Save Hammersmith Bridge – but keep it free of cars | Letters

Readers respond to Simon Jenkins’s article on the west London crossing

Simon Jenkins is a great defender of our national heritage, having produced many books on the subject and frequently written in the Guardian against aggressive modern architectural horrors. How shocking, then, to find him arguing for the replacement of Hammersmith Bridge simply to provide for yet more cars on the roads (Hammersmith Bridge is a symbol of our dysfunctional times. The money is there, the joined-up thinking isn’t, 23 October). He claims that the principal cause of congestion is “London’s epidemic of roadworks”, when actually it’s the fact that there are just too many cars trying to use a road network that isn’t designed for them.

Furthermore, he says that, in its present state, the bridge “merely allows pedestrians and cyclists to cross it” – and yet between 12,000 and 15,000 people use it every day. Reopening it to motor traffic (and increasingly heavy cars have massively contributed to the current state of degradation of the bridge) would bring little benefit. Well over half the households in Hammersmith and Fulham don’t have access to a car, and there are very good public transport links in the area; there is even a well-thought-out plan put forward by the Barnes Hammersmith Electric Light Transit group to run driverless electric “pod” vehicles to provide for those who are unable to walk across Hammersmith Bridge.

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