Jams In The West End
There has been a lot of controversy lately about the City of Westminster, bringing in parking charges in the evenings and on Sundays. Here ‘s a report from the Telegraph.
It seems to me that most of the opposition is led by celebrities such as Peter Stringfellow, who claim they are worried about jobs and of course where to park their own limos and excessive people carriers.
As I said the 38 bus was delayed getting to Shaftesbury Avenue and it took half an hour to travel the last bit from Bloomsbury. My progress after alighting from the bus, wasn’t helped by the fact that a coach was parked on the pavement, making both walking and driving difficult.
After the play it was worse and getting back up Shaftesbury Avenue was not easy, as drivers were blocking pavement and trying to go at speed into and out of the side roads. It wasn’t helped by the fact, that a large number of police cars and ambulances were trying to get through.
I finally got to the stop for the 38 bus and after checking by text, I found I had seven minutes to wait.
Whilst waiting you realised that what was holding up the traffic was the vast number of cycle rickshaws, which were illegally touting at the bus stops. A guy in the queue near me, who had the aura of a taxi-driver, said that mos of the rickshaws aren’t insured and he wouldn’t go near them. He was actually a van driver, who’d had a nght out with his family and was also waiting for a 38. There’s more on illegal rickshaws here.
It was also a night, when I wished I’d had my camera with me, as I would ave got a picture of a 19 bus, seemingly pushing a rickshaw slowly along the road.
Finally, I got my 38 back to the local stop.
So what would I do to improve matters?
It would appear that the 38 bus, might be one of the first routes to get the new Routemaster in 2012. Certainly, as they are quicker to board and exit, they should help a bit. Banning the rickshaws from bus lanes would also help.
I’ve always been in favour of pedestrianising Oxford Street or perhaps building a raised walkway above the middle of the street to speed people from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch and perhaps relieve the Central line. Although a bit to the north of theatreland, it would make it easier to get to Soho and then come south to Shaftesbury Avenue. My thoughts on the walkway are in this post.
I think I would make a large area of Soho a pedestrian only zone, as this would increase the capacity of the area dramatically. And the more visitors it gets, the more money gets spent. Perhaps, small electric buses could be used on the north-south routes to move people about.
But perhaps what will help most is already being built; CrossRail. Although it only goes to Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations, the high-capacity trains will probably run later than the Underground and they will at least get a lot of West End traffic away after the theatres and shows finish. I would run a shuttle service through from say Stratford to Heathrow to aid those, like essential workers, who had to travel in the middle of the night.
It has always puzzled me why there is no Underground station at Cambridge Circus. Perhaps the walking routes to Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road stations need to be improved.
Out-of-Country Parking Fines
There is a story today that says that councils are losing a lot of money because of the non-payment of parking fines by foreign drivers. Although, the story is a UK one, I suspect it’s a problem all across Europe.
This problem used to exist in the United States, but there it wasn’t out-of-country, but out-of-state parking fines that were the problem. They also had data-protection problems in that citizens wouldn’t trust Texas to say look up vehicles in New York.
In the end, a company came up with a solution that was acceptable to all parties.
They bought the tickets at a discount from the individual states, collated them and then sent them to their collection department in the state where the vehicle was registered. Obviously, they picked the juicy ones first, but the business model worked so well and profitably, that Lockheed felt it was worth buying the company.
Such a system would work well on an EU wide basis, with perhaps Switzerland added. But then the Swiss don’t get parking fines do they?
Parking and Clamping
This was discussed on Radio 5 Live yesterday morning, after reports that the government were to ban clamping on private land. It is probably right to ban the aggressive aspects of this, but what do you do if say you have a private car park on your offices that is always being blocked by illegal parkers. They also interviewed the man who refused to get out of his clamped car, so it could be towed away. Most had sympathy with the man, but I don’t, as he shouldn’t have parked where he did in the first place.
When I could drive, I never parked illegally and I think that in over forty years of driving, I’ve only had a handful of tickets. most of which were because I misread a sign or put the wrong amount of money in a meter.
Now that I use buses a lot, I realise how illegal parkers are a complete menace and slow the traffic a lot more. My post about chaos in Trafalgar Square was partly about illegal parking, but mainly about stupid idiots, who were trying to drive where they shouldn’t.
The irony about the BBC phone-in was that the stand-in presenter, Stephen Nolan admits that he gets lots of parking tickets outside the BBC in Belfast, because he claims there is nowhere to park. Surely, he should use the bus. But then he is almost proud of his very obese state, so I suppose the extra walk would be just too much for him.
I hope the BBC don’t pay his parking tickets.
Edinburgh’s Tram To Nowhere
I do not like badly conceived and managed projects, as you’d expect from someone, who designed one of the first modern project mangement systems. I had thought that there was nothing that could match the Cambridge Busway for being badly designed, managed and executed project. But it would appear that the Edinburgh Tram, may come close.
Strangely, the two projects have a lot in common; both will be about 40 kilometres long ,both are running years late and massively over budget. Although the Edinburgh Tram will cost six times more than the Cambridge Busway.
They also get up the public’s nose spectacularly. In the Cambridge case, buses proclaim, “Will I be on the Busway soon?” and in Edinburgh, a static tram is parked to block Princes Street.
The Edinburgh Static Tram
I suppose the static tram does have a point, in that it makes getting a bus in the centre of Edinburgh very difficult, so by the time the tram comes into service in 2014, people will be more likely to use the tram. That could be the only reason, as what idiot would deliberately create a traffic jam with something that doesn’t work. Even those twats with 4x4s and supercars get parking tickets, when they block the roads outside Harrods! Why hasn’t someone stuck a parking ticket on the tram?
To make it worse, I saw this sign too!
Edinburgh Road Sign
So trams can turn right, despite the fact the only one is static!
Free Hospital Car Parking
I’ve been visiting my friend in Addenbrooke’s a lot and the car parking is expensive. But at least I have a space to put my car. Even if sometime the charges are a bit weird. For instance, each visit on a Sunday costs three pounds no matter how long you stay! But if I have two short visit on a weekday, they are only £1.80.
Apparently, now in Scotland, the policy of free car parking is causing problems, as everybody drives and there is no money for more car parks.
I think years ago, when the parking was free at Addenbrooke’s people used to use the hospital car parks there and then go into town. So it may be a good idea to have free hospital car parking, but it is one of these things that people will abuse.
Stansted Car Parking
When returning from the wedding at the weekend, I brought a guest who had been taken unwell in Holland. The problem was that her car was safe in the long-term car park at Stansted Airport.
So how do you extract a car from the parking, without going into the terminal?
It actually doesn’t show on their web site, but it couldn’t have been any easier. I asked in Customer Services and they said that I should just collect a ticket from the barrier, drive in and then park by my companion’s car. I then had about forty minutes to get out.
What a sensible and user-friendly system!
