News from the Welsh, Americans, Canadians and our friends in Putney
Story 174
Bridged2050 - Making a climate-ready Barnes, place and people, more likely
If it’s not one Bridge, it’s another. This week: Albert Bridge.
Here’s the latest from down river. The map in this feature is worth a look. It situates Albert Bridge alongside the five others clustered in this corner of west London - a reminder that bridges rarely operate in isolation.
Experience elsewhere suggests a familiar pattern: if major repairs prove expensive and the UK central government funding only partial, having a single tolled crossing within a tight local network can create awkward distortions. Traffic, like water, flows around obstacles. The knock-on effects are rarely tidy.
Hammersmith Bridge
Putney residents blaming our Bridge for their traffic problem might want to read this from Wandsworth council:
..five years of stable journey times were destroyed when the council redesigned Putney Bridge junction in late 2024, and journey times are now at least double what they were before the redesign, despite £1m spent on the junction.
Credit Putney.News for (more) solid reporting.
Hammersmith Conservatives say the Labour party don’t want to reopen Hammersmith Bridge but they will. Remind me, who controlled the national purse strings in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024?
If this is too much bridge-watching, then celebrate London’s first with Time Team.
Climate change
This blog is framed by the need respond intelligently to this climate emergency. There’s so much reporting on climate change, here are five stories that caught my eye.
It has rained. A lot. Indeed the UK has officially recorded measurable rain every single day since the start of 2026. And climate change is partly responsible.
Raincoats and brollies are nothing compared to this, though. The UK’s first climate evacuees.
Laura Millan and Hayley Warren explained this week every city that has staged the Winter Olympic Games since 1950 has heated up in the years since by an average of 2.7C (4.9F), according to scientists at Climate Central. That’s well above 1.4C, the warming average for the entire planet.
Housing and the US government has released a report showing,
homeowners insurance is becoming more costly and harder to procure for millions of Americans .. as the costs of climate-related events pose growing challenges to insurers and their customers alike.
This is another glimpse of our future. More Kitson Roads and fewer cars to drive on them, please.
This climate dashboard is better than most, focussed on that most pressing data point - global temperature. It is updated daily with data from those very nice people in European Union.
Topics various
Interesting Channel 4 programme: Guy Martin’s House without Bills. How easy is it to retrofit a house and is it worth it?
In the UK, poor air quality is thought to kill 30,000 people a year, reports the BBC.
More Canadian wisdom, this time not from Mark Carney. Toronto business leaders say bike lanes are good for business.
Richmond council has reaffirmed its opposition to Heathrow expansion following latest Government developments.
A facinating discussion about pubs. Pete Brown argues persuasively they are a public service, mingling culture, history and economics. This is a discussion about behaviours not product.
A weekly digest of small stories and subtle signals
with one eye on the long horizon
Pedestrian crossings
The Welsh are at it again. Twenty’s Plenty. Fewer new roads. Now they are enabling side road zebras as of March, 2026. Bridged loves a side road zebra. Or three.
Meanwhile on social media, one poster called it, ‘This is absolutely the hill I will die on’. Pedestrians should be priortised at crossings, not made to wait. Yes.
Shared cars
One of my favourite reads this week by Kieran McCarthy makes the case for shared cars like Zipcars, in a way politicians have not. This is why car clubs have an important place in our 2050 transport mix, whatever the short term problems. McCarthy points out, ‘80% of displaced Zipcar members will end up buying cars instead’
Wandsworth council has announced it will waive parking permit fees for car club operators in a bid to retain and attract providers to the borough. Richmond council are working through their response to the Zipcar withdrawal. Thirty three different answers at different times from the boroughs and City shows why this must be regulated by the Transport for London eventually.
School streets
A pilot scheme around Barnes Primary school is about to begin, affecting the whole of Little Chelsea, including my home.
Someone will always be threatened by change. In 2026, she or he can share that frustration, even anger, on a local WhatsApp group. The trip along the Godwin Curve has begun.
The same group chat revealed another truth - there are always people willing to step in, discuss calmly and even try to explain what is happening.
Here’s hoping the discussion travels quickly to the gentle end of that Curve.