£60 million cable car lines over London to help cut city traffic and help the environment.

[♥ Lily ♥]

The cable cars were placed over the River Thames,
by the Millennium Dome/O2 Arena
in the eastern part of Central London in 2012


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLAz1lM0zgs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q31Z372pm2c

[Graham]

It would be nice if the UK government spent more on infrastructure in North England. The infrastructure spend imbalance is a joke

Am seeing all these boastful projects & it reminds me of the neglect of other region.

http://leftfootforward.org/images/2013/12/IPPR-north-south-graph.png

[Tooting Carmen]

Indeed...

[pinguino]

Bolivians did it first.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAriob9Z9NI

[Catkin]

It is out of proportion, I agree, and undoubtedly more should be spent in the other more urban areas of the country. But of course London would have far more need for transport funding than most places: it's the place in the country where the most people are trying to get into a relatively small area, from a relatively wide area, at specific times of day. London generates a lot of money from these people getting to where they need to be. But yes, it looks way too much, especially as I imagine a lot of the money is wasted or inefficiently spent.

Seems we get the least amount of money in the SW, but I don't really notice much hardship from this. There are no buses to where I live, but I probably wouldn't use them anyway, and there are community buses for the elderly etc.

[Graham]

Have heard a few stories on the Cornish roads. :P

[Catkin]

Have heard a few stories on the Cornish roads. :P

There are lots of small lanes with high hedges either side, I have to drive down some to get to work at times, some have grass growing down the middle. But you soon get used to swerving into hedges to avoid oncoming cars- it keeps your reactions sharp :p. But I wouldn't want them made into bigger roads. It's part of the character of the area. Same with some of the main routes which get chocka in summer: I wouldn't want big motorways built through the SW just to allow the traffic to move quicker.

[♥ Lily ♥]

It would be nice if the UK government spent more on infrastructure in North England. The infrastructure spend imbalance is a joke

Am seeing all these boastful projects & it reminds me of the neglect of other region.

London has an official population of 8,416,535 in 2013, making it the most populous municipality in the European Union, and accounting for 12.5% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second-largest in the EU with a population of 9,787,426 according to the 2011 census. London's metropolitan area is the largest in the EU with a total population of 13,614,409, while the Greater London Authority puts the population of London metropolitan region at 21 million.

London was the most visited city in the world again with tourists last year according to news reports I saw. Bear in mind, there's 8 airports in London, plus the Eurostar, plus loads of commuters, plus the worlds second most extensive tube network... it's very busy. The roads, rail, tubes, boat-buses and bus lanes are often congested hence the congestion charges and high parking fees in LDN, so the cable cars were build in 2012 to help cope with yet more people coming to London during the Olympics.

It is privately funded by an Arabic company (Emirates Air Line cable). This isn't a 'boastful project' nor is this a vanity project; it's a practical and environmental necessity to help ease the traffic congestion in a heavily-congested big city like London (the largest city in Europe plus it's over-populated).

It's like people complained about the cost of the London fireworks (£2 million) but it was great entertainment, brought in revenue from international tourists who come to see it, and £2 million works out less than getting 8 million people in Central London to contribute much less than 50p each for it.

If the UK stopped giving £375 million every week to the EU and stopped giving £1 billion a month in foreign aid, there would be more funds to help Britain.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Bolivians did it first.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAriob9Z9NI

London (worlds first industrialised city) had traffic lights, tubes (metros), double-deckers, shopping arcades, postcodes, driverless trains, and plenty more first. :P

[Graham]

I wouldn't want big motorways built through the SW just to allow the traffic to move quicker.

Yeah I understand. Motorways are ugly. I'd hate to be a lorry driver there though. :P

[Graham]

There needs to be plans to make London less crowded or at least halt the overcrowdedness. Building a new airport or extending it & connecting high speed rail. Will put more pressure on London & then we have these projects to help.

[Catkin]

Yeah I understand. Motorways are ugly. I'd hate to be a lorry driver there though. :P

Yes! It's one thing sitting in a couple of hours of queues on your way to a holiday. Another to sit in them frequently at some times of the year, when you just want to get on with your job. And if the main road gets closed and you have to go off on a back route...

[♥ Lily ♥]

There needs to be plans to make London less crowded or at least halt the overcrowdedness. Building a new airport or extending it & connecting high speed rail. Will put more pressure on London & then we have these projects to help.

London has been overpopulated since the Victorian era by looking at the old crammed Victorian houses in areas. (London was the world's most populous city from around 1831 to 1925 according to wikipedia).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London

The UK has a population of over 64 million people (87.1% of which are white according to the 2011 census on wiki) so we were already overpopulated before millions of more people arrived through immigration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

45% of Londoners are White British according to the 2011 census, so we're a minority in London,
and the other 55% of people living in London are immigrants or British born people of many other ethnic groups
(we have a lot of Poles, Caribbean, Indian, Asian, and immigrants with accents from around the world).
Birmingham (England's second largest city) is going the same way as London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDqzZ_YBFc

You should see videos of the London tubes, bridges, roads and streets during the rush hours.... crowds of people everywhere showing it's overpopulated. Tubes and buses arrive in Zone 1 in Central London every 3 minutes, yet the buses, tubes and platforms are all crammed everywhere you look during the rush hours.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLaeo6uVfuw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPWhK6P79Tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqQRKd5ShK8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjYJxhAvILU

So as inflation rises, so does the houses prices, food costs and parking charges keep rising (London is now officially the most expensive city to live in, to eat, study, park, drive, and was found to be the most expensive city just for a night out), yet until we can't control our immigration borders whilst we stay in the EU.

The UK population is more than the total populations for Canada, Australia and New Zealand combined! And most of the UK's population is concentrated in the south-east of England; ie Greater London region.

If loads more immigrants head to the UK, they're probably going to have to live outside of London.

[♥ Lily ♥]

There needs to be plans to make London less crowded or at least halt the overcrowdedness. Building a new airport or extending it & connecting high speed rail. Will put more pressure on London & then we have these projects to help.

There's already 8 airports in the Greater London region (5 of which are international), plus the Eurostar at St. Pancras International, plus Victoria Coach Station, major rail stations, the M25 orbital motorway circling around the whole of Greater London, the extension at Heathrow and the new driverless pods there to help cut traffic.

The sky above London is classified as the worlds busiest airspace, so a unique choreography for take-offs and landings every 45 seconds at Heathrow is used, it's a system using stacks. I think 8 airports is enough.

We have the Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames, which is very useful and a good idea, plus London has the worlds second most extensive tube network after the metro in Shanghai, and we have the worlds deepest underground tube system... and yet the tubes are very overcrowded still!

The buses in London have their own transport lanes, plus we have bicycle lanes, and free parking for small electric vehicles... yet the roads are still congested. It can take more time to travel from one side of the city to the other through Central London, than driving to the seaside and coast from Ldn.

There was a lot of protests in Westminster City over the new motorbike parking fees too. A shopping centre in Angel, Islington, north London, called the N1 (after the postcode region) was charging people £100/hour to park there which caused some outrage, which was shown in the Islington Gazette newspapers several years ago. Although loads of bus routes travel there, plus people have a tube service to Angel on the Northern Line (which has the deepest escalator in western Europe at the Angel tube station and lots of wide platform space at the tube station there).

We have boat-buses along the canals and along the River Thames, and tubes and buses arrive every 2-3 mins across zone 1, yet it's still heavily congested during the rush hours.

I think the solution is to vote UKIP and then we will be able to control our immigration borders.

[♥ Lily ♥]

London won the bid to host the World Athletics Championships in 2017, plus England is hosting the World Rugby Cup next year in 2015 across stadiums and arenas here, so the cable cars which head to Stratford City in East London where the Olympic Park stadium will host some of the events should help to lighten the London Underground and the busy roads during these forthcoming events too.

I'd like to see some more Zip Wires in London, although the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, got stuck on the BT Zip Wire in Victoria Park in east London, so maybe that's not such a good idea, but I think it would be very energy-efficient and a fun way to cut over the congested London traffic, and crammed buses and tubes.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_-wVK8oOZE

[Catkin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_-wVK8oOZE

Haha, I remember that, it was so funny and he was stuck there for ages! So undignified, it would only happen to him- he's such a buffoon xD. Reminds me of when he fell in the river. Think I might have posted this before, but it's worth posting again :p




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC3OWjXJmqM

[Graham]

You know Boris Johnson plays on that persona? It was deliberate. He's smarter than what he acts.

I'd like to see the real Boris when the publicity acts aren't in full swing. You know Camerons Eton chum.

[Catkin]

You know Boris Johnson plays on that persona? It was deliberate. He's smarter than what he acts.

I'd like to see the real Boris when the publicity acts aren't in full swing. You know Camerons Eton chum.

Wow, cynical :p. How could the zip wire especially be deliberate? :D He probably does play on the persona to cute it up, but I think he naturally is a bit of a bumbling fool. Smarter than he makes out though, yes, and no, nobody's going to be perfect. I don't think all people who attended Eton are inherently bad. People can be well-intentioned even if they get it wrong. I don't dislike Cameron either. You really don't like the Tories do you?

[Graham]

You really don't like the Tories do you?

Nope. :) They go against something that is important to me & that is a radical progressive land-reform & progressive taxation, my favourite being the land value tax. They think the Highlands is an empty-place to shoot deer & wear tweed on their hundred acre estates, to come up to visit once & a while. But the Highlands was man-made to get that way in the Victorian mindset. Same with the Borders.

They are against green energy mostly too. They're against reform of democracy in parliament, supportive of first past the post & no democratic vote in the second tier house of Lords. That should be unheard of in todays 1st world.

Most things I support. The tories don't. Not going to even bother with what they're doing with the NHS in England.

[Anglojew]

It would be nice if the UK government spent more on infrastructure in North England. The infrastructure spend imbalance is a joke

Am seeing all these boastful projects & it reminds me of the neglect of other region.

http://leftfootforward.org/images/2013/12/IPPR-north-south-graph.png

Not just northern England. Southern cities suffer too.

[Catkin]

Nope. :) They go against something that is important to me & that is a radical progressive land-reform & progressive taxation, my favourite being the land value tax. They think the Highlands is an empty-place to shoot deer & wear tweed on their hundred acre estates, to come up to visit once & a while. But the Highlands was man-made to get that way in the Victorian mindset. Same with the Borders.

They are against green energy mostly too. They're against reform of democracy in parliament, supportive of first past the post & no democratic vote in the second tier house of Lords. That should be unheard of in todays 1st world.

Most things I support. The tories don't. Not going to even bother with what they're doing with the NHS in England.

Ok, I understand then. If it's everything opposite to what you feel strongly about.

But I'd still say that they are not automatically bad people because of their views. They may arguably have a blinkered view of the country and life, due to their culture of upbringing, but that doesn't make them necessarily malevolent or more false/deceitful than the average politician. Everyone has their views shaped by their upbringing/environment/experiences. While you will get some who aren't, I think most politicians, Boris and Cameron included, are still working with good intentions for what they think is right for the country. But what is considered 'right' splits the population.

I called you cynical, so go on, call me naive :p.

[Graham]

I don't use words like that for people who give constructive thoughtfulness.

[Catkin]

I don't use words like that for people who give constructive thoughtfulness.

Then you make me feel bad about the cynical! :eek: You can say what you really think to me. I do recognise myself that I am probably naive over some things, maybe sometimes even intentionally because I don't like reality. I don't in general feel comfortable feeling negatively about things or people. But I still for now stick by what I said about their intentions :).

[Graham]

In all truthfulness if you want my current thought, I'm pissed off that Lulu is playing at the closing ceremony. Meh about Kylie Minogue & happy with Decon Blue.

Everyone has a different view on politics & I like that. The only thing I dislike on this forum is the racism, which you're not.

[Smaug]

Sounds interesting. As an engineer, am looking forward, as an evil Celt who wants to sabotage England, well... Nah, I'm joking.

[Tooting Carmen]

Bear in mind, there's 8 airports in London

There are six in fact: London City, Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Southend. Which other two are you counting?

[Catkin]

There are six in fact: London City, Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Southend. Which other two are you counting?

Maybe Biggin Hill is one?

[Tooting Carmen]

Maybe Biggin Hill is one?

Except it has been out of use for decades.

[Catkin]

Except it has been out of use for decades.

It is in use still. http://www.bigginhillairport.com/

Most normal people would never use it though :)

[Graham]

6 or 8 airports in one city! That is one big place.

[Tooting Carmen]

6 or 8 airports in one city! That is one big place.

More than any other in the world. Paris has four - Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Beauvais, Vatry; New York has five - JFK, Newark, La Guardia, Long Island, Westchester.

[♥ Lily ♥]

A night-time view in the London sky cable-cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCPZvBz2VRg