Boris Johnson, the mayor of London is trying to improve the sharing of public space in a rather peculiar way. Indeed, he noticed the disadvantages of driving a car in London due to congestion. Will he therefore promote biking or public transportation to fight against this problem? No, this is nonsense and he seems to have a smarter solution to the situation. He explained to the London Assembly that: “[he] was driving around Ealing one Sunday and [he] found the traffic lights absolutely insane. There was hardly any pedestrian traffic to speak of and we were being kept at red for minute after minute.”

It would be so absurd to invite people to cut their car use to reduce traffic congestion. Therefore Boris Johnson proposed to introduce digital signs that count down the seconds until cars get a green light. This would allow giving more green time to traffic and he hopes it will help to solve congestion problems in London. Pedestrians will loose up to 6 seconds to cross roads, but it is probably “insane” to consider this as a regression concerning transport policies in the 21st century. Pedestrians will have to walk faster and older people or disabled people should take a car ride or stay at home, rather than disturb car drivers. Living Streets, which campaigns for pedestrians noticed that already more than 500 London junctions fail to give pedestrians the minimum time set by the UK Department for Transport safety guidelines. Of course, this is just the point of view of people led blind by their ideology.

Just a last detail, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published a report showing that Britain is the worst country in Europe for road pollution. According to the report, UK levels of dangerous traffic fumes, caused by congestion and high population concentrations, are placing people’s health at risk. It seems that Boris Johnson got the point.

www.timesonline.co.uk