London Cycling News

 

1 May 2008: London's new mayor is Boris Johnson

What this means for cycling in London is yet to be revealed, but the new mayor is himself a cyclist and has indicated that he will continue work already announced to make huge improvements for London cycling (see below).  He'd be daft as a brush not to, wouldn't he?

February 2008.    Massive Increase in Investment in Cycling

In response to pressure from the Green Party in the London Assembly, in  the Mayor of London announced plans to invest £500M over the next 10 years on cycling and walking in the capital.   The plan is aimed at quadrupling the number of daily bike journeys by 2025. This ambitious programme includes:

• the provision of 12 major 'cycle commuter routes' into the centre of the city from all points of the compass.
• the creation of 'cycle zones' in London's urban town centres, with 20MPH speed restrictions and priority for cyclists
• a new cycle hire scheme for central London, modelled on the Paris 'Velib' scheme, with bikes available from a network of docking stations.

We at Go Pedal are delighted that cycling is clearly now a mainstream part of the city's political agenda.  The Velib scheme in Paris (click on picture on left) has generally been a great success and we would welcome a similar operation in London: the more bikes on the road the better, and we believe the London's cycling future is big enough for everybody.   While half a billion over 10 years sounds a lot, to put it in context:  the government is spending £2.9 billion on building an extra lane on a 50 mile stretch of the M6 motorway...

 

You can read more about the plans for London's cycling future here.

September 2007.  The Hovis London Freewheel

July 2007.  The Tour de France starts from London

 

All text and images on this website (except where stated) copyright Simon Ford, trading as Go Pedal! © 2008