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Evening Standard's George Osborne comes out against Embankment Cycle Superhighway as newspaper appears to nail its colours to the mast early for next year's London mayoral election

Former Chancellor joins fellow Tories in blaming infrastructure for pollution and congestion and calling for re-routing of CS3

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has claimed that Cycle Superhighway 3 on London’s Embankment is to blame for “choking gridlock at the heart of our city,” in another sign that the protected route is likely to be a key campaigning issue at next year’s mayoral election as battle lines are drawn between the Conservative and Labour parties.  

It follows similar comments made recently by the Tory candidate for mayor, Shaun Bailey, and the Conservative peer Baroness Brady in a recent opinion piece in the London Evening Standard, which Osborne has edited since May 2017, shortly after he stepped down as Member of Parliament for Tatton ahead of that year’s general election.

> Tory candidate for London mayor ridiculed over Cycle Superhighway 3 comments

Writing today in his capacity as editor of the newspaper in reply to a reader’s criticism of the route, the former cabinet minister claimed that some Cycle Superhighways “are ill-conceived, causing near-permanent congestion and pollution,” singling out the east-west route along the Thames “the most obvious mistake.”

He was responding to a letter from Standard reader Jocelyn Seligman, who expressed disagreement with an article published in the newspaper last week written by London’s cycling and walking commissioner, Will Norman, who under the heading Cycle lanes are the solution to congestion not the problem refuted the points Brady had raised.

The letter to which Osborne was replying said, among other things: “There have to be some decent through roads to allow people who live in London to move around by car.

The writer, who appears to be a Mayfair-based hedge fund manager, said: “By all means charge a fortune to use them, but undersupplying necessary transport routes is obviously not a practical solution.”

He continued: “The Embankment runs parallel to the Thames, which is not only woefully underused as a transport resource but also provides room to create cycle bypasses.

“A bit of imagination in transport would leave us all better off.”

Although the letter – or at least the version of it published by the newspaper – did not go into detail about how the Thames could help solve the problem, in 2015 proposals were unveiled for a £600 million floating cycle path called the Thames Deckway.

> Would you use a floating bicycle toll road along the Thames?

The Thames Deckway Twitter account remains active, and newsletters are published periodically on its website, the last being in summer 2018.

In his full response to the reader’s letter, Osborne said:

I agree with you. Much has been done to make London one of the more bicycle-friendly cities in the world, and that is to be applauded. 

But some of the cycle superhighways are ill-conceived, causing near-permanent congestion and pollution. The one running along the Embankment is the most obvious mistake. Legitimate objections from local businesses and central government were overriden; traffic studies that predicted the ensuing jams were ignored; other routes were disregarded because they would require City Hall to involve local boroughs more.  

The result is a choking gridlock in the heart of our city. If the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, started again with a better design on the Embankment, he would win plaudits and support for the further work to make ours a capital of cycling.

The route was devised and built during the mayoralty of Khan’s predecessor, Osborne’s sometime fellow Conservative MP, Boris Johnson.

In late 2015, as he neared the end of his second and final term as mayor, and when Osborne was still Chancellor of the Exchequer, Johnson said: “I can’t think of anything I’ve ever done that’s provoked such direct remonstrances from everybody.

“Virtually every senior government minister in one way or another has ticked me off in one way or another for the Cycle Superhighways.”

Last November, Khan insisted that Cycle Superhighways, criticised by representatives of the black cab trade and in particular the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association as well as some businesses such as the Canary Wharf Group – although many more major employers have publicly backed such infrastructure – did not cause more congestion or air pollution.

Instead, he maintained that it was increasing numbers of private hire vehicles from the likes of Uber as well as more delivery vans on the road, particularly ones carrying goods ordered online to people’s places of work in Central London, that were to blame.

With Bailey, Brady and now Osborne backing a re-routing of the Embankment Cycling Superhighway, and with transport being one of the two main areas for which the Mayor of London is responsible – the other is policing – it seems legitimate to conclude that party politics are at work here.

In May 2016, the Standard endorsed Zac Goldsmith against Khan as mayor just one day before that year’s election, in which the Labour candidate scored a resounding win.

It seems that the newspaper may have nailed its colours to the mast rather earlier ahead of the May 2020 vote.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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21 comments

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 5 years ago
2 likes

Placing a cycle lane next to a lorry park was a poor idea.  But it didn't cause the congestion as that was just as bad previously, and does make cycling safer - apart from the NOX particles from the adjacent lorry park.  How aboiut simply banning trucks from our cities between 6am and 10pm?  And no, I don't care about the cost or inconvenience it causes the hauliers. 

Avatar
jh27 | 5 years ago
0 likes

I'm not a fan of George Osborne, but I am struggling to find the article which contains the quotes attributed to him.

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to jh27 | 5 years ago
0 likes

jh27 wrote:

I'm not a fan of George Osborne, but I am struggling to find the article which contains the quotes attributed to him.

www.standard.co.uk/comment/letters/the-reader-thames-could-solve-embankm...

Avatar
cczmark | 5 years ago
4 likes

Yeah it must be the 3% of roads in London that have a cycle lane that are causing the problem.

Obviously nothing to do with the additional tens of thousands of private hire vehicles (Uber etc) and light delivery vans (online shopping) on the road.... link

 

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 5 years ago
3 likes

How about a system of trebuchets and catch nets*?

*When I say "catch nets", I mean landing zone full of sharp objects.

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burtthebike | 5 years ago
4 likes

“A bit of imagination in transport would leave us all better off.”

I know we've got used to a level of hypocrisy that would have embarrassed Goebells, but this is a cracker.  Somebody with no imagination whatsoever, a car dependent dinosaur, demanding that the status quo of car domination must continue, asking for a bit of imagination.

Do drivers ever look in the mirror?  Or don't they have friends who can tell them?

Avatar
jh27 replied to burtthebike | 5 years ago
3 likes

burtthebike wrote:

“A bit of imagination in transport would leave us all better off.”

I know we've got used to a level of hypocrisy that would have embarrassed Goebells, but this is a cracker.  Somebody with no imagination whatsoever, a car dependent dinosaur, demanding that the status quo of car domination must continue, asking for a bit of imagination.

Do drivers ever look in the mirror?  Or don't they have friends who can tell them?

 

He might be a car dependent dinosaur - but he's got plenty of imagination, if he thinks that cycle lanes are the cause of London's congestion.

Avatar
Simon E replied to jh27 | 5 years ago
2 likes

jh27 wrote:

He might be a car dependent dinosaur - but he's got plenty of imagination, if he thinks that cycle lanes are the cause of London's congestion.

Mark Treasure tweeted a video clip of the stretch of road at 17:40 yesterday:

https://twitter.com/AsEasyAsRiding/status/1089941949321302018

And a similar time today:

https://twitter.com/AsEasyAsRiding/status/1090305497054527493

Plenty of bikes, not many cars.

And anyway the worst congestion is on roads without bike lanes:

https://road.cc/content/news/236716-study-finds-londons-most-congested-r...

But why are all these business types, Lords and pampered coke snorters, with their millions and their limos, feeling so threatened by the presence of a few people on bicycles? Hmmmm.

Perhaps it's because these dinosaurs sense a change, and it's a change that will be good for the masses but not so good for them. And I can't wait for it to happen, so here's a big F**K YOU to George Osborne, Alan Sugar, Robert Winston, Nigel Lawson and your arrogant, rich, self-centred friends. You'll soon be dead (though not soon enough IMO) then your lies will be worth nothing and you will no longer be sucking the vitality out of this country.

Avatar
handlebarcam | 5 years ago
7 likes

Couldn't we make everyone happy by building a network of human-sized pneumatic tubes thoroughout London, specifically to transport Tories and other people who cannot use public transport for fear of being punched in the face. Only very occasionally would the tubes be diverted into the Beckton sewage treatment works.

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 5 years ago
5 likes

I think that Mr Seligman and a significant cadre of the ruling elite would be very happy with a system of reserved lanes and priority signalling for their exclusive use. Their concerns are not for the average person trying to get about London.

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Crocknorth | 5 years ago
11 likes

“By all means charge a fortune to use them”.

Yes, much better to have rich drivers with access to the roads than dozens of cyclists. I’m alright Jack.

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brooksby replied to Crocknorth | 5 years ago
4 likes

StevoJ wrote:

“By all means charge a fortune to use them”.

Yes, much better to have rich drivers with access to the roads than dozens of cyclists. I’m alright Jack.

I'd noticed that comment too. He'd be more than happy with road pricing at any price  because he can afford to pay for it. I don't imagine he uses public transport, unless you count black cabs and Uber as public transportation...

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srchar | 5 years ago
13 likes

It's only since the cycle lanes were built that London became congested.

In the nineties, it was common for people to drive to work in the city because traffic was so light. Tourists from the mountains of Switzerland would holiday by the Thames to take in the air. Buses were incredibly popular and loved by passengers as they offered the quickest way around the city streets.

That changed pretty much overnight when planning permission was granted for CS3.

Avatar
JPKD | 5 years ago
10 likes

Osbourne froze fuel duty in 2011 - EIGHT YEARS AGO. It has cost the Treasury £50bn. It's classic Tory taxation policy. Convince the world they are giving them something by giving them nothing. 

I often wonder what the roads would look like in this country if everyone who lived within a 10 mile radius of work got public transport or a bike to work. Probably pretty good.

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EddyBerckx | 5 years ago
9 likes

Having rode along the embankment for 14 years before the suoerhighway was built, most of that on a motorcycle...it was often congested with traffic jams, no different to now.

And that was without the massive increase in delivery vehicles, taxis and hgvs...

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maviczap replied to EddyBerckx | 5 years ago
5 likes

StoopidUserName wrote:

Having rode along the embankment for 14 years before the suoerhighway was built, most of that on a motorcycle...it was often congested with traffic jams, no different to now. And that was without the massive increase in delivery vehicles, taxis and hgvs...

Yep, even in the mid eighties when I worked in London it was congested, and with the increase in car ownership, it's not improved, even with the congestion charge. Quite an apt name

Avatar
Accessibility f... | 5 years ago
14 likes

Today I learned that before protected cycle lanes were built in London, there was never any congestion.

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Chougher | 5 years ago
8 likes

Well, it goes against every single report on traffic, but as another member of the cabinet said, the people have had enough of experts.

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Organon | 5 years ago
10 likes

Before the usual insults start can I say he is more of a shiteweasel than a common or garden cockwomble.

I'd rather hear what Lord Dyer of Walford has to say on the subject.

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to Organon | 5 years ago
1 like
Organon wrote:

Before the usual insults start can I say he is more of a shiteweasel than a common or garden cockwomble.

I'd rather hear what Lord Dyer of Walford has to say on the subject.

That would be King Danny The First to you, sunshine ;o)

Avatar
HarrogateSpa | 5 years ago
6 likes

Osborne is a chump, and always has been.

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