Thames crossings are unsustainable
By John Biggs
Even a little green man from Mars would recognise that for an area like ours to have so few roads crossing the Thames is unsustainable.
But we also know that individual communities often oppose roads because of the fear that they will bring unwanted traffic to a quiet area. The answer is that we need leadership.
Our previous Mayor bit the bullet and tried to build a bridge a couple of miles East of Blackwall.
In the end he didn't succeed in overcoming all the objections but this would have been cracked with a little more work.
One of the first decisions of Mayor Boris was to cancel that plan, and replace it with the delaying tactic of a review. In the sweep of a pen he managed to set back the transport needs of east London by a decade or so, holding us all hostage to future gridlocks, and countless hours waiting in queues.
It should be, in my view, a basic right of people in a city as wealthy as ours to be able to travel with ease, and it is a basic need of our economy that this be possible too.
Why are East Enders to be treated as second class citizens?
The review has finished and, you guessed it, tells us that we should build a bridge at the very place where Boris cancelled it.
He will be gone before it is built but we will still be waiting.
He should be held to account for that.
- John Biggs is London Assembly Member for City and East
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Building another river crossing is a double edged sword, whilst it seem to provide some relief to Blackwall tunnel, but any extra capacity would be swallowed up by more cars using the route.
I have seen this happen time and time again, when improvements were made to the A13 and A406 (North Circular) and even when they built that lovely new link to the City (i.e. limehouse link tunnel). During rush hour the roads are impossible.
Perhaps, Mr John Biggs should hang around Gallians Reach during evening rush hour and see that roads are already congested and building the Thames Gateway bridge is just a brain dead solution - there is simply no capacity.