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Thom Yorke interviews Ken Livingstone
Thom Yorke questions the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, about his radical eco vision for the capital. The Radiohead frontman edited today’s Observer Magazine climate change special edition.
Ken Livingstone appears, as if by magic. One minute he was not in the Dorchester hotel’s boardroom, the next, well there he is, chatting away in his inimitable adenoidal slur and effusively shaking Thom Yorke’s hand. In a moment Thom, who, by his own admission, feels a bit nervous, will interview the Mayor of London on environmental matters.
Thom gives the mayor a generously upbeat first question. ‘I wanted to talk about that Paris bike thing first,’ he says, referring to the Paris Velib system, where bikes are available at low cost to be borrowed and returned to stations all over the city. Ken is bringing the idea to London, ‘because I got really excited when I heard about it. My mates in Paris say it’s made a massive difference six months down the line… you know, such a psychological difference. It’s about a year away,’ he says, of London’s scheme.
Ken can’t just tell everyone to get on their bike, so to speak, because it turns out that unlike the mayor in Paris, who has overall control, he needs agreement from each London borough. So the scheme will start inside the Circle Line - the yellow tube-map line that runs from High Street Kensington in the west to Tower Hill in the east. ‘The objective is that perhaps over five years you might run it out to the whole city.’
Read the full interview at the Observer website.
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5 Responses to “Thom Yorke interviews Ken Livingstone”
chris
March 26th, 2008
I saw a piece years ago that it was working in one American city, though. How very sad for Austin’s culture; well just look at the man they elected governor? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist) It’s amazing how some jerks screw it up for the rest of the honest people in Texas and other places.
I remember, in my dorm of rich kids, some guys urinated in the TV room common area, so it was closed down, and sabotaged the laundrey room because people weren’t paying their share. I had to keep lobbying the admin to open it up because I had always paid my share and was sick of wearing dirty clothes. The admin were being dicks about it…
Ahh, but that was years ago….
(Shakes himself into the present)
Muldfeld
March 26th, 2008
it started in Lyon and spread around france with great success.
The austin thing sounds a bit strange, as you can’t keep it more than a certain time (30 min or so) without getting charged a hell lot of money on your credit card…
Having said that, in Paris the behaviour is not the cleanest ever (people puting locks on the bikes to make sure they get one in the morning - which makes me wonder why they won’t buy a bike of their own in that case) but again, parisians are a bit weird sometimes
Francois
March 27th, 2008
The Yellow Bike project in Austin, TX didn’t really fail. All the bikes were donated and built by volunteers. They’re free to ride. You just find one and ride where you need to go and then leave it to be picked up by the next person.
The volunteers who run the project claim that they’re happy when they see someone riding a yellow bike that they obviously spray painted and claimed as their own because at least they’re making use of it and not contributing to carbon emissions.
I don’t understand the comment about Austin electing the Texas governor. Austin is the most liberal city in Texas and one of the most liberal cities in the U.S. You can be sure Austinites have never contributed to Republicans holding public office.
Greg
March 27th, 2008
you must forgive muldfeld. he learns everything from internet stereotypes, atease, and hearsay. unless it’s a politically relevant show
foie-gras style
March 27th, 2008
They tried the bike thing in Austin, Tx and it failed. People started not returning the bikes, in no time there were no bikes to pick up and ride, they were all at peoples homes.