There seems to be some interesting politics going on behind the scenes here. Despite the significant increases in delays, the London Fire Brigade, would not condemn the new barriers and said it “supports proposals to promote active travel"

I spoke to front line emergency service staff who told me that they are worried about the increase in delays but fear the problem is being ignored by their bosses because of political pressure from supporters of the schemes

The level of debate has become so toxic that one senior clinician working in emergency medicine told me that he did not want to go on the record to raise his concerns because he was worried about getting “mobbed by cycling activists”.

@andrewellson I can't read this article but is this an increase in frequency of delays of any duration by 35% or an increase in the average time-of-delay by 35%?

@RobbieMallett Frequency. 👍

@andrewellson Can you publish the data? It’s a very different story come the response data the fire service published

@martin_mckee The data is freely available from the London Fire Brigade.

@andrewellson Hats off from a former Murdoch hack for writing a classic 'Screamy headline knocked down repeatedly by the actual story' story.

@SteveBTooze If you think this is a screamy headline, I don't suppose you lasted long in journalism!

@andrewellson Particularly love the case study 'family of a man who died after an ambulance was delayed by a fixed bollard in a LTN... accept that the delay did not contribute to his death'

@SteveBTooze I think you will find that the case study was about the family's concern that others may die. I'm glad you paid to read the piece, shame you weren't concentrating when you did!

@andrewellson This article illustrates perfectly how the Times hysterically demands reductions in traffic pollution, without bothering at the outset to consider that there will be costs (often far outweighing the benefits). Same applies for the Times' support for lockdowns and other subjects.

@I_Am_Victim Alternatively it shows a newspaper open minded enough to examine whether policies that it supported are being successful.

@andrewellson This is a shocking and brilliant piece. Thanks for bringing this to the public's attention. As the economy opens up, the roads are going to become an absolute nightmare in Central London thanks to active travel and so-called 'traffic calming' measures.

@MDC12345678 Thanks and yes I fear you are right.

@andrewellson I looked at the raw data for Ealing (looking at stations Acton, Southall and Ealing near majority of new LTNs), filtered on delays due to traffic calming measures. 24 in 2019, 35 in 2020... 13 so far in 2021. If it continues at that rate, 2021 will be over DOUBLE 2019's figures!!

@darekn Sadly that would not surprise me.

@andrewellson And world-class hedging with: 'The delays could have been caused by traffic calming measures other than LTNs....'

@andrewellson @cristo_radio Did you mention that it’s a shame that roads have to be physically barriered for an LTN scheme to be effective? I mean, imagine a world in which a rule could be established and drivers complied with it.