| Topic: | Re:New traffic tunnel from Chiswick | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 05/02/16 08:34:00 |
| Before dismissing the tunnels out of hand it is probably worth reflecting on the figures on traffic growth that are being used to justify them. You can't dodge the fact that if London's population is going to increase to 10 million then, if nothing is done, congestion is going to increase and the city will effectively grind to a halt. Whether or not massive civil engineering project harking back to the Victorian era are the way to go remains to be seen. This plan is at the very early stages so it may be that nobody has actually checked how many people need to regularly drive across London. There may be lots of people in Chiswick who regularly need to get quickly to Beckton but I suspect the planners will find that the very fact that London has been difficult to cross means that east and west London have developed with very few interdependencies - the City of London excepted. The other main problem with the tunnels is that they could be redundant by the time they are built. In fifteen years time it may be the case that car technology will have advanced to the extent that congestion can be reduced by centrally managed journeys i.e. within city centres you pre-programme your route and the car is directed to use the fastest possible route without your intervention by a computer controlled grid. Tunnels should be part of the solution. With rising land values the potential for them to be partly of fully funded by the development of the real estate they free up on ground level means the net cost to taxpayers who will have much more pressing demands placed on them in the future will be reduced. The A4 between here and Hammersmith must offer potential for a project of this nature. They are certainly a much more attractive prospect than the two cross London tunnels proposed. |