London’s cycling commissioner admits TfL infrastructure mistakes

The Cycling Commissioner for London, Andrew Gilligan, has acknowledged that some Cycle Superhighway sections are “little more than blue paint” and they need to be upgraded or diverted to provide adequate facilities.

Gilligan, speaking to LTT at the Cycle City Expo, echoed the criticism made of the superhighways by cyclists when they were first introduced. He acknowledged: “Not all the cycle infrastructure that’s been put in has been met with satisfaction from cyclists. A lot of the Cycle Superhighways in particular.”

He said the problem was that they were on the Transport for London Road Network, which “has to fulfil so many purposes, they are compromised”. They would only remain on the TLRN if they can meet the criteria of “adequacy,” he said. “We will re-route some of them, with agreement from the boroughs.” He confided that he “would remove Cycle Superhighway Eight altogether if I could”.

He was speaking as London TravelWatch raised concerns about the mayor’s cycling vision, including the loss of bus priority and conflict between cyclists and pedestrians accessing bus stops.

Gilligan also revealed that he was seeking changes to the Cycle Superhighway Five as proposed, including diverting it away from the proposed route of Vauxhall Bridge Road on the TLRN if an alternative can be found. He said the CS3 route was successful because it used borough roads.

To implement the mayor’s cycling vision, “the main task will be getting political agreement from the roadowners,” he said. Gillian was confident that the boroughs would support new, diverted and extended Cycle Superhighways on their roads. Westminster City Council had been “incredibly good” with a new draft cycling strategy “more ambitious than ours”.

Gilligan told delegates that segregation was not always necessary, highlighting that the borough with the highest rates of cycling, Hackney, does not rely on this.

He said that the fact that there had only been a 1% growth in cycling in 2012 compared to double digits the year before may have been down, in part, to  “the all consuming focus on safety putting people off” despite the fact “it is far safer than it was.”

The commissioner also said he wanted to “minimise” studies for schemes. “I do not want to see another CRISP (Cycle Route Implementation and Stakeholder Plan) survey in my life. We know where people want to cycle.”

“It’s a political process,” he said. He was convincing “the Tory councillors who had never got on a bike in their life” of the need for schemes, he said, by telling them that if more people cycle, “they’ll have less competition for a parking space”.