LONDON (dpa) – Admiral Nelson gazes down on a scene of chaos that must rival the height of battle at Trafalgar in 1805. Curses from London cabbies vie with hooting buses and the squawks of alarm from tourists trying to cross the road.
Trafalgar Square is being pedestrianized along its northern side to allow unhindered access to the steps of the National Gallery, and works are in full swing with the aim of completion next summer.
Londoners addicted to their cars are not impressed.
“It’s a bloody stupid idea,” says George, a plumber trying to cross the city at midday to get to his next job. “I need to be able to move around town with all this kit,” he fumes from the driving seat as his white van sits in gridlock in the summer heat.
Not only those carrying heavy tools are annoyed at how Mayor Ken Livingstone is going about tackling the city’s transport problems.
Suited businessmen, used to making their way in style around town by cab, car or – in the case of the seriously successful – in the back of a chauffeur-driven Daimler, are similarly put out.
“The public transport is dreadful anyway,” says one pin-striped member of the upper classes. He declines to provide his name or reveal when last he got on one of London’s big red buses.
The Automobile Association is also critical. “Traffic calming has to be a local issue with local agreements and a proven benefit to road safety,” says spokeswoman Rebecca Rees.
She acknowledges that underfunding over decades has reduced London’s traffic to a crawl comparable with the speeds of the horsedrawn era – 15 kilometres an hour on average – and led to poor roads and inadequate bus services.
Nevertheless, any policy that aims to discourage the motorist is wrong, she says. Motorists have to be encouraged to leave their cars at home through choice, not coerced. For this reason, plans to charge cars to enter London from next year are the wrong tactic.
The AA is not opposed to the Trafalgar Square scheme “as a pilot scheme”, but the scepticism shows through. “Then if it doesn’t work, they can revert to the old system,” it says.
Tunnelling under the square would be a better option, the organization believes, but the traffic authorities reject this idea. The aim is fewer cars, not improved facilities for them.
The tourists are, however, enthusiastic.
“Imagine it with more trees round the sides and beautiful broad steps leading up to the National Gallery,” Dave, a visitor from the U.S. Midwest says, envisaging a relaxed stroll across the square before viewing the Van Goghs and Rubens inside.
But for the present, the dust swirls as the pneumatic hammers drill up the tarmac, and workmen yell instructions at each other over the roar of the buses.
Crossing the road to pose next to the huge bronze lions at the foot of Nelson’s column is currently as hazardous an enterprise as taking on the French fleet.
