Croydon seeks to boost low cycle trips

The London Borough of Croydon is investigating how to boost the borough’s low volume of cycling. “A considerable amount is known about the level of cycling in Croydon and the potential for cycling in Croydon [but] we lack information as to why that potential is not being realised,” Ian Plowright, the borough’s head of transport, told councillors. According to a new draft cycling strategy, one difficulty the borough faces is that a big segment of its population is young people moving from central and inner London to start families. “At this point they may well give up cycling,” says the council. Croydon has the second lowest level of bicycle ownership in the capital – below 20% – only Newham is lower. The draft strategy proposes a network of radial routes into the town centre, predominantly Quietways on back streets and through parks. Croydon also plans to introduce 20mph limits on town centre streets and is keen to work with Transport for London to trial intelligent speed adaptation (ISA) technology on bus routes serving the town centre. On cycle hire, the borough says: “The right sort of cycle hire has the potential to help people cycle to, from and within Croydon town centre.”

Discuss this at LTT's Smarter Travel 2015 event on the 5-6 February 2015