European community for mobility management

The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) launched the 'Love London-Go Dutch' campaign at the Design Museum. The campaign aims to commit the next Mayor of London to pursue a more liveable, cycling friendly city, inspired by the Dutch approach to urban planning.

They unveiled a new people friendly design for the Parliament Square. The mock-up of how the area might look if pedestrians and cyclists were given the same consideration they might be afforded in the Netherlands is nothing short of utopian.

Two sides of the square are closed to motorised traffic and the space in the middle is rightfully reclaimed as public park. What remain of the roads have been given a Dutch-style makeover, each with Euro-width cycle paths down either side and advance stop areas, separate light phases and channelling at junctions. Whichever direction a cyclist wants to head in, their space on the road is clearly defined.

Of course, this design is nothing but speculative. Essentially it's a PR tool to attract interest to the campaign. It's something tangible to illustrate what LCC is striving for. No local authority has commissioned it; no one has said they'll take action on it. But could they? How realistic is it as a proposition? Or perhaps the question we really want to ask is: why the hell not?

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