Monday’s Friday Reads – 4 January 2021

We need more school streets banning cars for kids’ safety (CityLab)

History of Parisian tramways, beyond the horse (FabricOfParis)

Differences between subway maps & actual geography (MyModernMet)

Car access more than tripled value during early Covid-19 (MITSloan)

Distracted driving skyrocketing during the pandemic (StreetsBlog)

Hands across the water bridge (BeautyOfTransport)

Our house, in the middle of Lahore’s Orange train line (AlJazeera)

Check out our new section:

As well as some of our other sections:

And some of our most popular articles: 

Feel we should read something or include in a future list? Email us at [email protected].

Comments and tweets may be monitored for quality and training purposes.

Reconnections is funded largely by our community. Like what we do? Buy us a cup of coffee or visit our shop.

7 comments

  1. Lahore
    See the history of building & demolition in London approx 1850 – 1890
    Oh & “Workmen’s Tickets” & other compensation methods.
    So – Lahore is where we were in 1870? [Snip. LBM]

  2. Closing roads outside schools?
    Could be difficult.
    When that road is a public double-decker bus route & it seems that 1/3rd of the parents drive their children to the school?
    Or the infant’s school entrance is right next to the “back” entrance of the larger school – where the teacher’s cars & big-school deliveries go in & out?
    Or the school is on a semi-major road, sited quite deliberately, for ease of access by public transport?
    There are certainly lots of cases of the last instance.

  3. Greg T,

    Meanwhile, here in London Borough of Croydon closing roads outside schools is the norm but there are exceptions. So it can’t be that hard to do if even Croydon can do it.

    Clearly an exception would be made if it is a bus route but normally schools don’t have usually entrances onto the main road. And, if they do, it is about time that is changed where it is possible to do so.

    The closure is only between specified hours in the morning and afternoon and only to motor vehicles. Residents have access permits and are registered – but residents aren’t usually the problem. Presumably it is the same for teachers. The road signs usually indicate that the ban is enforced by CCTV – and it generally is.

    Lots of schools already ban deliveries during hours when children are due to arrive or leave so, for the most part, these are unaffected. Just common sense, respect and decency should surely mean this shouldn’t happen anyway.

    Obviously you get a problem in parking in nearby roads. And that sometimes means more pedestrians crossing dangerous roads. However the aim is to change long term attitudes. There appears to be remarkably little criticism or hostility to the measures.

    If I have one complaint over the schemes it is that it ought to be done in conjunction with other street calming measures. Possibly also have illuminated signs on a timer to make it clearer when it is in force.

  4. @POP

    “Possibly also have illuminated signs on a timer to make it clearer when it is in force.”

    The ones by the school restrictions here in Newham change on a command between “restrictions now” and “restrictions later” signs. Nothing fancy, just normal street signs.

    It’s not like we need any more visual clutter and pavement hazards.

  5. On my road (Sutton Council) they’ve gone for the time honoured black bin bag approach.

    My major gripe, as a resident admittedly, is that the biggest problem caused by the school is on-street parking by teachers, which of course the measure does nothing to help. The congestion caused by pick-up and drop-off has simply moved to a different road.

  6. Several of the schools here are in a low traffic neighborhood, which means that while you can get to the school by car it takes an extra 2-3 minutes of driving.

    As a result the number of kids walking and cycling to school (when it isn’t closed) seems to have skyrocketed.

    Possibly it’s now quicker for parents to walk kids to school first, then drive to work. Whereas before they might have got everyone in the car and stopped at the school on the way.

  7. @BOB

    Indeed, that Behavioural Insight makes it a “Nudge”. By making something that people do slightly more cognitively difficult they will choose not to do it. It’s the same thing as speed bumps, which do nothing to stop people accelerating hard between them, they are so annoying to drivers they will use a main road and not rat-run (on the whole).

Comments are closed.