Status: Insane ruination of streets by Government & Mayor
Without doubt, London's lifeblood would be a free and open roadspace,
efficiently managed, sensitively policed, with less restrictions. It would rely
on courteous drivers who would regulate problems with common sense and good
manners. Unfortunately, in the real world, the little we have in roadspace is
being ruined. Over restricted highways decreasing in size by the second.
There's too many mean stupid drivers, but also too many people, and a crackpot
anti-road lobby, with an even more crackpot pro-road lobby. London's pathways are
being refashioned to cater for
ever increasing tourists, population growth, and brainless politics.
The reverse should definately be the case.
Save our Roadspace!
As it happens, London's roadspace could be seen as finite,
since the main road layout was conceived and built in the last few centuries.
However, these days we see cut and thrust of authority
close off many London roads, whilst at the same time
bulldozering thru buildings and houses with impunity to create new roads and
bypasses. Theres possibly too many dynamics at work disturbing the layout, and
furthermore, what roadspace that is left unscarred is fouled by a mound of
restrictions and bureaucratic by-laws. Mindless visionaries have blocked off miles of
London's roads with their scatter-brained schemes, and then the fools blame the car owners
for the gridlock! This would have never happened under the Victorians.
This is truly the destruction of London!
Trafalgar Square, north side:
Take this farce for instance. Here on the right is our wonderful pillared
entrance to the National Gallery, sitting on the traffic heavy stretch of
trafalgar square's north side racetrack. A major part of London's traffic scheme, and they've closed this to vehicles!
It was one of the world's busiest highways and they've blocked it off just for the bloated minions. Where did they think the
cars will go? Why should they care, we just have to fit
it with their ideas. It's planning ignorance
taken to extremes. What a mess, and now, what an eyesore.
These governing idiots wont rest until London is one
solid block of paving stone, full of dumb and dumber dumbed down dopey
tourists and fast food vendors, with no vehicle access for anyone except the mayor. Hamburger & Onions, anyone?
Road Closing Crimes
Pedestrianization:
Like Leicester Square and Covent Garden, these mass confrontations between
pickpockets, circus failures, and vunerable tourists plague what were quiet,
nice, and respectable areas before all cars were banished, and the roads closed off. Now they are hell holes of litter and vulgarity in the day, and no-go
drug haunts after midnight.
Road closures like this are a big mistake, and have ruined many beauty spots. But we so
desperately need this space, not for idiots to wander in, but for our cabs
and buses. Plus, it helps and area's dynamics if there is traffic, giving
it energy and accessability.
Traffic also brings safety to an area, under the gaze of the populous and
police, there is always less crime in a place with traffic. It's better then to let public transport gain full access the heart of such areas, letting people
jump off those splendid red Routemasters and visit where they want to visit,
instead of hanging around spoiling the view and inviting crime.
The absence of these great empty areas would make the capital free from the worst of society,
and London's vehicles would be in greater flow. As for the fat tourists, they would would instead holiday in Pontins where they belong.
There, they could wandering around eating overpriced ice creams and taking naff photos of more tourists.
Worse is the effect on the rest of London, as closures in one place means
that traffic is in excess elsewhere.
Transport is diverted and squeezed into rotten gridlocks
of cars searching for a route forward. But there's no hope thanks to
needy roadspace being
eaten up as
greedy tourist traps. This is a disgrace when every inch of roadspace is
desperately needed. Let these tourist cattle graze elsewhere!
Bus & Cycle Lanes:
The amount of roadspace square mileage set aside for these awful wasted
road areas is almost unbelievable. Imagine the potential of this
space in the days where every inch is precious. Giving Buses and Taxis the
advantage is a fair idea but I really think that they should take their
chances with everyone else. You cant tie up acres of roadspace and then use it with only occasional vehicles, whilst all other lanes are clogged solid.
All road is self regulating if drivers have an ounce
of sense. Drivers are only in jams because they have to be.
Most drivers will stay away from congestion areas if they can.
But giving up zillions of square miles in roadspace to non car items is a gormless move, and a patronising insult.
I would prefer to see all roadspace used and
maximized for use of the all traffic. As for cycles, do they ever use these miles and miles of cycle lanes? No way!
At the moment, most cyclists are of a kamikaze nature, playing games with the
traffic and pedestrians, with zero courtesy, ignoring all signals. What scum
they mostly are, running over people and swearing at them if they complain.
If a cycle lane is the best
shortcut, then they may use it, otherwise they ride where they please, and make
these cycle lanes a complete farce. What a waste of roadspace! Theres so much
of our land given over to these scams, instead of educating road users how to
co-exist on the same territory.
By the way, I want to
thank the people that dreamed up the sure fire ignorant idea of, say, giving over acres of road, then painting it
green, so that maybe one cyclist a day might use it, only to find that no
cyclists use them at all, ever, because they're too busy riding purposely slow in front of buses, or flying full speed into pelican crossing crowds.
Good Call, you idiots!
Road Works:
Its a well documented charade that is the uncoordinated mess of various
competing companies digging up street after street in the capital. Some places
are dug up dozens of times in a year and theres just no stopping them, as money
talks. If government acted with sense it could easily curb these actions and
unblock many many miles of the system disrupted by the utilities and
communication companies. Better still, it could take a hint from the free
thinking victorians and build vast cable and pipe service tunnels in every
street, making re-digging a thing of the past. It seems everyone prefers total
gridlock instead.
Monarchy, Ministers, Marches & Marathons:
Its utter madness that our elders
will totally shut down huge areas of London to extend some misled hospitality
to some political or royal figure from afar who could so easily have plied their trade in an airport lounge and then gone back to where they came from. Instead, police perform the amazing escapade of bringing the business
traffic of London to a standstill, so that tinpot dictators
may be afforded a limousine motorcade between events. Streets are regularily
emptied for miles as some fawning feat of homage, whilst Londons peoples look
on, their journey corrupted for hours. At the other end of
the comedy scale lies the yearly carnivals that tie up London for days and
really belong on some remote spot in the middle of nowhere, not our
capital. Boring floats and masses of dancing fools pretending to enjoy themselves and closing off whole areas of London is no carnival for the
Londoners who want to enjoy LONDON. Its the same for
protest marches. If you want sympathy, take your
woes to some disused airfield miles out of town, and send the video evidence to the broadcasters. Clogging up the streets gives no credence
to your complaint. And then there's the dumbest thing of all, The London
Marathon. And why not close off most of London's main streets for a whole
day so some overweight idiots can waddle and puff their way around
our famous buildings and monuments? Why dont these morons run around Epping
Forest or somewhere else far far away? It's stupid. Do the government
think that the roads are there to be wasted on fancy events? It's unbelievable... I want that rediculous Marathon BANNED from London Town.
Parking & Deliveries:
These activities can't really be seen as unproductive, as they are an integral
part of road usage in London, although a lot of the time people are forced into
bad parking and bad delivering through lack of planning and facilities.
This only aids the shutdown of the road system. In the
perfect world, there would be loads of easy parking, and deliveries would be
unhampered by authority harassment. But at the moment the metropolis is a
battlefield for drivers desperate to operate in any capacity. Common sense
doth not prevail. As for the horror stories about traffic wardens these
days, it's amazing that there isnt a major revolution by London's victimised
drivers. It's shocking. Can't the police round up these wardens and send
them all to Devil's Island, where they belong?
KENgestion Charge:
Some of the crackpot schemes and ideas from Govenment and Londons conflicting
authorities dont touch Mad Red Ken and his Congestion Charge, another poor tax to hurt the working class driver, the lone lady driver, the elderly, the mothers on the very valid school run. Its such a bullying measure and is causing hell to people who cant afford to be ripped off. The roadspace of central London should be used to the
fullest, not emptied because the poor cant afford to use it.
This is not some backward Euro-city where we can all zoom around on silly little
bicycles.
And its not Red Ken that will have to suffer, its the real workers and
drivers, and mothers on the school run protecting their kids.
Its ladies alone protecting themselves.
Rich people are allowed to congest as much as they like, as long as they pay for it!
Anyway, this is mainly a money earning scheme for county hall. They don't really care about congestion!
Mad bonkers Red Ken and his KENgestion Charge. This has got to take the biscuit
for the dumbest and meanest idea ever. Ken puts the Con in Congestion
Road Cutting Cosmetics:
Vauxhall Cross springs to mind, when it comes to the adventurous tomfoolery
of Road Cosmetics, where, in this case, probably THE major intersection of
South Central London gets a fancy makeover. The Cross, where several roads meet
south of Vauxhall Bridge, has been brought to a standstill nearly every day,
because they have decided to redo the WHOLE AREA AT ONCE. What more insane is
that they will cut the roadspace around this perfect junction by nearly half,
and its right on the boundary of the rediculous Congestion Charge zone! I can
see the idiot that thought this one up, looking down from his private helicopter and saying "It'll look nice when it's finished". How many other
similar fiascos are littering London with eternal traffic jams?
Road Opening Crimes
Motorway Madness:
And over here, in the blue corner, its the fiends that will trash anything just
to get roads built, its like two destructive forces working in tandem,
by closing the roadspace we have, whilst simultaneously making more roads to take the congestion created via those very same
road closures. Sounds crazy? The worst instance may be the East End's
extension to the M11, laying waste to many lovable old streets and houses,
blotting the landscape with more ugly tarmac. Protests were in vain, most
notably at the elderly chestnut tree on Wanstead Green,
and around the happy Leyton community of
Claremont Road. All now wiped out. It's an amazing story when they're trying
to keep traffic out of town, and trying to build more houses!
London Destruction's Road Protest Movie
Surely there has to be a better way. Just how
much do we have to have our city altered and destroyed just to compensate for
the extra traffic caused by road mismanagement and population growth?
They're just letting it happen. We've got to save our London.