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Before he was elected as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan made some impressive promises to cycle campaigners. These include doubling Transport for London’s annual cycling budget to £164m, closing Oxford Street to moto traffic, tripling the number of protected cycle lanes and having a cyclist representative on the TfL Board.
Khan made these committments to the "10 by 2020 London Safer Cycling Challenge" set by pressure group Stop Killing Cyclists.
The group’s co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy said:
“The new Mayor is committed to building momentum on transforming London into a modern European safer-cycling city, even if not at the rate we believe is urgently needed.
"His commitment to doubling the funding for cycling will speed up the process of making London into a safer, healthier and more beautiful city, fit for humans aged from 8 to 80 to cycle, walk and do business in safety.”
The new Mayor was sworn in at Southwark Cathedral on Saturday May 7th.
Here’s Khan’s full statement to the 10 by 2020 London Mayoral Safer Cycling Challenge:
“It is clear that far too many cyclists are dying on London’s roads at present and that urgent action needs to be taken to make getting around our city safer for those on two wheels.
"Tackling this issue isn’t simply a matter of policy, it’s a matter of life and death and so I applaud the work being done by the campaigners behind this initiative. It is crucially important that we all, cyclists, campaigners and politicians alike, continue to raise the profile of this issue and work together to devise practical solutions to some of the dangers being posed to London’s cyclists.
"Along with tackling our city’s polluted air and encouraging more Londoners to take up cycling as a healthy alternative to driving, making the capital’s roads safer is one of my top priorities.
"To that end, I am happy to pledge a significant increase in investment for cycling infrastructure, as well as promise to look carefully at taking tipper trucks and HGV’s off London’s roads during rush hour. In order to keep large lorries off the roads during the day time, rules restricting deliveries at night may need to be relaxed so as Mayor I would enter into discussions with local authorities to identify where this might be possible. I will also examine the case for equipping all TfL vehicles with blind-spot safety equipment and support a Mini-Holland Programme for all London Boroughs within my first term.
"I am committed to continuing the investment in the Cycle Superhighways programme and upgrading existing segregated cycle ways to a higher standard. I also want to roll out more 20mph zones in residential areas, having long campaigned for their introduction in my own constituency of Tooting. Moreover, I would be strongly in favour of adopting a variant of the Idaho Law and I have pledged to revise the list of junctions in need of immediate attention, prioritising improving those where the most deaths and accidents have occurred. Doing this is absolutely essential because Londoners must be able to move around their city with confidence and as safely and efficiently as possible.
"That is why I have also committed to pedestrianising Oxford Street and expanding the number of car-free areas across the city. I would also be happy to appoint a representative, nominated by cycling groups, to the board of TfL to ensure that the views and experiences of cyclists are heard at the highest levels within City Hall and acted upon. Furthermore, I will use planning laws to deliver more cycle storage provision in new office and housing developments and I will work with the boroughs to deliver more secure on-street cycle parking in residential areas.”
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