Bozza's press team weren't daft, dreaming up that document title, were they? Look at that headline; pats on the back all round and this isn't even the strategy proper. No, Way To Go! (exclamation mark and all) is the precursor to Johnson's transport strategy - the Blond Vision, if you will. Your comments are welcome and the "consultation will last for 10 weeks" to help shape the Mayor's formal strategy.
However, this is a brilliant read and a truly personal document, peppered with Borisisms like "chuntering" and "piffling" and phrases like "packed to the gunwhales" and "traffic throttling excrescences" (we had to look that last word up). Love him or hate him, his passion for improving transit through and around London shines through this and you really feel like he's chuntering in your ear. There are many good things talked of:
It even dares to dream of tunnelling south of the river for more tube services.
Central to Boris' vision is to make sure drivers aren't persecuted but he'd like to persuade them onto a bike and give them safe places to cycle where they won't "be punished for nervous wobbling with an angry parp of the horn" yet is eager to assure us that City Hall "has not been captured by militant cyclists". Of course, "one of the most important things we need to do to improve our urban realm" is to bring back hop on hop off buses, and he rhapsodises briefly about the "integrity and continuity between the bus platform and the street" and eagerly talks of "zapping" rogue posts and railings on pavements to ease our transit.
This is such an affable document that we almost entirely missed the fact that some popular transport projects might be scrapped, namely, the cross river tram and the DLR extension and then there's multiple condemnatory mentions of a bendy. But cripes, Boris, we're almost tempted to employ your own chirpy Americanism to congratulate you ourselves.
Download the doc and feedback to Boris at the Mayor's website.
Image by Dean Nicholas
