Max Sullivan
@maxsullivan.eurosky.social
Former: Labour Cllr & Cabinet Member for Streets, Westminster Council Still: Liveable cities, walking, cycling, public transport, density NED, Living Streets 🇮🇪 in 🇬🇧 Posting in a personal capacity
Can people help me out? I’ve got a side project to photograph wheelie bins for each UK local council - govbins.uk Only 69 councils left to catalogue. Search by map or council name: govbins.uk/map govbins.uk/search Submit photos here (includes photo guidelines too): govbins.uk/submit-photos
🚏🚲 At LCC we're fans of floating bus stops. There, we said it! Despite the evidence showing they're not only making it safer to cycle, but are also safe for pedestrians, their existence is under threat ⛔ 👨💻 Check out our blog on everything floating bus stops: buff.ly/KpbXXO2
1. Enact a *true* ban on pavement parking. 2. Lengthen crossing times on pedestrian lights. 3. Covid-style vouchers to spend on bike kit. 4. Prescribe cycling on the NHS (this sort of happens already, but needs to go big)
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 5h agoFrom blood group ID to cycle racks : I asked for little ways to fix broken Britain and the public’s ideas give me hope | Martin Lewis
There ~may~ be a business case for these little autonomous vehicles*. If so, it's simple: vehicles should be on the road, not the pavement. Why should people have to negotiate these little "carriages" while pushing a buggy down their road? *The signs don't look promising
Max Sullivan@maxsullivan.eurosky.social · 5d agoImportant reading if interested in mobility in the UK and beyond: On the one hand: the potential for new pavement threats and hundreds of thousands of job losses On the other: “People love the robots,” [Starship] said. “Kids dress as robots for Halloween.” www.opendemocracy.net/starship-tec...
Tim was a councillor between 2018 and 22 as well. The pedestrianisation of Oxford St has been coming for decades. The administrations he's been part of have stood in the way of every bit of quality cycling infrastructure proposed for the borough.
Max Sullivan@maxsullivan.eurosky.social · last wk.Bad news: Westminster Council are worried about where cyclists will go now that Oxford Street is closed to them. Good news!: it was my job to worry about this until May and there is a plan WCC can execute and TfL are ready to support it.
NEXT x Pete Buttigieg just makes sense We can surely expect to see no frills suits (some with racy lining), but what else from this collaboration between US political heavyweight and former Secretary of Transportation and the largest UK clothing retailer by sales?
I’ve been reflecting on last week. I met a Muslim lady at the central mosque who was part of a group learning to cycle with an instructor. We sat and chatted about the freedom cycling gave her, how she was encouraging others within her community to cycle not drive to prayer.
Most of all, it's the councillors who will have blood on their hands, but it's also time for staff (and consultants) to seriously think about what they are doing to enable this otherwise they will have blood on their hands too. It's much harder when it's your livelihood at stake and I don't want
Carla Francome@carlafrancome.bsky.social · yesterdayThis is SUCH a shocking email from the leader of Westminster council to residents on his first day in the job back in May. He writes: “We are wasting no time. One of our first acts has been to halt any more work on the C51 Cycleway scheme on Hamilton Terrace in St John’s - 1/5
I know we get number to how bad stuff can be. As someone who was in power in local government, I cannot overstate how important this is: Keep telling people in power when they are doing things that are deeply wrong. Especially so when it's your immediate local area and those people represent YOU
Carla Francome@carlafrancome.bsky.social · yesterdayThis is SUCH a shocking email from the leader of Westminster council to residents on his first day in the job back in May. He writes: “We are wasting no time. One of our first acts has been to halt any more work on the C51 Cycleway scheme on Hamilton Terrace in St John’s - 1/5
This is SUCH a shocking email from the leader of Westminster council to residents on his first day in the job back in May. He writes: “We are wasting no time. One of our first acts has been to halt any more work on the C51 Cycleway scheme on Hamilton Terrace in St John’s - 1/5
Westminster Cycling Campaign@westminster-lcc.bsky.social · 2d agojob, see below. He says they are “halting any more work on the C51 cycleway scheme on Hamilton Terrace in St John’s Wood”. Apparently this is what “Real action looks like from day one”. Hmmm. It’s certainly delighted some Halloween Ghouls. … /8
The big news here this week is that the Leader of Westminster Council has won the approval of local “Ghouls”, over a decision to halt a safe route for cycling. Indeed, the leader has not just become popular with any Ghouls – he’s won the approval of the … 🧵1/11
The price of public space is not the same for everyone Price to rent the same amount of space for 1 year as a Westminster resident, from 18th January 2027: Left: £552 Right: £40
Max Sullivan@maxsullivan.eurosky.social · 3d agoDiscredit where it's due, Westminster Council Conservatives are not just intent on making cycling unsafe, they want to make it expensive too. Renting a space in a cycle hangar (1/6th of a small car) will leap from £40 now to £89 in January, and £92 the following year. A 130% increase. Meanwhile...
This week is #TrusteesWeek, a chance to celebrate the valuable contributions Trustees make. We’ve been catching up with some of our newest Trustees to find out why they wanted to join our Board. First up is @rezinachowdhury.bsky.social
*** New blog post *** I have better things to do weekend, but I've written an open letter to the members of the London Assembly after their plenary session of 5th November which included a vote to ask Mayor to instruct TfL to pause the installation of all new floating bus stops.
Floating Bus Stops: An Open Letter to Members of the Greater London Authority
This is an unusual post for me as someone used to signposting data, research and studies, as well as telling some stories of how infrastruct...
therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com
Discredit where it's due, Westminster Council Conservatives are not just intent on making cycling unsafe, they want to make it expensive too. Renting a space in a cycle hangar (1/6th of a small car) will leap from £40 now to £89 in January, and £92 the following year. A 130% increase. Meanwhile...
Important reading if interested in mobility in the UK and beyond: On the one hand: the potential for new pavement threats and hundreds of thousands of job losses On the other: “People love the robots,” [Starship] said. “Kids dress as robots for Halloween.” www.opendemocracy.net/starship-tec...
How Silicon Valley lobbied to put delivery robots on UK pavements
Revealed: Ministers allowed our streets to become ‘test ground’ for robots amid lobbying from Starship Technologies
opendemocracy.net
The debate around 'floating bus stops' is often misinformed, inaccurate & hyperbolic. And too often we're facing politicians who seem to think doing away with cycle tracks will work out 'fine'. This hopefully helps explain what they are, why they're important, what the evidence base is...
London Cycling Campaign@londoncycling.bsky.social · 5d ago🚏 🚴♀️ The debate around floating bus stops continues, so we decided it was about time we set out just what they are, and why we believe they're a vital part of the delivery of inclusive, safe cycle routes. Check out the blog on our website on the what, where, why, when and how of them... 👇️
Pleasantly surprised to see trenches being dug today for our kerbed cycle track on Harewood Avenue by Marylebone Station. 🚲 🚲 🚲 🚆 🚆 🚆
MacLondon@maclondon.bsky.social · last wk.Contraflow cycling might soon be enabled on Harewood Ave. Works were due to begin today by Westminster to extend/complete TfL's (unopened) C51-branded contraflow cycle track. Could well open before the resurfacing in Dec. @edmondchuihw.bsky.social @raynoldchow.bsky.social @safecycleldn.bsky.social
The former councillor responsible for the borough’s streets has shared funded plans for cycle routes and says the local Conservatives have a simple decision on how the millions of pounds allocated for the project should be spent...
Westminster Council claims it "just doesn't know" where Oxford Street cyclists should go, despite former councillors sharing funded plans for safe, alternative routes
The deputy leader of Westminster Council says it doesn’t know where cyclists continuing to use Oxford Street following its recent pedestrianisation can go, despite the council previously publishing pl...
road.cc
I don't mean to be unfair on Westminster Council, they also confiscated a peanut trolley.
Emiliano Mellino@mellino.bsky.social · last wk.I'm not saying these things can't be a nuisance, but is it a sign of the times that these particularly low stakes enforcement actions (confiscating a pedicab and a busker's instruments) are considered worthy of a press release under the banner of a "A major multi-agency enforcement operation"?
Great news: the Government has introduced legislation that would give London the power to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy. I strongly welcome this step, which could help fund the places, culture and infrastructure that make our city one of the world's greatest destinations.
When Grosvenor presented this to me I said it wasn't good enough, that me and my child could not use a painted lane in between parked and moving cars. Face to face meeting, and I was rocking my child to sleep in my arms while I told them 'no'. Predictable that it would resurface now with no changes.
Fraser@fraser-hay.bsky.social · last wk.Westminster City Council papers suggest a s278-funded £15m upgrade to Grosvenor Road's public realm is being progressed. Papers suggest a 'cycle path' is included but the render appears to only show an advisory painted line with an included example of why they're unsafe with a vehicle overtaking...
The city of Tokyo just introduced posters designed to scare crows away from trash areas and I need all of them in my home
Great to see #carspreading enter the Collins Dictionary today! Ever bigger cars are squeezing space for the rest of us and making our streets far more dangerous, especially for children. Time for words to turn into action and before it’s too late 🙏 More here cleancitiescampaign.org/carspreading/
Congrats to London on the pedestrianization of Oxford Street!
Max Sullivan@maxsullivan.eurosky.social · 3w agoFirst among its aims: "to facilitate the movement of people and goods in London—reliably and safely, and with minimum overall environmental impact" and to "encourage walking". Maybe pedestrianisation—not just of Oxford Street but of the wider West End—is the ultimate form of a London Red Route.
