Bike blog | The Guardian – Tagged "Sadiq Khan"

Environment, London, London mayoral election 2021, Sadiq Khan, Shaun Bailey, Siân Berry, UK news - May 4, 2021

London mayoral election: which candidate is best for cycling?

Analysis: greater use of bikes can help tackle emissions in the capital, but can the would-be mayors deliver?

After a year in which lives, homes and jobs were lost to a global pandemic, why does cycling matter? One of the London mayor’s major mandates is transport. Cycling and walking are a key part of that, not least while many people are avoiding public transport or working from home.

If people switch from public transport to driving, Transport for London (TfL) forecasts a huge rise in motor traffic and a corresponding surge in pollution. With road transport accounting for 20% of London’s emissions, providing alternatives to private cars is key.

London’s cycle network overhaul has come to a standstill

Sadiq Khan’s claims to have built 140km of cycling infrastructure are simply false

Among the more amusing frauds of the energy company Enron was the time, in 1998, when it decided to create an entire fake trading floor at its Texas HQ – complete with TVs, computers, and shirtsleeved guys shouting down phones – to fool Wall Street analysts visiting for its annual general meeting.

Now, however, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be aiming for something even more ambitious – an entire fake cycle network. I am in south-west London, in an alley about six feet wide, wedged between a railway line and the back garden fences of Southdown Road. According to Khan, this is the Wimbledon to Raynes Park Quietway, part of the 140km of cycle infrastructure, which he claims to have built since taking office.

How London is aiming to become the world best big city for cycling | Will Norman

I reject the suggestion that the capital’s action plan contains nothing new

Two weeks ago, the mayor of London and I spent a morning cycling with the leader of Enfield council looking at their excellent new protected cycleways and secure bike parking hub at Edmonton Green station. Together we unveiled Transport for London’s new cycling action plan, which aims to make London the world’s best big city for cycling and to double the number of cycle journeys in five years.

The launch follows the publication of this year’s TfL business plan, in which Sadiq Khan demonstrated his continuing commitment to cycling by not only protecting the record level of funding for cycling, but increasing it from an average of £169m to £214m a year. This commitment is despite central government’s complete withdrawal of the £700m annual operating grant, which has left TfL in a tough financial position, compounded by the delay and increased cost of Crossrail.

Sadiq Khan says he's better than Boris on cycling – but do his claims add up?

The mayor of London is proud of his work boosting cycling in the capital, but his critics say too little is being done

On a blustery September day two years into his mayoralty of London, Sadiq Khan appears atop a Santander cycle to open a stretch of kerb-protected bike lane – the 2.5km extension of cycle superhighway 6, from Farringdon to Kings Cross. It may be the first time he’s appeared officially on a bike since his 2016 election campaign but he seems genuinely passionate about cycling and walking, and has clearly done his homework – even if some of his stats don’t tell the whole story.

Flanked by his deputy mayor for transport, Heidi Alexander, and his walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, Khan is bullish about his cycling record. This despite ongoing criticism over delays, and a bruising exchange with Westminster city council this summer – the council he brands “anti-walking, anti-cycling” after it blocked cycle superhighway 11 and Oxford Street pedestrianisation in quick succession.

Read more

Sadiq Khan RSS

London mayoral election: which candidate is best for cycling?

London’s cycle network overhaul has come to a standstill

How London is aiming to become the world best big city for cycling | Will Norman

Sadiq Khan says he's better than Boris on cycling – but do his claims add up?

Tags