Will Sadiq Khan maintain London cycling’s upwards trajectory?

Boris Johnson was a cyclist-friendly mayor of London. Ian Hall assesses the prospects for his successor, Sadiq Khan.

Westminster Bridge cycle lane (Photo: Ian Hall)

It was fitting – as Boris Johnson himself acknowledged – that the Conservative maverick’s final act as London mayor was to open ‘Crossrail for the Bike’: an east-west Cycle Superhighway, billed as the longest ‘substantially segregated’ urban cycle-route in Europe.

Johnson often seemed wedded to his bike during his eight years as mayor and the new route is part of his ‘Vision for Cycling’, launched to great fanfare three years ago.

With Labour’s Sadiq Khan now in charge at City Hall, will London’s push for pedal-power be sustained? And what legacy does Johnson leave?

Luke Blair, a board director at London Communications Agency (and designate vice-president of communications and public affairs at Imperial College) is a long-time observer of London politics and transport. He tells Intelligent Transport: “One has to give Boris credit where it’s due. The fact that the Mayor himself was frequently pictured riding his own bicycle around the capital probably did more for cycling than any number of super-highways and blue paint [the colour of London’s cycle lanes]. The best thing the new mayor can do to continue the fantastic increase in cyclists in recent years is – to take [Conservative grandee] Norman Tebbit’s advice, turn it into a new, much more positive sentiment, and ‘get on his bike’.”

Boris’s legacy

London Cycling Campaign’s (LCC) infrastructure campaigner Simon Munk observes that Johnson’s commitment to cyclists accelerated during his second four-year term of office. Cycling Commissioner, the journalist Andrew Gilligan, was appointed in January 2013 and infrastructure investment – beyond painting some streets with blue cycle paths – began to be more substantial.

Munk believes an LCC campaign entitled ‘Love London, Go Dutch’, during the 2012 Mayoral election campaign, was the major turning-point. The campaign called for Johnson to implement three Dutch-style infrastructure schemes; to ensure all planned developments on main roads met ‘Go Dutch’ standards, especially junctions; and for the capital’s Cycle Superhighways programme to meet the same standards.

Victoria Embankment near Blackfriars (Photo: Ian Hall)

Cycling’s growth in profile and popularity can also be partly also attributed to London’s cycle-hire system launched in 2010 by Transport for London.

Although emphasising that there is considerable work still to do, Munk says “the past two years have seen more high-quality infrastructure planned for, or put into construction, in London than in arguably the past two decades”.

Sadiq’s challenge

Intelligent Transport asked the LCC what they want Khan to deliver and we reproduce extracts from an open letter – containing a three-point agenda – dispatched by the group’s CEO, Dr Ashok Sinha, to City Hall shortly after the new mayor’s election victory.

Of course, Khan needs to balance the demands other road-user lobbies. This could get fractious: the head of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (London’s biggest taxi drivers’ association) in February 2015 controversially compared cyclists to terror group, Isis, as Cycle Superhighways were given the go-ahead. 

But Khan’s pre-election signals augur more green than amber (or indeed red) for cyclists. Specifically, he has promised to increase funding made available to cycling and has commented, in particular, how cycling helps addressing the problem of air pollution. So, as far as cyclists are concerned, his intentions are positive – and cycling-related announcements are expected imminently. But, of course, it will be a while before concrete actions can be assessed.

European context

Naturally, Intelligent Transport’s readers will find it particularly interesting to examine developments in London from a European perspective. In this context, it is clear that London remains – inevitably – a substantial distance behind Europe’s peloton, which remains very much headed by famed northern European cycling hotspots such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen. This is despite Boris Johnson himself earlier this month talking of ‘Amsterdam-like volumes of cyclists at peak times’ across London’s Blackfriars Bridge.

Benedicte Swennen, Urban Mobility and Cities Policy Officer at the Brussels-headquartered European Cyclists’ Federation, describes London to Intelligent Transport as “on its way to join a group of ‘climber’ cycling cities such as Berlin, Stockholm, Dublin and Vienna.”

Benedicte Swennen, Urban Mobility and Cities Policy Officer

Benedicte explains: “London is ambitious about cycling and shows it with investments in infrastructure, promotion and media actions etc., which is a very good sign. So, I would compare the city with Brussels or Paris – low mode- share, but ambitious. On the other hand, there are some important barriers in London that are not tackled yet and that are slowing the cycling revolution, such as the big safety issue. This might bring London back into a lower category of European capitals – I’m thinking about Rome, Madrid and Athens, where cycling is around one per cent of mode-share.”

Benedicte also points out that the profusion of cyclists now visible in the centre of London contrasts markedly with the suburbs.

Looking ahead

At time of writing, City Hall is acclimatising to the new mayor and political appointments are awaited. The successor to Andrew Gilligan as cycling commissioner remains to be decided.

One diary-date coming up is actually this Friday (20 May), which sees the London Cycling Awards. ‘Best Large-Scale Infrastructure Scheme’ and ‘Best Borough Infrastructure Scheme’ are among the categories.

Beyond then, LCC is organising a 400-kilometre bike-ride from London to Amsterdam in mid-September. The choice of destination is significant. As LCC acknowledges: ‘By joining us on this fantastic ride you’ll not only enjoy great company and experience the pleasures of cycling in Holland, but you’ll be helping us hugely in bringing the Dutch approach to cycling infrastructure back home to London’.

Just a few years ago this would have seemed a ludicrous pipe-dream. But, as the canapes circulate at this Friday’s awards, London’s cycling fraternity should be optimistic that cycling’s upward curve can continue.