Cycling Ignored in London Mayoral Election Campaign

According to the Evening Standard a quarter of Londoners would cycle to work if the roads were safer. If that were true one would expect the candidates to include safe cycle routes in their manifestos. Sadly not.

There is only one line in Boris’ manifesto that refers to cycling. He writes, “Cycling must be made easier and safer.” Hurrah for that, but it seems a little short on detail.

Meanwhile I can’t find much from the LibDem’s Brian Paddick other than, “We need to encourage cycling in London and do whatever we can to make it safer.”

Ken’s website is similarly short on detail.

Even the London paper lacks commitment. The Evening Standard recently ran a poll on the “issues” for Londoners. The poll showed that transport, at 36% was the most important issue for Londoners but when it got into the detail cycling was lumped under “other”. So much for their commitment to Safer Cycling.

You might expect the London Cycling Campaign to be more ambitious. There is nothing wrong with their manifesto but it just seems so unambitious - 20mph speed limit, more training, more parking and more PR.