Last night saw exceptional levels of traffic near my home in west London. This was caused in part by a serious car crash in Shepherds Bush. But there was also a massive surge onto the roads by people running errands, including Christmas shopping, before the second lockdown.
Disappointingly, a number of people have since used the exceptional traffic levels to argue that places like Chiswick, Kensington and Hammersmith should now rip out all their cycle lanes — which have only just been put in place after years of campaigning.
By way of example, this post from a prominent Chiswick councillor talked today about cycle paths as a “triumph of evil” that have resulted in “the destruction” of her home town.
This brings to mind a similar attack on the cycle lane from a local church, which tried to stop it being built by claiming it would “do more damage than the Luftwaffe.”
Addressing solely the issues arising yesterday, it is worth pointing out: shocking traffic and dangerous pollution have been a feature of London for decades.
Furthermore, the cycle lanes didn't cause the traffic yesterday — they simply allowed some people to avoid it. If all the cyclists used 4x4s instead, the jams would have been even longer.
Cyclists have been used to shoddy facilities for years.
It’s not people on bicycles who block emergency vehicles.
Cyclists are used to seeing drivers on the pavement.
But last night took things to a new level — drivers stuck in traffic, caused entirely by an excess of cars at a given moment, seeking to use their own behaviour to dismantle the tiny number of safe routes built for people who ride a bike.

For more info:
Apologies to anyone missed off this list, like @BobFromAccounts and @EalingCyclists
It's been pointed out to me that the local church also asked for people to pray that God would cancel the cycle lane

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More from @theJeremyVine

17 May
THREAD. Today I turn 55 with the country still mostly in lockdown ("happy birthday to me"), so living in the present is weird enough. But I will also be remembering these thirty-one men, average age 40.
Around 25 years ago, the BBC threw out some tatty books which were their (very old) way of cataloguing their sound archive. I kept one and found my birthday, 17/5/65 in it. That's how I first heard about the Cambrian Colliery explosion which happened in 1965, the day I was born.
The seam where the miners worked was 900ft underground. There was a leak of "firedamp", which at the time was the name given to any explosive gas in a mine. The gas leak in the Cambrian Colliery was probably methane, which will explode at a range of 5-15% concentration.
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19 Apr
Loads of people say, “How can there be any downside to wearing a mask to stop #Coronavirus?” And it's true, you'd think at the very least a facemask outdoors can do no harm. Since I've now done about 25 interviews on the subject I thought I would summarise the arguments against:
1. You touch your face more. You may even touch *under* the mask because your nose and lips itch.
2. Masks become dirty, and could well be a place where germs gather, like the handkerchief you've kept in your pocket every day this week.
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amazon.co.uk/Docooler-Dimma…
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6 Jul 19
Difficult to put this into a short thread, but I'll try.
One of the greatest British bands, Joy Division, had only been professional for six months when their lead singer Ian Curtis took his own life aged 23 in 1980.
Devastated, the remaining members formed New Order.
New Order enjoyed spectacular success in the eighties, most notably with Blue Monday — a dance song with a gothic feel. At the heart of their sound, as with Joy Division, was the bass guitar of Peter Hook.
Over the years, the first two albums by Joy Division — Unknown Pleasures and Closer, released after the death of Ian Curtis — became recognised for what they are: absolute classics of modern British music, defining moments in post-punk. The cover of Unknown Pleasures is iconic.
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