestrians killed by buses on Oxford
Street in the last eight years, the police witness praised the driver for
driving at ‘only’ 20 mph with an empty road in front. This leads me to suspect
that the operators have ordered a 20 mph maximum, showing that they at least
recognise the danger. A reduction to 15
mph would allow bus drivers to do a full emergency stop or swerve with less
risk of injuring passengers. I believe that TravelWatch should insist on a
scientific appraisal of safe maximum speeds, and not just on Oxford Street.
Buses kill more pedestrians (mostly public transport users) in London than HGVs
do.
A desirable further increase in public transport
use in central London may be limited by the perceived risk to pedestrians on
the ‘last quarter mile’ of their journey. I urge TravelWatch to draw this to
the attention of TfL and the operators.
Yours sincerely
Hugh Small
Secretary, Westminster Living Streets