We are hospitals calling on councils to ensure that our staff and the communities we serve can travel safely.
As communities we need to prioritise street-space for active travel during and post Covid-19 - it is the best course of action to improve the health of local populations and to ensure that staff can travel safely.
What limited capacity we have on buses and trams will need to be used for those who have no other options.
Why?
Councils are starting to announce emergency transport plans for when lock-down eases.
In some areas a 85% drop in public transport capacity is expected
The surge in demand for walking & cycling will come into conflict with an explosion in car use
Councils need political support to look at significant re-allocations of space - widening pavements, creating emergency bike lanes and closing residential streets to through traffic.
What do we need you to do?
We need letters from Hospital Chief Executives addressed to Council leaders. If you work in a Hospital, talk to others and then approach the Chief Exec’s office.
Contact each council that impacts transport for your staff - a single group letter will also work.
Letters need to get to councils asap.
Councils leaders have told us that these letters will be useful as they introduce significant changes to roads space allocation.
In 2014 NHS trust voices make a difference to Transport In London
Letters from all of the Major Trauma Units in London in 2014 were critical to the Mayor of London committing to building the first fully protected bikes lanes in central London.
These letters appealed to the Mayor to consider the needs of NHS staff walk and cycle more than average and all to often suffer from road violence.
The CEO of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Trust is calling on the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to move faster to create safe space for staff and patients to be able to access the hospital.
