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Following the news that Transport for London underspend its cycling budget by £150 million over the past six years, the Mayor’s Office has announced a pot worth £17.3 million to aid cycling improvements across the capital.
Today’s announcement reveals that over the next three years the new funding will be made available to boroughs looking to increase cycling levels.
According to transport for London, Thousands of cycle parking spaces will be installed across London, with more than 5,000 delivered in Kensington and Chelsea and Waltham Forest alone.
The Borough Cycling Programme will also see thousands of Londoners – young and old – benefit from bespoke cycle training, as well as around 15,000 drivers taking part in "Safer Urban Driver" courses across London. In addition, in boroughs such as Ealing, HGV drivers will be given specific cyclist awareness training to help reduce the number of accidents between lorries and cyclists.
Boris Johnson commented: "As part of my Cycling Vision, we are engaging in a vast £1billion programme of improvements to transform cycling in London.
"Making some of this money available directly to the boroughs will help ensure that cycling developments reach communities across the capital.
"These local schemes will add to the innovative measures we’ve already announced, including enhanced cycling superhighways, urban ‘Quietways’ for more cautious cyclists, and turning some outer boroughs into mini-Hollands."
A ‘Central London grid’ – a network of 60 miles of quieter routes for cyclists – has recently been opened for consultation.
In addition, the first ‘Quietways’ outside central London are expected to be announced shortly, creating high-quality routes stretching well beyond the centre of the city.
On the £150 million underspend of the cycling budget, London Assembly member Darren Johnson said: "I am angry about the fact that people have been killed and seriously injured while money that should have been used to make roads safer has been left unspent.
"This £150m under-spend is more than the Transport for London budget for safer junctions over the next decade. Transport for London has had the time and the money to have made around 50 junctions safer during the last six years. That is a lot of pedestrian and cyclist deaths and injuries which could have been avoided if Transport for London had got on with it.
“The Mayor needs to get a grip on TfL and ensure that they start creating the safer places to cycle that they are being given the money to do. Boris Johnson has some good plans for cycling, but unless the delivery improves he will be remembered as the Mayor who brought death and injury to London’s roads.”
