This is the second of the Barnes2050 Principles: ideas intended to help make choices about how Barnes SW13 develops between now and 2050.
Barnes will change. The question is not whether change happens, but what criteria we use when choosing among competing changes. The first of these was: Design Barnes for people first, not cars.
As the Barnes2050 Manifesto develops you’ll see how these principles inform the proposals for helping Barnes - place and people - thrive and be climate-ready by 2050.
This second principle starts with an apparent contradiction.
Barnes2050 has argued repeatedly for fewer cars and for giving less of our limited public space to their movement and storage.
But Barnes still needs vehicles.
Buses. Ambulances and fire engines. Builders and tradespeople. Delivery vans. Dustin wagons. Carers. Taxis. And, yes, private cars for journeys and people for whom the alternatives don’t work.
So perhaps the useful distinction isn’t between vehicles and everyone else.
It is between the traffic Barnes needs and the traffic we could reasonably do without.
Road space on the peninsula is limited. If we want buses, deliveries and other essential vehicles to move more easily, one answer has be to make more room for them by reducing less necessary traffic.
That is the thinking behind this second principle.
Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking: how do we make sure Barnes - the place and its people - is thriving and climate-ready by 2050? If this is your first visit, you might want to start here.
Principle 2: Get buses and vans moving
Barnes2050 does not want to ban cars or create a vehicle-free corner of London. The hope is to balance between vehicles and the society they serve.
The debate is about the volume and mix of traffic on the peninsula’s roads and streets.
Road space is scarce. Reducing low-value private-car traffic can improve conditions for socially useful motor traffic.
Part of the issue is the nature of our landscape. So much of SW13 is green or blue, grass or water. It is part of what makes Barnes distinctive. As good stewards, we should strengthen and improve that, never reduce it.
Much of the remaining land is already developed: housing, schools, commerce and roads. It is the pressure on the latter that informs this principle.
In the last decade, Barnes has begun converting road and parking space into bikehangars, rain gardens and parklets. Barnes2050wants this process to continue, but believes we need principles to guide it.
Roads are a limited public resource and every vehicle is not equally valuable. When space is scarce, Barnes should favour journeys that benefit many people over those that benefit only one. Buses, emergency vehicles and commercial deliveries keep the village functioning. Making their journeys quicker and more reliable should take precedence over adding capacity for private cars.
Barnes2050 believes there needs to be fewer cars, whether fuelled by petrol, diesel of electric. That would allow easier movement for more important vehicles, which in priority order are:
Blue light services
Buses
Commercial vehicles
It is worth saying, again, Barnes2050 has found no evidence the emergency services are struggling to fulfil their role in Barnes because Hammersmith Bridge is not open to motor traffic.
But we know buses are slowing down.
According to The Londoner‘s analysis of Transport for London data for 2015 and 2025, Richmond council suffered steepest dropin bus speeds of London’s 32 boroughs.
Buses are an important part of the active travel mix. The passenger numbers are falling and slower and less reliable buses may make reversing that decline harder. So what can we do to improve their speed and attractiveness?
Meanwhile, it is hard to imagine there will be fewer commercial vehicles in future. Whilst writing this article, parcels were delivered for the neighbours. As for the builders….
By 2050, the hope is a number of measures - a car-free Bridge, 20mph speed limit, School Streets plus pedestrian pop-ups,SUV parking charges, bike hangars and trees replacing car parking spaces, more space to park e-bikes and a better pedestrian experience - will introduce sufficient friction to discourage car-ownership and encourage more to walk, wheel, bus and bike.
Continue exploring: Get buses and vans moving
Reliable buses and efficient deliveries depend on freeing essential vehicles from unnecessary traffic and obstacles.
More stories about prioritising buses and vans
Next in the series, embracing the e-bike generation