The Mayor of London is reconsidering calls made for car free days in 2010 by Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones, who welcomes the rethink but warns his planned £32 billion expenditure on road expansion will negate any benefits.
The Mayor has said he will review the plans for regular car free days in London after taking part in a mass bike ride in Jakarta. However, he rejected doing something similar in London in 2010 when Jenny Jones asked him about importing the idea from Bogota, who also have car free days on a Sunday and public holidays.
Jenny Jones calling for HGV’s to be banned during rush hour in London in 2013 after a sixth cyclist was killed in a fortnight.
The idea of road closures to deal with air pollution episodes was in the Mayor’s draft Air Pollution Strategy in 2010, but was deleted from the final version.
Jenny Jones said: “Car free days are a wonderful way to celebrate city life and London would thrive on these events. The Mayor has repeatedly rejected car free days despite all the benefits to the economy and air quality, so I’m glad he is having a rethink and I hope he is tough enough to see it through.
“The Mayor often talks big about reducing air pollution, but there has been little delivery on car free days. In the meantime, he is planning to make things worse by spending £32bn expanding the road network in London. That will negate any benefits from car free days and improvements to cycling.”