Swyncombe and Windmill Roads have been much busier since the roadblocks went in.The funny thing about pollution is it doesn’t stop at a road sign. It drifts, particularly with prevailing winds, which tend to be westerlies in the UK. So blown along all those nice, quiet ‘traffic free’ roads we are told are what we want.What’s also evident in the LTN in which I live is that people haven’t got rid of their cars. In fact, they are still using them. Probably to do all the (undefined) ‘essential’ journeys that most of us always used them for. But instead of having multiple options for routes they now get funnelled down one or two streets and onto the main roads.Where this whole scheme fails in its theory is that it assumes people had cars simply as a luxury, and by making journeys more difficult they would stop using them. Nonsense.And, of course, fanatics like Paul and Darren only see cars and their owners as the problem. Conveniently ignoring the far more polluting vans and lorries which have contributed to the increase in London traffic over the past decade or so. Perhaps people should be reconsidering how ‘essential’ their latest Amazon purchase really is.
Simon Hayes ● 1821d