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Old September 6th 08, 11:01 AM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.transport
Colin McKenzie Colin McKenzie is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Feb 2004
Posts: 266
Default Close roads, speed up traffic

wrote:
On Sep 5, 2:52 pm, "John Rowland"
wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote:
Science:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...riving-causes-...
I look forward to reading the paper, and to following development of
these ideas in the future.

Obviously if every side road off your commute between your home and your
office was closed, this would speed up your journey. ...

But that's not what's being claimed. What is being claimed is that by
closing certain links, journey time for everybody can be improved.


Assuming:-
- that 'everybody' includes only motorised road users
- that those whose journeys are lengthened drive faster to compensate

And it's been happening for years, with the twin aims of getting motor
traffic onto the main corridors and keeping it moving there.

The result is a much less permeable network, with increased journey
distance, increased free-flowing traffic speeds, reduced lane widths,
and kerbside barriers everywhere.

It's hard to see how they could have done any more to discourage
cycling, and it's nearly as bad for pedestrians.

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at the
population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.