Sign pledge to triple cycling, LCC tells mayoral candidates

The next London mayor must commit to "tripling bike routes throughout the capital" to accommodate demand, believes the London Cycling Campaign (LCC). It is calling on all London Mayor candidates to sign up to the three point agenda in its Sign for Cycling petition. The agenda seeks to improve the capital’s cycling infrastructure, air quality, and to make lorries safer for cyclists. 

The cycling pressure group is calling on the next Mayor to commit to:

• More space for cycling on main roads and at junctions

• A ‘Mini-Holland’ for every London borough

• And an end to lorry danger.

LCC wants the new mayor to make significant progress on all 33 of London's most dangerous junctions in the Transport for London (TfL) Better Junctions programme, and continue to deliver protected space for cycling on London's main roads via the Cycle Superhighways programme. 

The campaign’s chief executive, Ashok Sinha, says: "There are still far too many main roads where cycling is only for the fit, fast and confident; and far too many junctions that are a significant barrier to the uptake of cycling and real safety concern for current cyclists. The new mayor must, therefore, be prepared to accelerate TfL's pace of work. 

"We are calling for number of completed miles of protected space for cycling in the Cycle Superhighway programme to be tripled by the end the first mayoral term."

Study after study shows segregated space in tracks and at junctions is shown not only to increase cyclist safety and reduce collisions with vehicles, but also boost overall numbers of people cycling, Sinha says.

"The Department for Transport's recent study on its Value for Money Assessment for Cycling Grants found recent cycling schemes have a benefit-to-cost ratio of 5.5:1, very high for transport infrastructure. In other words, highways infrastructure that designs in protected space for cycling from the start, works," he adds.

The biggest growth in cycling will come not from long-distance routes, but enabling everyone to ride short distances locally, says LCC. It wants London’s next mayor to fund a large town centre cycling and walking scheme in every London borough to enable and encourage more local journeys to be made by bike.

Sinha says: "The campaign seeks the creation of Dutch-style town centres in London. The Mini Holland schemes in Enfield, Kingston and Waltham Forest, for example, each received £30 million from the mayor to build substantial cycling and walking facilities in their town centres, it was one of the commitments Mayor Boris Johnson made in his 2012 re-election campaign.

"In Holland, bicycles are used for nearly half of all journeys from home to work (up to 7.5km), and for more than half (55%) of all short journeys to and from school or educational courses. Local journeys, like to the leisure centre, or visiting friends, are also primarily made on foot or by bike. Comparatively, in outer London, half of all car journeys are typically under two miles long; journeys which could easily be walked or cycled," he says.

The campaign sees lorries as the greatest danger to cyclists and pedestrians. They are the largest vehicles on the roads and have the worst vision from the driver’s seat, says LCC.

It urges the next mayor to reduce road danger by taking steps to make 'direct vision' lorries, with minimal 'blind spots', the standard HGV type used in London.

Sinha concludes: "Lorries are involved in half the deaths of cyclists on London roads even though they account for less than 5% of vehicle mileage. In 2015 the proportion was even higher: 7 out of 9 cyclist fatalities in involved a lorry. The explanation, all too often, is that the driver was unable to see the cyclists because of the restricted vision from most lorries."

So far, of the 11 mayoral candidates, the Green Party’s Sian Berry and Liberal Democrat hopeful Caroline Pidgeon have signed LCC’s petition. 

The other prospective candidates are:

• George Galloway, Respect 

• Zac Goldsmith, Conservative

• Sadiq Khan, Labour

• Upkar Singh Rai, National Liberal

• Paul Tavares, Independent

• Sophie Walker, Women’s Equality Party

• Peter Whittle, UKIP

• Yanek Zylinski, Independent

http://lcc.org.uk/pages/more-safe-space-for-cycling

Find out more about London's Cycle Super Highways at Cycle City Active City