Many people don't see the point of direct action instead 'trusting' politicians to do something about it. The fact is that often if it's not in their own interests then it won't happen.
Recently a loose collective of residents, cyclists, bereaved families and people that simply want their city to be a more pleasant and accessible place for those that don't wish to drive cars everywhere have banded together. This was due in part to TfL and the Mayor of London's absolute inability to even follow the advice from their own engineers telling them that lives would be lost.
...and lives have been lost.
So today I was very happy to read on the Labour Caledonian Ward blog First steps to remove the hated Kings Cross one-way system from Paul Convey:
“I am delighted that pressure has made TfL change its position so fundamentally. It is bizarre that only a fortnight ago, London Mayor Boris Johnson, told the London Assembly in a debate about London’s worst 10 spots for road deaths that it was “not feasible to remove the one-way system” at Kings Cross. Well, his own transport agency has now acknowledged that it could indeed be feasible … but no-one has yet thought how to do it. This latest announcement starts the process of figuring this out. It is the start of a long struggle but at least it’s a start.”
This doesn't mean that we've suceeded, there still is a huge amount of work to do and more pressure to put on TfL et al, but I think it's fair to say that TfL would not be looking into this issue had it not been for the pressure applied to them by people that truly wish to make change for the better.