Traffic in Richmond park

Richmond park has come up with a way to limit the increasing Traffic in Richmond Park: The way forward for Case 17165.

In a nutshell, they're talking about closing the Pen Ponds (photo from Richmond Upon Thames Daily Photo) and putting a land train in place.

I find this just short of hypocritical and short sighted:

• hypocritical -if they want to restrict traffic to Pen Ponds, why then do they have a diesel-powered snack-food and ice cream van selling their wares there? (and also I wonder, why does it have a German licence plate?)
• short sighted -they've closed Robin Hood gate and displaced a lot of traffic onto adjoining roads, specifically the A205 is now quite terrible and the A3 was never improved either.

While I understand the reasons to restric traffic in the park, the "not in my street" approach is creating increased congestion on fewer streets each time a gate is closed, a street is made one way or transformed into a cul de sac (latest one to my knowledge is Well Lane in Sheen, which I find strange and not motivated)

Tags: car, traffic, richmond, park, richmondtransits.org

Parking in Richmond

Another parking post, after the one on Kingston hospital parking: I need not to add much to the picture apart that I was taking my child to the Doctor's surgery and ended up putting a pound for 15 mn.

It seems that councils are seeing parking as a goldmine: they're using private agencies to aggressively enforce it, brought in charges on Sunday and taxing cars that don't pollute as they're not moving when parked...

Kingston hospital parking

You'd better not be in a rush to go to Kingston Hospital.

Firstly, it's badly signposted as there are no signs from Kingston hill (A308) to turn into Galsworthy road. No map on their web site either, as they "We strongly recommend that patients and visitors use public transport to get to the hospital."

That's fine more most, maybe more difficult if you're sick or pregnant and about to deliver. Which are some of the reasons people may want to go to hospital.

Then to make it worse, they shrunk the car park when they extended the hospital (they probably did not think about locating a parking under the new building?) and you need to have change as they charge you £1.5/hour. It's not only an inconvenience to patients, but also to the staff it seems: Demo over hospital parking fees (BBC).

I think the Scots are smarter: NHS car parking charges abolished (BBC Scotland)

car, hospital, transportation, richmond, richmondtransits.blog

I did not say it!

I don't have much to add to this article: British cities shun London’s wasteful car tax - Times Online

"[...] overheads are now so high that they burn up the equivalent of almost £4 of a standard £8 charge. Money
raised to improve public transport has been cut by 10% in the past year."

I've always thought the congestion charge was quite a daft idea, a return to the middle ages or later turnpikes and toll-gates. I am all for better public transport, more bus lanes and cycle paths, trams, etc... But I don't see the point of reserving the centre of London to an elite nor to make it more difficult for cars to get around via light phasing, cul de sacs, narrow lanes, etc... It just creates unncessary pollution.

Tags: transportation, london, cars, congestioncharge, richmondtransits.blog

Blatant hypocrisy over parking spaces

Richmond council announced they will be taxing parents for dropping off their kids at local schools (through ending the 15 mn free parking allowance in a CPZ).

They are blaming the lack of parking places in the borough, paving the way for more CPZ (Controlled Parking Zones): More CPZ to come? (Richmond and Twickenham Times, 25/4/08)

This is simply and utterly hypocrisy: just consider the fact the council limits parking places in new developments such as the scheme in Garden road or the the office block extended in Chalkers corner.

But then, to me it looks like Green has become a synonym for "more taxes": every time taxpayers are being hit, especially in Richmond, it's in the name of the Carbon Reduction God, just like the failed congestion charge is now disguised into a low emission zone, etc...

When I read Jeremy Clarkson saying the greenies are the new trotskysts I thought it was amusing and second degree. Actually, I don't anymore. While I am all for doing everything we can to not leave the planet in a better state that the baby boomers are now handing it over to Generation X, the issue with the "green issue" is polititians who have managed to remove all substance and tax more.

It's always the stick: you drive a large car? Market forces and fuel prices are not enough, here's an additional parking tax. But that applies mostly to motorists, not to Heathrow. Nor do we get carrots: on the continent you get tax breaks for installing solar powered heating, geothermal exchanger, etc... Here, we just get free rockwool. Just like the congestion charge: a plaster on a broken leg.


Tags: richmondtransits.blog, green, CPZ, gardenroad, congestioncharge, london, cars, transportation, UK, politics

Focussing on CO2: good for bears, bad for humans?

As environmental concerns are growing, the EU and governments, including London's and the UK's are increasing their focus on limiting CO2 emissions. I've got two issues with this strategy:

1. Unless China and Blair's Gordon's best friends across the pond actually do something, our efforts are vain. And by extension, focussing on car emissions is equally short sighted as transportation overall account for 14% of all emissions (for instance housing is 10% and industries 16%, and I don't hear of a congestion charge on steel production or house building). This is because while cars can be taxed relatively easily (unless one is prepared to get a licence plate in Andorra), establishing a carbon tax on Chinese toys imports is a bit more problematic, both on the international trade laws aspects and on the difficulty to calculate it fairly.

2. Focussing only on CO2 car emissions favours diesel cars, which emitt much more particulates and other pollutants have got serious implications for human health, especially in inner cities. To this, one needs to add other greenhouse gas such as methane (cows fart!).

I will thus continue to fill my car with unleaded to protect babies.

Read also my comment on this post from Greenmonk: On Small Changes, Small Cars, Tax and Pollution

Tags: diesel, cars, environment, pollution, politics, UK, transportation, richmondtransits.blog

Petrol rip off?

I subscribed a while back to PetrolPrices.com to try minimise my petrol bill. It's a great service that tells you where petrol is cheaper. Except that the petrol industry seems to be very good at making sure prices are in line in a given neighboorhood.

As you can see below, there's a huge difference between prices in Reading and in Richmond but with those areas prices are very similar... Looks like a scam to me...

5 cheapest stations in Reading for Unleaded...
---------------------------------------------
Station : Shell/sainsburys Shinfield
Address : Shinfield Road, Reading, RG2 8HA
Brand : Shell
Distance: 2.22 miles
Price : 91.9p
Updated : 23-09-2007
---------------------------
Station : Asda Lower Earley, Price : 91.9p
---------------------------
Station : Shell Fairfield, Price : 91.9p
---------------------------
Station : Tesco Reading Extra, Price : 92.9p
---------------------------
Station : Morrisons Reading, Price : 92.9p


5 cheapest stations in Richmond Unleaded...
---------------------------------------------
Station : Shell Oak Lane, Price : 93.9p
---------------------------
Station : Studley Grange Service Station, Price : 94.5p
---------------------------
Station : Sainsburys Richmond, Price : 94.9p
---------------------------
Station : Brentford Filling Station, Price : 94.9p
---------------------------
Station : Chiswick Flyover Service Station, Price : 94.9p



Tags: automobile, cars, petrol, richmondtransits.blog, transportation

Speed cameras: all for the money, litte for safety

Here are a few important facts about speed cameras:

1. Accidents on the motorways account for less than 10% of the total. So why diverting resources to putting speed cameras on motorways, like in France? One could say it's idiotic, but in fact speed cameras have little to do with safety, in particular on motorways. They can actually cause accidents (French news article, Le Nouvel Obs, 18/07/05, explaining that before speed cameras were installed on the A12 between Montigny-le-Bretonneux et Rocquencourt, 30 accidents were registered and 60 after!!!)
2. In fact, Less than 4% of accidents are caused by exceeding the speed limit
3. Again according to Speedcameras.org.uk, £120 million was generated in speeding fines in 2003. That's in the IUK. In France, they plan no less than EUR 375 revenue in 2006!!!

STOP THE HYPOCRISY!

Links:

www.radars-auto.com

www.speedcameras.org

You shoud appeal if you're clocked with a handheld speed camera!

Interesting article from BBC South: the net net is that handheld laser speed metering devices are not accurate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/south/series7/speed_cameras.shtml