Quote:
• I will support mini-cab drivers in seeking to end the practice of some mini-cab firms, whereby drivers are treated as self-employed and therefore not entitled to holiday or sick pay, but are nevertheless required to commit 60-70 hours of work per week to an individual operator.
This should be made law nationwide and not just for PH
http://www.kenlivingstone.com/uploads/a ... 832760.pdfTransport manifesto 2012-13
He promised to “re-instate the tidal flow in the Blackwall tunnel at the earliest opportunity” when he needed votes in 2008, but abandoned the pledge once elected.
I will
• Cut congestion through SMART parking
Learning from San Francisco’s SF Park experiment, I will make it easier and quicker for drivers to find a parking space in London.
Working with Councils, sensors in parking bays will provide data on when a space is available. This data will be made freely available. If the Shoreditch app firms are as quick off the mark as their counterparts
in Silicon Valley, then very quickly Londoners will be able to get information
to their smart phones alerting them when they are near an available parking spot.
As, particularly at peak times, a significant portion of traffic is simply circling to find a parking space, this smart initiative could
help cut congestion as well as reducing the frustration levels of drivers and their passengers.
• Focus on roadworks
In his 2008 manifesto Boris Johnson observed that ‘[most Londoners agree that there is nothing more frustrating that driving past a hole in the road with no obvious sign of work taking place. Or seeing the same roads dug up time and again”. Sound familiar? He promised to get the power to fine utility companies who cause delay through badly planned
roadworks. Four year’s later he is still promising.
Meanwhile on Johnson’s watch London has seen of the worst
traffic disruption in living memory due to the failure to monitor conditions on the Hammersmith Flyover and its subsequent
forced closure. When laws finally come in to place later in the year we will ensure that essential roadworks are co-ordinated
so as to minimise disruption, and utility companies and others that break the rules are swiftly prosecuted.
Enable more Londoners to have access to car clubs
We will help Londoners to cut the cost of travel and reduce congestion and pollution by supporting the faster spread of car
clubs. Car clubs are commercially operated services, which give people access to a car on a pay-as-you-go basis. The biggest
obstacle to the expansion of car clubs is lack of available parking spaces. A small amount of public investment leverages
much bigger private investment, so I will ask TfL to work with boroughs to create more car club parking bays in the places which will attract new members.
We will also look to enable car club membership to be integrated into the
Oyster card, so that Londoners can have just one smart card for all their travel needs. There are now over 130,000 car club
members in London. According to the industry, car club members make savings of up to £2,000 per year through avoided
insurance, car tax, maintenance and other costs of owning a car. Compared to the average motorist, car club members
reduce the miles the drive by up to 62 per cent, reducing traffic and parking congestion and pollution.
Faster, greener, more efficient freight
I will ask TfL to look seriously at the possibility of more freight consolidation centres for London. This would mean
deliveries are taken to hubs and aggregated together before being taken
into central London, saving on costs and cutting traffic.
Keep the Congestion Charge Zone
To keep traffic moving in Central London I will keep the Central London Congestion Charge Zone. Boris Johnson was wrong
to scrap the Western Extension, but now the cameras have all been ripped out it is too expensive to bring back, or to introduce
the gas guzzler charge. I will freeze the congestion charge for four years.
World-class taxi and private hire services.
London’s taxi and mini-cab services are world class and we need to keep them that way.
Johnson has been trying to privatise the section of TfL that regulates private hire and taxi drivers. It’s most important function is to carry out criminal record checks into prospective drivers, and to
administer the Knowledge which maintains the high standards that make London’s black cabs the envy of the world. In the
interests of passengers, I will put a stop to talk of privatised taxi and private hire regulator and will rule out any tampering with the Knowledge.
Cab sharing has worked well at Paddington and I will work with the cab trade to find other stations where it can be applied,
saving passengers money and cutting waiting times.
Rickshaws are dangerous to their passengers and pedestrians. I will
campaign for them to be banned.
It is ridiculous that corporate hangers-on at the Olympics will be ferried along special lanes in a fleet of imported BMWs when London has the finest taxi service in the world.
Athletes and their team need special treatment to ensure they get to
their events on time.
Corporate sponsors do not.
If it is not too late by May I will negotiate with the International Olympic Committee to ensure the maximum possible access for black cabs to the Olympic Route Network.
Boris Johnson promised to be the motorists’ friend, yet London now has slower traffic speeds in 2010 than in 2008 despite falling traffic levels in the recession.
MayorJohnson has invented a new sound-bite transport policy
– “smoothing traffic flow” – but he hasn’t focussed on the things that really cause congestion and disruption to motorists’ journeys: roadworks and traffic collisions.
• I will support mini-cab drivers in seeking to end the practice of some mini-cab firms, whereby drivers are treated as self-employed and therefore not entitled to holiday or sick pay, but are nevertheless required to commit 60-70 hours of work per week to an individual operator.
• I will continue the Safer Travel at Night campaigns, that support licensed minicabs and taxis and warn Londoners not to risk taking an illegal mini cab tout.
Improving door to door and community transport
Many older and disabled Londoners rely on door-to-door transport services like Dial-a-Ride, Taxicard, and a myriad of local community transport schemes. Boris Johnson’s decision to cap funding
for Taxicard has affected provision and means that some users are unable to travel outside of their own local area. Many people who rely on Dial-a-Ride that I meet around London say it still doesn’t provide the service they need.
I will ask older and disabled Londoners for their views on how the services that TfL funds can be improved. And I will bring together community transport organisations and local authorities to consider how best to protect services against Tory government cuts, including through integrating existing services.