Colin buchanan

Colin Buchanan (CB) today submitted its response to the Outer London Commission. Commenting on their response John Siraut, Economist at CB, welcomed the increased emphasis on outer London but expressed doubts about the ability of the Mayor to develop his ideas of super hubs.

“Cities are all about bringing economic activity together in their centres – that’s what all the evidence suggests and how we were able to make the case for Crossrail” he added.

The key elements of CB’s response were:

• Greater emphasis needs to be given to pedestrians and cyclists in outer London’s key centres – with large scale pedestrianisation during shopping hours and whole scale public realm improvements needed
• New high density housing should be aimed at families and aspire to be of the same standard as much of the high density private housing in Notting Hill and Kensington & Chelsea, rather than the bland blocks of one to two bedroom apartments littering our landscape
• Transport for London (TfL)  should take over the operation of the suburban rail network, the benefits are evident from changes on the North London Line in terms of revenue and patronage increases
• Deregulated express bus services should be allowed to operate orbital services as a way of market testing the idea at minimal risk to TfL
• Minicabs which are vitally important to many socially excluded groups in outer London should have the same right of access to bus lanes and exemption from road user charges as taxis
  20mph residential zones should be implemented using average and fixed speed cameras
• Real safe routes to schools should be piloted which give children absolute priority on the way to and from school
• Traffic lights should be removed or switched off at less busy times wherever it is safe to do so

Click here to download the full CB response

Click here to see CB's and other responses on the OLC website