Jenny Jones does her bit for cyclists, again, as new safety campaigns gather speed

Jenny Jones, Ken Livingstone’s effective running mate rival for the mayoralty, has a piece at the Guardian pivoting off The Times’s new cycling campaign. She doesn’t say anything new, but she doesn’t need to. Just getting more people to pay attention to what she’s been saying for ages will be enough. Sample quote:

“…we have to be clear that the mayor’s advice to cyclists at a recent assembly meeting that you will be OK if “you keep your wits about you” is no excuse for inaction on building high-quality cycle lanes.”

Meanwhile The Times continues its conversion. It has a must read interview with a lorry driver who hit a cyclist. They think this campaign is so important they’re putting it outside their paywall. Which goes to show how ridiculous is their paywall. Anyway, it’s great to be able to direct you there.

“So I spun the wheel as fast as I could, braked, put the vehicle into the ditch on the other side of the road, hit the cyclist with the front near side of the cab, threw him down the road about 30 or 40ft. I ended up in the ditch. I didn’t see him go down the road – I just heard the crump.”

And also today Ross Lydall in the Standard reports on a new campaign specifically trying to eliminate cycling collisions with HGVs.

This is about raising awareness and improving infrastructure. The first is finally happening, now what about the second?

Jenny Jones at Comment is Free – Safety comes first if we want a cycling revolution
The Times – The lorry driver’s story: ‘Every time I see a cyclist I remember the accident’
Ross Lydall at the Standard – ‘See Me Save Me’ campaign launched after 50 Londoners kiled by HGVs in three years

Watch The Shard's architect Renzo Piano talk about creating his "vertical city"

AR Innovators – Renzo Piano from The Architectural Review on Vimeo.

Architectural Review interviewed Renzo Piano. It’s a long one but there’s fascinating stuff in here about how The Shard was dreamt up, Ken Livingstone’s role in it, and how Piano tried to stop his tower seeming threatening and ugly to the cowering ants awe-struck people below.

The real Shard chat starts about 1:55. Also just love his dress sense.

"Give me your traders, your brokers, your greedy bankers yearning to breathe free"

Boris’s French overture sounds like it is directed to a group of noble exiles unfairly penalised at home. A band of travelling mercenaries unwilling to pay their fair share is closer to the truth, says Mike Bonnet.

Olympics blamed for another cultural closure

The Standard reports that a Greenwich theatre company is done for, and they’re going down shouting that it’s all the Olympics’ fault. The Big Chill festival has already gone the same way shouting the same thing. If current trends continue, we will have to consider the possibility that there might not be any culture left AT ALL come late July. Except for all the officially approved Olympic branded culture, of course. And we all know that officially approved culture is the best sort there is.

Evening Standard – Theatre blames Olympics for closure
Snipe – Olympic heat proves too much for cancelled Big Chill
Snipe – The Olympics will ruin everything

Mayor Johnson confirms all preconceptions by charming attractive Fox News host on money-soaked Davos ski slope

His natural habitat.

Photo @MayorofLondon

There are almost three times as many empty homes in London as homeless people

The GLA have just released their empty homes audit. Here’s an interesting comparison.

Number of homes in London which have been empty for more than 12 months: 11,687 (2009-2010 data)
Number of people counted sleeping rough in London: 3,975 (2010-11 data)

Obviously it’s not as simple as putting the rough sleepers in the empty houses. Neither rough sleeping nor empty houses work like that. But the point remains. Things are a bit fucked up.

GLA London Empty Homes Audit
Broadway London Street to Home Report

Star of "the Leveson Inquiry" David Allen Green speaks on scepticism next Monday

David Allen Green is a blogger who makes a lot of sense about things like the law, Twitter joke trials, computer hacking for news stories, libel, and all those sort of things.

He’s speaking at Skeptics in the Pub (their k, but go with it) on Monday in Hackney and it might be quite good.

Here are the details.

Intertextual news: official cars good for some, bad for others

Yesterday Lib Dem AM Dee Doocey asked Mayor Johnson to justify the chauffeur driven cars used to ferry about top ranking Met Police officers. He struggled. She estimates perks for the cop top brass, including but not limited to the cars, reach £1million a year.

Also making waves this week – Tower Hamlets speaker Mizan Chaudhury ran up a £9,000 taxi bill after he had his official car taken away by Mayor Luftur Rahman. He said without his car he had no choice but to get a taxi to events, and people laughed at him as result.

So, does this mean there should be official cars, or there shouldn’t be official cars? Or should everyone just Skype each other?

The news is confusing sometimes.

News from Dee Doocey – Met’s extravagant perks for senior officers must now go
Evening Standard – Council’s speaker runs up £9,000 taxi bill after being stripped of his official car

Alain de Botton wants to build a temple for atheists in the City of London

First up, some deduction from me – Alain de Botton has a book out, and this is good publicity for it. The temple will never be built.

But it’s interesting publicity stunt, so let’s go with it. Here’s some reporting from Dezeen:

“De Botton has begun working on the first Temple for Atheists. Designed by Tom Greenall Architects, this will be a huge black tower nestled among the office buildings in the City of London. Measuring 46 meters in all, the tower represents the age of the earth, with each centimetre equating to 1 million years and with, at the tower’s base, a tiny band of gold a mere millimetre thick standing for mankind’s time on earth.”

Nice concept.

Would it convince the atheists among you to “worship” there rather than the glistening spires of nearby Westfield East?

Is a temple to atheism, or humanism, or science, a useful idea given that reason, scepticism and the rejection of the monolithic certainties which temples represent form the basis of such systems of thought? Does the adoption of religious architectural language diminish or strenghten the power of atheistic ideas? Has de Botton even thought about planning permission?

Questions to ponder here, my friends. Which makes it a publicity stunt worth having.

Dezeen – Alain de Botton plans temples for atheists
Picture – Tom Greenhall Architects

Crossing the road in an embarrassing shuffle run may soon be a thing of the past

Tfl are planning more pedestrian crossing countdowns, after a succesful trial. These countdowns tell you how many seconds are left before that dreadful angry red man forbids you to start crossing the road. The idea is that with this extra knowledge, you’ll make a better decision.

So say goodbye to the half-run/half-walk that everyone does when they’re not sure if there’s quite enough time to cross, even though they know it looks stupid and it’s barely quicker than a normal walk anyway. I for one will miss it, for watching it has often brightened my day.

Progress is sad sometimes.

Tfl – Pedestrian Countdown technology to be rolled out across London from summer 2012