The Times - UK (2020-09-05)

18 2GM Saturday September 5 2020 | the times

News

Change

in 4s

How it works

3 If unable to pass in time or stuck

at red the car displays

countdown until lights change

Traffic light sends a signal with

the time left on green

Car computes the speed

required to pass through

the green light and

displays to driver

1

2

A London borough has angered many

motorists by fining non-residents £

for driving into a no-go area of five

residential roads.

Hammersmith and Fulham council,

in west London, has partially banned

drivers who do not live inside the “low-

traffic neighbourhood” from crossing

its boundaries.

Officials said that the move was

designed to keep out “rat-run” motor-

ists but the scheme has angered resi-

dents and delivery drivers who have

accused the council of being greedy.

Motorists entering the zone without

Fines intended to deter rat-runners keep out residents’ visitors

a permit will be fined as all vehicles

passing through the restricted area are

monitored by cameras using automatic

number plate recognition.

Officials said that vehicles registered

to an address in the borough had auto-

matically been sent a “virtual permit”

to drive through the restricted zone

without penalty. However, drivers who

enter the zone in unregistered vehicles

will be fined, although a council spokes-

man said that black cabs, private hire

taxis and those dropping deliveries to

local residents were exempt.

The spokesman said that “as long as

those vehicles are dropping off people

and deliveries and they follow the signs

directing them into the zone, they will

not be fined”.

The permit does not exempt local

residents from parking restrictions.

The borough has said that only resi-

dents or businesses who hold valid

parking permits for each restricted

road — or who pay the appropriate

parking charges — are entitled to park

on the street inside the exclusion zone.

The council launched the scheme at

the end of July and it has provoked a

flurry of outrage from local residents

who have had to buy temporary per-

mits for visitors. Delivery drivers have

also objected to the scheme.

The scheme was piloted initially on

three roads and has recently been ex-

tended to two more, prompting sugges-

tions that other local authorities will

follow Hammersmith and Fulham’s

lead.

One resident said that the permit

scheme had made traffic worse. “Cars

are at a standstill for most of the day

because they are all being forced on to

main roads and can’t use local roads

anymore,” Esak Bostross, 67, told the

Mailonline website. “My friends and

relatives who don’t live in the area are

not visiting me now because I don’t

know how to get permits for them and

they are afraid that they might get

fined. The council is being greedy.”

Jack Cousens, of the AA, told The

Times that it understood that the

scheme was the first of its kind in the

UK. He said: “Officials seem to have

failed to take local residents with them

in devising it. Instead they have im-

posed the scheme on them.”

The council spokesman said: “Our

sole aim is to reduce rat running

through our streets, not to make

money. The scheme is working. It has

cut traffic. Fines at a local box junction

have dropped by over a half.”

The council maintained that traffic

congestion in the area had been

exacerbated by work to Wandsworth

Bridge.

Jonathan Ames Legal Editor

Graeme Paton Transport Correspondent

A new generation of smart traffic lights

that help to keep traffic moving could

be introduced as part of the latest meas-

ures to combat congestion.

Plans are being drawn up to use tech-

nology that feeds information to

motorists about the appropriate speed

to use on the approach to lights, ensur-

ing that vehicles are not stuck on red.

The system, called green light opti-

mal speed advice (Glosa), is intended to

improve journey times and prevent en-

gines stopping and starting at lights,

which can dramatically worsen levels

of exhaust emissions.

A report backed by the Department

for Transport said that the technology

would “provide a new rapidly available

tool for reducing stops and congestion”.

The largest trial of the technology so

far held in Britain resulted in up to a

14 per cent fall in the number of vehicle

“stops and starts” as well as cutting

overall journey times.

The technology answers fears that an

increase in the number of traffic lights

in towns and cities over the past few

decades has caused congestion, with

Technology to

keep traffic

flowing gets

the green light

clean air

for all

Y

ou probably

haven’t bought

a new pair of

winter boots yet

but the fashion

set got theirs months ago

and are busy showing

them off on Instagram

(Hannah Rogers writes).

One pair scores

highest. They are cream

with a pointed toe and

£940 from the Italian

label Bottega Veneta. To

you and me they scream

cowboy boots. The style

crowd prefer to call them

western. The good news

is Marks & Spencer have

a similar style for £55.

Those are already sold

out. Western boots will

be a staple in

our wardrobes

this autumn,

according

to stores.

At Kurt

Geiger,

boot sales

are up 102 per

cent this month

on last year. The

brand’s bestseller

is its £179 Denny

black mock-croc

cowboy boot with

studs and belt

buckles.

Dune says that

its suede western-

style boots are in

most demand in

shops and online.

Sophia Webster

reports that sales of

their western boots are

up 80 per cent on this

time last year.

These are not the

Flashdance versions you

may have worn in the

Eighties. They come in

shiny black snakeskin,

metallics, immaculate

white and bright

primary colours. They

are designed to be

worn with cocktail

dresses as well as

jeans.

The style set wear

theirs to fashion

week with

miniskirts and

bare legs or with

suit trousers

tucked in.

Their favourite

pair comes in

bright red leather

from the

Copenhagen It-

label Ganni,

which put cowboy

boots on the

catwalk in 2018.

The year before,

Louis Vuitton staged a

show in which every

model wore them in

place of the usual high

heels.

With what fashion

editors are calling a low,

“walkable” heel, western

boots will be fine on the

commute but are less

practical in the

country.

Lasso

optional.

Yeehaw! The boot

that went west

is back on trend

Isabel Marant boots, far

left. Western styles have

also been in evidence this

year at New York and

London fashion weeks.

Ganni’s version, below, is a

hit with the style set

G

b

a

c

b

is

b s b i S t j b b f w b c T L

regular drivers spending the equivalent

of two days a year stuck at red lights.

Four years ago a report from the

Institute of Economic Affairs found

that 80 per cent of traffic lights could be

scrapped quite safely. Many traffic light

systems in Britain are already designed

to maximise cars’ chances of passing

efficiently. In London a system called

Scoot tries to synchronise the signals

based on traffic flows but there is no

communication with the vehicle.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC

Foundation, said: “The fact that

modern vehicles have the capacity to

communicate with everything around

them creates endless possibilities. En-

abling drivers to surf a wave of green

lights, so smoothing traffic and cutting

congestion is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The green light system allows net-

works of traffic lights to send signals to

cars through mobile phone or wifi

technology. Information is relayed

from the roadside to in-built vehicle

computers, sat-navs or smartphones

mounted on the dashboard, telling

drivers the speed at which to approach

signals, increasing the chance of get-

ting a green light.

The technology is designed to keep

traffic flowing and minimise toxic emis-

sions associated with revving engines.

The Times has been campaigning for

a series of measures to be implemented

over the past 16 months to cut air pollu-

tion. It comes amid growing concerns

over levels of toxic emissions in built-up

areas, with as many as 40,000 prema-

ture deaths a year being linked to poor

air quality.

It emerged this year that Audi, the

German car maker, was fitting Glosa

technology into new cars. Previously it

was available only to drivers in Amer-

ica. A report by the Transport Techno-

logy Forum, an independent body

sponsored by the Department for

Transport to promote innovation, said

that traffic lights compatible with Glosa

car systems could be easily rolled out

across Britain.

The report by Andy Graham, an

infrastructure consultant, said that the

technology did “not require significant

investment... as it uses existing web

technologies, cellular and wifi commu-

nications to pass the relevant data”.