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news
London cyclist & moto & bus (CC BY 2.0 Waterford_Man via Flickr)BBC U-turns on article blaming London’s ‘most congested city’ title on cycle lanes
Complaints about a BBC report which blamed London’s position as the world’s most congested city on an increase in cycle lanes have led the broadcaster to amend the article to “better reflect the range of factors impacting congestion in London”.
In early December traffic firm Inrix named the UK capital as the city in which motorists lost the most time stuck in traffic jams last year in its Global Traffic Scorecard.
> “Incredibly simplistic” to blame cycle lanes for London being named world’s most congested city
While Inrix operations director Peter Lees attributed the rise in congestion to the city’s rapid economic recovery from the pandemic, many mainstream media outlets, including the BBC, preferred to focus on Lees’ claim that the reallocation of road space for pedestrians and cyclists in response to the Covid crisis had a “negative impact” on traffic in the capital.
The BBC covered the report with the headline London congestion: Cycle lanes blamed as city named most congested. A number of other outlets opted for variations on the ‘cycle lanes to blame’ theme, a media response described by charity Cycling UK as “incredibly simplistic”.
Lees responded to the press reaction, emphasising that while more space for cyclists was one of a number of “smaller contributory factors”, the “speedy economic rebound was presented as the single biggest cause of congestion in London”.
He also claimed that the inaccurate representation of the report in the media reflected the views of one journalist he had spoken to, who admitted that focusing on an anti-cycle lane angle “would get more readers”.
The reply from BBC Complaints about the misleading assertion that cycle lanes were to blame for congestion in London.
The have also renamed the article to "London congestion: Capital becomes world’s most congested city". https://t.co/RhghjrUq4Z pic.twitter.com/G5texauXEU
— Elisabeth Anderson 💉💉💉 (@velobetty) January 4, 2022
The BBC has since amended its article, changing the headline to London congestion: Capital becomes world’s most congested city. In its reply to a reader’s complaint, the broadcaster wrote, “We understand that you felt the article focused too heavily on cycle lanes and the impact they may have on congestion in London, and note your concerns about a lack of impartiality in the piece.
“We take seriously our responsibility to report accurately and impartially, and have considered these points in detail,” the statement continued. “We believe that the article clearly attributes the source of the report… and provide opposing views from other organisations who don’t agree with some of the claims, such as Cycling UK, to provide balance.
“However, on reflection, we have amended the headline and copy to better reflect the range of factors impacting congestion in London, and for transparency, have added a clarification to that effect at the end of the article.”
Ryan joined road.cc as a news writer in December 2021. He has written about cycling and some ball-centric sports for various websites, newspapers, magazines and radio. Before returning to writing about cycling full-time, he completed a PhD in History and published a book and numerous academic articles on religion and politics in Victorian Britain and Ireland (though he remained committed to boring his university colleagues and students with endless cycling trivia). He can be found riding his bike very slowly through the Dromara Hills of Co. Down.
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51 comments
The idiocy of that 'because of cycle lanes' "interpretation" (which can't really be called that because it's wholly unsubstantiated) was given away in the text of the article, where it said how London jumped up by 4 places if memory serves me right but also how absolute traffic livels in London had barely changed.
It would be interesting to see what the cities which London leapfrogged did in terms of encouraging active transport as I suspect we would find out that the only real reason London climbed this comparative table is that not as much was done in favour of active travel and/or Londoners did not embrace better means of transportation as much as the people of those cities. Which ironically, but very familiarly, would mean the very people moaning about being stuck in their cars have only got themselves to blame...
Paris did convert quite alot of the city centre into Active Travel sections over the pandemic. I believe it was second on the congestion report even though most pictures on the day made it look like China 20 years ago or Amsterdam with the amount of bikes being used.
Persistent repetition of a lie doesn't make it true.
Absolutely.
However, the clown entertains himself and basks in the attention when we pile in with responses. In doing so help reinforce his own prejudices rather than achieve anything remotely positive.
You're right. But a troll seeks the kind of attention online that they are unable to get anywhere else, so the occasional reply is an act of kindness and compassion. Prejudice is too big a word here, I think.
Yes, Garage at Large, yes. But now close your eyes and sleep. You'll need lots and lots of energy tomorrow to play with all your friends at nursery.
Seeing your comments on this and other stories it's clear your a troll.
Can you provide a summary of the red tape that has been relaxed and how it's affected the economy?
Having to repeat the facts to ignorant people like you is tiring but it needs to be done. As of January 2022 UK importers and exporters to the EU have more paperwork to complete including import custom duties. There is now also the necessity for suppliers declaration form and commodity codes which are used to classify goods for customs declarations. There will now be full customs controls at all ports and border locations. Of course non of this was required before brexthick.
But look at all the shiney new trade deals that we now
have toare able to strike with countriesthat we already had trade deals with as part of our EU membershipWorking in the agri/food sector, I can see some of the complication and additional burden placed on many businesses. The costs are soaring, the trade deals are not working favourably for UK farmers and growers and the lack of clear guidance and information from Defra and other govt departments is breathtaking.
B-shit is affecting so many industries in a hugely negative way. This piece from December about some of the small-scale businesses that are part of the music industry and how cross-channel sales have been impacted so far doesn't make for cheerful reading.
https://thequietus.com/articles/30953-eu-customs-diy-music-uk-brexit
Despite this exports to the EU are holding up nicely.
Imports are down but mostly being replaced by non-EU imports which is likely just a reverse-Rotterdam effect.
Interesting graph but it only goes up to Nov 20 - before the transition period ended?
Can you post the source with data for this year?
The OBR paints a very different picture after the end of the transition period:
https://obr.uk/box/the-initial-impact-of-brexit-on-uk-trade-with-the-eu/
Here you go. Looks like you need to register to change the presentation to the way Rich_cb has it, which I can't be bothered to do, but I think this is the same data.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/284750/united-kingdom-uk-total-eu-tr...
Think these are the latest stats.
Obviously month by month is more variable than annual figures and lockdown/end of transition skews the start of the year somewhat but we now seem to be back to the same level as we've been at for the past decade.
The OBR graph is normalised to Q4 2020 which will exaggerate the fall (due to stockpiling) and should therefore not be viewed in isolation.
The end of transition didn't happen at the start of last year as certain provisions have been delayed, especially the introduction of full customs checks for UK imports, which are effective from this month. The transition is an ongoing process, the full effects of which have yet to be anything like fully realised.
Just Google 'Brexit Transition Period'.
Let me know how you get on.
When crucial elements of the transition, e.g. the imposition of customs checks, were delayed beyond the end of the official transition period, it is clear the transition is still ongoing. Just Google "intellectually dishonest" and "in name only" and let me know how you get on.
Well at least you acknowledge that there was an "official transition period".
I'm assuming you don't dispute that said period ended?
I'm also assuming you don't dispute that the end of said period coincided with significant trade disruption?
That was all I was pointing out.
I believe most export checks are now in place so the export data I referred to is a good approximation of where we should be once all are in place.
No need to do that.
I have colleagues who have had 2 years' bombardment of queries, complaints, frustration, expense, wasted time over and over again, endless rounds of conference calls with clueless civil servants and far more besides thanks to your much-loved Brexit (and as already mentioned, the party has only just begun). And we are only one small business in one small corner of the UK food industry.
Some fool posting a nice chart they found isn't going to fix anything.
Maybe not but it does demonstrate that the vast majority of exports have continued unabated.
OK if you say so, you're the expert.
Everything will be fine and dandy if we keep saying it often enough.
I don't have to say anything.
The numbers speak for themselves.
You might not like the facts but that doesn't stop them being true.
Said no one with any working knowledge of complex statistics ever.....
In isolation this may be a reasonable statement.
In the context of your data picking and wild assertions, you've managed to make it into word salad.
A pretty chart may be 'factual' but not accurate.
What you claim are 'facts' do not reflect what is happening in the real world.
They do represent what's happening in the real world.
Your personal experience of a very small part of the economy may be different but that doesn't change the accuracy of the statistics.
Lukas is talking of the present and future, you're talking of the past. Let's wait and see what the balance looks like in six months.
"We expect the full impact of Brexit on trade to be manifest only after all the terms of the TCA have been fully implemented" "
"The terms of the TCA are yet to be implemented in full, meaning trade barriers will rise further as more of the deal comes into force."
- Office of Budget Responsibility
It can't be denied that some trade barriers are already in place and, so far, export disruption has not been as great as feared.
It seems entirely reasonable to point that out when people predict future trade disruption.
But yes, let's wait and see.
Volume disruption is only one measure though? How about Cost disruption? Even assuming the same volume is flowing, if its at a greater % cost then thats a disruption.
There will definitely be additional costs but I don't think we can easily measure them.
Given COVID related inflation throughout supply chains it will be really tricky to get an accurate figure.
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