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Leo Murray @crisortunity@urbanists.social Profile picture
Leo Murray @crisortunity@urbanists.social
@crisortunity
Trouble making. Problem solving. Doing my best to help. Climate action, bike lanes, frequent flyer levy, solar rail & so forth. @crisortunity@urbanists.social
Mar 24 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Whilst it may be understandable given the bad faith pile on over ULEZ expansion, I genuinely don’t think this is good electoral strategy. It is also effectively conceding that Sadiq is abandoning his net zero 20230 pledge.
And that is very, very bad
🧵thetimes.co.uk/article/no-roa… It’s bad electoral strategy because fundamentally Sadiq has already alienated a large-ish political constituency for whom War on Cars stuff resonates. Their votes are *lost to him* and will hardly return based on promises not to do anything else that annoys them in future
2/
Oct 16, 2023 • 35 tweets • 12 min read
Car bores on here often wang on as if I have somehow unfairly impugned the humble SUV driver, & what business is it of mine what car they drive anyway etc. Our new report, Tractor Attack, may help to explain why I talk about this so much, and also: What Is To Be Done About It
1/ front cover of Tractor Attack: Fairness in pricing traffic pollution and rising SUV emissions in Kensington & Chelsea & beyond, showing a range rover parked outside a posh row of houses in Chelsea The growing prevalence of large SUVs on Britain's city streets is problematic for all sorts of obvious reasons. Too big to fit into standard parking spaces & far more likely to kill pedestrians, esp. children, they also produce more road damage & particulates from tyre wear
2/


chart showing power law relationship between vehicle weight and road surface damage
screenshot of paper in journal of safety research finding that childen are eight times more likelh to die when struck by an SUV compared to those struck by a passenger car
models of new car that don't fit in a standard UK parking space, inc the Land Rover Discovery
press release announcing that particulate pollution from tyre wear is 1000 times worse than exhaust emissions, and that heavier SUVs are exacerbating the problem
May 27, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Very brave, will be hated, probably making people I know and respect furious and exasperated, still not wrong. We are not changing anything like fast enough. We remain, globally, on a trajectory towards civilisation and ecosystem collapse. Anyone paying attention knows this 👀
May 21, 2023 • 142 tweets • 54 min read
An EPIC thread on my unintentionally detailed new report investigating the very real threat posed to pedestrian space, disabled mobility and walking and wheeling targets by the national tidal wave of public on-street EV chargers needed to reach net zero: Streetspace Invaders
1/n cover of streetspace invade... Enabling motorists without access to off-street parking to switch to EVs requires a vast rollout of public chargepoints - somewhere between 300-600k by 2030 - 10x as many as now - around a third of them on-street rather than at destinations or en-route
2/
 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
Sep 26, 2022 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
So RIP Doncaster Airport. Reading the quotes from various local stakeholders has me facepalming again so here is a short back-of-envelope thread on why the claim that "Doncaster Sheffield Airport is crucial to South Yorkshire’s economy" is clearly wrong
1/
 bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… Now, before I go on, I want to recognise that the airport currently directly supports around 800 jobs. Its closure is terrible news for these workers and their families and arguments about the effects on the wider regional economy will be cold comfort to them. Nevertheless
2/
May 18, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I’m not actually against this thing the Jet Zero Council say is key to scaling Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Contracts for Difference to provide price support, bc the fuel is so much more expensive. Just so long as it is aviation customers who will cover these policy costs - not tax This was a major flaw, in redistributive terms, of all of the price support mechanisms the UK has used to underwrite investment in renewables - because everyone relies on affordable energy & its cost comprises a high share of spending by low income households
May 18, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I’m watching today’s @CommonsEAC session on net zero aviation and shipping and there is an awful lot of ‘could’, ‘up to’ and ‘potentially’ afoot from the Jet Zero witnesses. It feels like it can’t be very convincing to the committee members but then I have a very discerning ear Carbon capture is coming up a lot as an assumption. Evasive answers on kerosene tax. What has the Jet Zero council achieved? Short term action plans, coordinating innovation activities across the whole industry, 500 flights to & from COP26 with up to 30% SAF
Apr 27, 2022 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
So, good morning and welcome to a quick, extremely weary thread from me about our new report which substantiates the no-shit-Sherlock finding that ‘normal’ levels of traffic congestion in London are routinely delaying emergency vehicles on 999 calls
1/ We looked at the changes in emergency response time for ambulances and fire engines in London during the covid lockdowns in 2020/21, when London’s streets were eerily empty of motor traffic for the first time since, well, they first filled up with cars. A living experiment
2/
Mar 8, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Obligatory pearl clutching over this tactic - which btw has not even damaged anyone’s property, let alone physically harmed or endangered anyone - needs context. Needless urban SUVs drive civilisation-threatening climate collapse & there’s zero govt policy action to address this Does this sort of thing help? Well, I can think of 100 things the government could do which would help more. But in the absence of any of those, yes - this is better than doing nothing. Is it divisive? Yes. It signals that urban SUV driving in 2022 is not OK to those doing it
Aug 21, 2021 • 22 tweets • 10 min read
Hello twitter friends, please allow me to offer a weekend thread on how the WAR ON MOTORISTS works in the mainstream media. Remember this story from back in May? It got VERY wide coverage across a range of media outlets: LTNs help violent criminals escape the police
1/n Amidst the lurid conjecture about gangs of men with machetes roaming freely through modal filters while police are left mysteriously stranded on the wrong side of a planter, one very specific claim jumped out at me: “Low traffic neighbourhoods hinder 999 response times”
2/
Aug 20, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The sheer MENDACITY of this shite from @RBKC it is making my blood boil 🤬🔥 "We want a long term solution to barriers holding back active travel, with full and proper consultation.” YOU are the barrier holding back active travel LOOK IN THE MIRROR 1/n mylondon.news/news/west-lond… “We have more than 9km of cycleway in the borough” PAINT IS NOT INFRASTRUCTURE
“and have consulted on an east-west link from Shepherd’ Bush to Notting Hill.” NOBODY WANTS OR WOULD USE YOUR RIDICULOUS MEANDERING LONG-CUT BACK ROUTE WE ALL TOLD YOU THAT
2/
Jul 3, 2021 • 70 tweets • 22 min read
Good morning! I've stitched myself up & now need to spend a good chunk of my w/e setting out what @EalingCouncil need to do about their traffic & climate problems, instead of the terrible, stupid, bad faith thing they are doing now. Please bear with me, let's get started...
1/n @EalingCouncil Step One: Suspend all present 'consultations' immediately. They appeared to have been designed by a careless sixth former using SurveyMonkey, or perhaps the Association of British Drivers ealing.gov.uk/info/201268/lo…
2/
Jul 2, 2021 • 47 tweets • 15 min read
SO Ealing Council have ignored best practice on public engagement and instead gone ahead with Rupa Huq MP’s ignorant & hideously misconceived proposal for a yes/no referendum on every one of their Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. This is an approach that is designed to block change 1/ This thread will have a go at explaining why, and what @_petermason and @EalingCouncil would do instead if they actually cared about the multiple environmental crises bearing down on us, or had any intention of doing anything about them.
I’ll try to keep it positive. Sigh 2/
Jun 30, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Just want to make the observation that whilst I do on balance think that the #NetZero framing has been a major positive for climate action, it does nobody any favours to pretend it is unproblematic. Exhibit A: Image When the UK had a target of 80% emissions reductions, what happened was every sector facing huge decarbonisation challenges envisaged itself in that 20%. Now that we have a ‘Net Zero’ target, everyone imagines themselves in the Net in 2050.
Jun 1, 2021 • 25 tweets • 9 min read
Happy June 1st to everyone in Birmingham about to benefit from the UK’s first Clean Air Zone outside London to include private cars ⭐️✨
A quick thread 1/n birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-… Firstly, the key point: roughly *1000* Brummies are killed by their city’s toxic air each year, and most of the problem is down to motor traffic. “Diesel must be phased out as soon as possible – the health impacts are terrible.” - @rosamund_ElsFdn
2/ theguardian.com/environment/20…
Dec 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
@ChiswickPets I’ve been going out of my way to shop with you, by bike, for 10y. When my kids were tiny we’d come to see the fish. We bought our gerbils & all their supplies from you. I just came to get cat stuff but was met by a poster making it clear my family is not welcome Hounslow council is not DESTROYING CHISWICK. They’re making a series of infrastructure changes which are essential to manage local motor traffic to within tolerable limits - and more importantly, to address the accelerating climate crisis which literally threatens civilisation
Dec 5, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Some reflections on the contradictions that are an occupational hazard for those of us campaigning for a safe climate 1/n When announcements like this are made, how should climate campaigners respond? I chose to give a small welcome to yesterday’s announcement, unlike most of my peers in the movement who were quick to criticise its many deficiencies 2/n
Nov 19, 2020 • 50 tweets • 18 min read
On 23rd May the DfT launched the Emergency Active Travel Fund

Within days, thwarted motorists began to lose their minds

A THREAD on the 2020 street fight, in which the deep seated entitlement to be able to drive cars anywhere gave rise to some wild & unedifying scenes

1/n May 25th: Hounslow’s first modal filter is installed on the riverside road near Barnes railway bridge
May 9, 2020 • 37 tweets • 13 min read
Under the circumstances, today seems a good day to re-up my visioning piece for @Cmmonwealth, ‘Away With All Cars’. Do read it: its prescriptions have a fresh salience & urgency in the context of #COVID19 & projected post lockdown traffic avalanche 🧵 1/n common-wealth.co.uk/away-with-all-… The title is a homage to the 1994 broadside pamphlet Away With All Cars, a prescient and insightful anti-car polemic written by anarchist poet Mr Social Control, aka Dave Holloway, who was a big influence on teenage me. It's quite special so enjoy 2/n archive.org/details/AwayWi…
Apr 6, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Gather round, climate twitter, I want to tell you a story about Ed Miliband
1/14 It was 2009, and I was working for @frannyarmstrong on the launch of apocalyptic climate warning film The Age of Stupid. We were going to pitch a marquee in Leicester Sq for the big eco-premiere with lots of green VIPs etc
theecologist.org/2009/mar/15/ag…
2/14
Jan 29, 2020 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Morning Twitter! I have a little vignette into aviation industry climate malfeasance for your enjoyment 1/n dw.com/en/to-fly-or-n… This article quotes Chris Goater from IATA talking up their amazing progress on sustainable fuels: “that was something that happened much faster than anyone was expecting” 2/n