A year in the life of Islington Living Streets

Tonight’s end of year Living Streets “do” in Islington Town Hall saw off not just a strong campaigning year for the organisation but a year of genuine victories.

Chaired by the irrepressible Caroline Russell there was a comprehensive run through of the sterling work that had taken place over the last year. There was lots of talk of gyratories in King’s Cross, Archway and Highbury Corner and how their organised chaos is not just unsafe but prevents livability because traffic has priority over local communities.

The Euston Road / King’s Cross system in particular is used by literally millions of pedestrians from outside and inside London, yet space for cars and lorries always comes before space for those on foot.

There was a fascinating discussion of the work done around the canal, and in particular how the British Waterways Board (BWB) has attempted to tackle the paths shared by pedestrians and cyclists. I’ve not been up that way so it was interesting to hear how BWB had simply imported ideas from roads and introduced chicanes and speed bumps to slow down cyclists. Well, the thing about speed bumps is that if you’re on a bike you actually need to *speed up* to take them, not slow down. Yet another instance of routine thinking making things worse when we needed innovation.

There was also much disappointment that the ‘2011 year of walking’ (to follow the ‘2010 year of cycling’) never materialised. Officials had been slow to admit that the scheme had been dropped meaning that campaigners had spent time and effort “pursuing something that wasn’t there”.

The show piece though is, of course, the fact that Islington council has now adopted 20 mph speed limits across the borough, something the Living Streets groups has been arguing for over many years.

The formidable campaigner Christine Mabey certainly sees it as something that was won incrementally, winning individual councillors and officers to the idea, turning specific roads in 20 mph zones and working hard to ensure consultations came in with record response rates. Hopefully now the momentum is there it wont take other boroughs ten years to win the same demand, particularly as polling seems to indicate 20 mph is a vote winner.

If we’re to turn London into a ‘City of 20‘ environmentalists and campaigners across the city are going to have to learn from Islington’s fine example and, I hope, Islington Living Streets will act as ambassadors across London to spread the best practice, helping make London a more livable city.