You are reading a single comment by @davidvdp_is_better and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@davidvdp_is_better
I can't help but feel as though the pipeline for TfL-led cycleways has almost totally dried up. When TfL released the new Cycling Action Plan (https://content.tfl.gov.uk/cycling-action-plan.pdf) in June my heart sank. It contains very little ambition and no commitment to new projects. The impetus is now on councils to push local projects forward, and whilst the idea of local routes for local people is great, many councils have little interest in taking road space away from drivers (Southwark being a good example, neighbouring Lewisham a comparitively bad one).
There are examples of routes under construction that are of amazing quality and exemplify what could be. These include C4 from Tower Bridge to Greenwich and C9 from Hammersmith to Hounslow. By the threading together some disjointed sections in the middle, these two routes together could provide a nearly 30km long east-west corridor along congested, neglected but ultimately lively corridors.
But speaking as someone who has lived in South London for the past decade, these routes are nothing but a curiosity as most South London boroughs are served by relatively low quality routes - something that I expect most people across the city can relate to. What I fear is that the momentum of the past five years is ebbing, and TfL's appetite for real transformation has been battered by the twin enemies of budget cuts (thanks to the pandemic and a vindictive central government) and political antipathy (the Mayors office has expended so much political capital on the ULEZ it dare not stir the pot further ahead of the mayoral election in May).
I engage as much as I can, supporting the LCC, responding to consultations and just using cycling as my means of getting everywhere. But no candidates for the next mayoralty have an evidently pro-cycling agenda, which never fails to surprise me considering the majority of London households don't own a car and even fewer regularly use one. Our streets are choked by traffic, and the only solution is to get people out of their cars - and the cheapest way to do that is by creating a high-quality cycle network.
I suppose this is a bit of rant, and I guess I'm looking for a bit of hope. My partner works in micro-mobility, and it is interesting to see from the inside how critical companies like Lime are of the Cycling Action Plan. But that doesn't seem to put a dent in the opposition. What's the way forward from here?