What can I do to protect my city?

[Tim Lund]

When poor air quality is forecast for a city,



Source DEFRA

should you ask

What can I do to protect myself?

There are steps you can take to protect you and your family from air pollution.

...

If you don’t have any health conditions you can carry on as normal during high pollution days. However, older people and those with asthma or other lung or heart issues may experience worse symptoms.

advice courtesy of the GLA,

or what you can do to protect your city - encouraging people to leave their cars at home and get cycling?



advice courtesy Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris.

Of course, it helps if you have more power at the metropolitan level, rather than fragmented among London's 33 boroughs ...

[Robin Orton]

How about setting up a Town Bikeshed, Admin? Somewhere they could all get together and congratulate each other without making the rest of us feel old and feeble?

[stuart]

How about setting up a Town Bikeshed, Admin? Somewhere they could all get together and congratulate each other without making the rest of us feel old and feeble?

Shame on you Robin. Cycling is for the old and feeble. Here is the story of a friend of mine in his eighties who was made very feeble. He still can't walk unaided but can cycle unaided for 10/15 miles on a racing bike!. It was the nearby Herne Hill Velodrome and Croydon Arena that brought him back to an enjoyable life. And there is no shame having electric assistance if Westwood Hill looks a tad challenging.

http://anerleybc.org/cyclist-recycled/
http://www.50cycles.com/blog/7-reasons- ... in-london/

I think Lewisham Council give a free lesson to people who want to ride. I did it. The trainer was a taxi driver which was a little ironic.

Stuart

[somerandombloke]

I am NOT feelin well dosposed to cyclits today got hit by one cycling along the pavement outside the station in St Albans this morning hurt my arm quite badly. Stupid git shouted "Look where your f***in goin c**t!" and cycled on. If I see him tomorrow I am macing the c**t.

[Tim Lund]

You're a mere spring chicken, Robin

Sidney Schuman from Hither Green has been cycling since the age of 11 and took up track cycling in May after a taster session at Lee Valley VeloPark.

84 year old man sets Hour record

[stuart]

I am NOT feelin well dosposed to cyclits today got hit by one cycling along the pavement outside the station in St Albans this morning hurt my arm quite badly. Stupid git shouted "Look where your f***in goin c**t!" and cycled on. If I see him tomorrow I am macing the c**t.

Wrong diagnosis mate. He was an irresponsible rude dangerous anti-social idiot on a bicycle who well deserves a PCN. Just think of him behind a wheel. And there are a fair few of those. If he had been black would you have generalised so? People do you know.

The point of cycle training is to feel confident and safe on the road.

Stuart

[somerandombloke]

I am NOT feelin well dosposed to cyclits today got hit by one cycling along the pavement outside the station in St Albans this morning hurt my arm quite badly. Stupid git shouted "Look where your f***in goin c**t!" and cycled on. If I see him tomorrow I am macing the c**t.

Wrong diagnosis mate. He was an irresponsible rude dangerous anti-social idiot on a bicycle who well deserves a PCN. Just think of him behind a wheel. And there are a fair few of those. If had been black would you have generalised so? People do you know.

The point of cycle training is to feel confident and safe on the road.

Stuart

As it happens he was black. But that's not why hes a c**t. Hes a c**t because he thinks he can bomb along the pavement asnd somone who he hits is in his way. Thing is I see cyclists behaving like c**ts every day this time he hit me but theres been many many close shaves. And I will try to report him tomorrow but tehre wasnt a copper around today.

An I would hope that one of the points of cycl trainin is to make cyclists aware that people need to feel safe when there around too. An awful lot of them dont seem to give a frig about how much danger they put people in by bombin along teh pavement.

[stuart]

As it happens he was black. But that's not why hes a c**t. Hes a c**t because he thinks he can bomb along the pavement asnd somone who he hits is in his way.

It was such a nice day until you came along with an expletive rant about another expletive person. He was black, he was cycling. The problem was neither, the problem was, (to repeat), he was an irresponsible, dangerous, anti-social, rude bloke. We don't have a very efficient way of dealing with people like this whether he is walking, running, riding or driving or (apart from the dangerous bit) posting in Town Hall.

Whereas one of the serious issues to cyclists and preventing people from cycling are people like you who just go around ranting about people regardless of whether they deserve it or not. And use that anger to lose the plot on reality. If you are really worried about being injured or killed or merely inconvenienced on the pavement - check the statistics.

So can we now get back to making our city and/or Sydenham a healthier and more pleasant place. You know, without foul air and foul language.

Stuart

[somerandombloke]

As it happens he was black. But that's not why hes a c**t. Hes a c**t because he thinks he can bomb along the pavement asnd somone who he hits is in his way.

It was such a nice day until you came along with an expletive rant about another expletive person. He was black, he was cycling. The problem was neither, the problem was, (to repeat), he was an irresponsible, dangerous, anti-social, rude bloke. We don't have a very efficient way of dealing with people like this whether he is walking, running, riding or driving or (apart from the dangerous bit) posting in Town Hall.

Whereas one of the serious issues to cyclists and preventing people from cycling are people like you who just go around ranting about people regardless of whether they deserve it or not. And use that anger to lose the plot on reality. If you are really worried about being injured or killed or merely inconvenienced on the pavement - check the statistics.

So can we now get back to making our city and/or Sydenham a healthier and more pleasant place. You know, without foul air and foul language.

Stuart

OK apologies for rantiung but the trouble with cyclists is that they regularly behave like berks [clean word!] and the pedestrians perception of them will always be effected by that. Im at the station now just been talking to a Tranpsort Copper and it turns out this cyclist has been reported at St Albans station 3 times in teh alst 10 days but they havent been able to grab him yet. Hopefully thatll happen before he does someone a serious injury.

As to clean air theres also gettin the bus or train or my favourite jus walking. I am a fat lazy git but give me a park specially this time of the year and Im a happy bunny.

[_HB]

Consider yourself lucky SRB. If the reckless, impatient idiot on the bike was driving an HGV he might have crushed you to death. Just like the woman who was crushed to death by a lorry on Lambeth Bridge this morning.

Do all lorry drivers deserve to be tarred with the same brush because of one individual? No. So put a sock in it or take it to the pub.

The pollution in the South East is a national disgrace and our politicians are too scared of the motoring and business lobby's to do anything about it. Shameful.

[Tim Lund]

One of the other shameful things about this was the amount of time it took me to bring together what I needed for the OP. The trigger was thanks to a tweet from @citycyclists, contrasting that tweet from the Mayor of Paris with something from LB Wandsworth repeating the GLA advice. It took me a while to track down that air pollution forecast to an authoritative source - nothing I could find easily on the BBC weather forecast. OK - maybe I could have done better, but somehow the authorities here are failing to use modern social media to get messages out effectively. They seem to think that if they put some carefully worded text on a rather boring looking web site, then that's their job done.

I'd say we need a Mayor of London who will use twitter as it should be.

[somerandombloke]

Do all lorry drivers deserve to be tarred with the same brush because of one individual? No. So put a sock in it or take it to the pub.

I know I apologised for ranting but the point shoul also be made that itd be very unlikely that the HGV driver would be delibratly drivin like a prat on the pavement like the guy at St Albans on his bike. I am also making the point that any group of people will be seen as behaving like the most visible its whey Eagle and Nigel and Squashy etc etc etc think all Romanians are theives and all Muslims are terrorrists and all gays are immoral sodomites.

But yeah the air pollution round our way is horrible some days though I like going up Palace to see my mates the air there is noticbly cleaner.

I drive a van a couple of days a month cos I sometimes need tyo bring equipment to a job but I do try to leave it at home as much as possible. Havnet used it at all since Tusday of last week.

Also:- looks like the new post notice is now working on Chrome

[_HB]

but the point shoul also be made that itd be very unlikely that the HGV driver would be delibratly drivin like a prat on the pavement like the guy at St Albans on his bike.

Like this guy?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/l ... 64566.html

You need to train your fire where the real danger lies SRB.

[somerandombloke]

Yeah I remember that 2013 one the poor sod. And I knew a guy whose sister was killed by a bus on Waterloo Bridge about 10 years ago now cos the cycle path ended in the miuddle of the bridge. I aint sayin car and lorry drivers are blameless of course they aint but all of us wether we drive a vehicle or cycle a bike or even walk we all need to take responsibiliyty for road saftey. I been drivin for over 30 years now never even had a scrape but the accidents I see happenin always caused by one of two things - not payin attenion or bein selfish. And that includes walkers as well as cyclists as well as drivers.

[_HB]

Excellent, I'm glad we agree.

"The trouble with cyclists..." "The trouble with cab drivers..." is actually "The trouble with people".

[Tim Lund]

Excellent, I'm glad we agree.

"The trouble with cyclists..." "The trouble with cab drivers..." is actually "The trouble with people".

I blame Original Sin

[somerandombloke]

The trouble with people

is that their all stupid lazy selfish lying theiving dishonest cheatin gits.

Except me of course.

[leenewham]

Q "What can I do to protect my City"
A. Ensure the country shares investment, immigration, jobs, growth, housing, green every, infrastructure etc.

Do this by moving the British Government to the Midlands, link up all the major cities via high street rail links first, encourage businesses to move out of London, which will increase space in London, drive down cost of business rates and the pressure on housing.

Bring in aggressive new pollution rules for new cars, buildings and business in London. Ensure that all new buildings are carbon neutral, heavily insulated and employ solar panels, water run off/soakaways etc. Make some areas shared for bikes and pedestrians with a speed limit AND CLEAR SIGNAGE (many pavements are already shared, but it's not very clear!).

Allowing cities to grow forever is not sustainable. London's skyline is a dirty as I've ever seen in my 22 years here.

[somerandombloke]

Q "What can I do to protect my City"
A. Ensure the country shares investment, immigration, jobs, growth, housing, green every, infrastructure etc.

Do this by moving the British Government to the Midlands, link up all the major cities via high street rail links first, encourage businesses to move out of London, which will increase space in London, drive down cost of business rates and the pressure on housing.

Bring in aggressive new pollution rules for new cars, buildings and business in London. Ensure that all new buildings are carbon neutral, heavily insulated and employ solar panels, water run off/soakaways etc. Make some areas shared for bikes and pedestrians with a speed limit AND CLEAR SIGNAGE (many pavements are already shared, but it's not very clear!).

Allowing cities to grow forever is not sustainable. London's skyline is a dirty as I've ever seen in my 22 years here.

Lee Newham for PM!

[mosy]

Queueing traffic is perhaps one of the biggest causes - or I perceive it to be when walking alongside it, but "I" can't do anything about that. I wish there were rules to prevent drivers leaving engines running whilst their vehicle is stationery, although how that would be policed is beyond me.

Not sure what I could do except stop breathing maybe and thus not use up vital oxygen. At an individual level, the only other answer that springs to mind (apart from the obvious implication to leave the car at home) would be to use less things that cause waste. So make things last longer and rail against silly excess packaging.

Just thought of another one - learn to fly thus eliminating the need for air transport