London’s Cycleway network has surpassed 400 kilometres after the recent expansion of eight Cycleways.
According to Transport for London (TfL), 27% of Londoners now live within 400 metres of a high-quality cycle route and the capital’s cycle network has more than quadrupled from 90 kilometres in 2016.
The new and upgraded Cycleways include sections on busy roads and sections on quiet residential streets with signage aimed at making navigation easier.
“An estimated 1.26 million journeys are now cycled daily in London,” London Cycling Campaign’s Head of Campaigns and Community Development Simon Munk told Zag Daily. “This is 4.5% of all journeys or a third of all tube journeys.
“In other words, London loves cycling and is successfully proving that megacities can enable people to cycle as a mass transport form.”
Simon believes that London must now focus on providing higher-quality Cycleways that form a coherent continuous network. He said that this has contributed to unlocking faster cycling growth in European cities such as Seville.
“That means increasing the quality bar TfL currently applies to cycle routes and delivering a network that connects across the map, not just in patches of mostly inner London. And yes, it means dealing with the big holes in the network where councils such as Kensington and Chelsea and Tower Hamlets just don’t really believe in cycling or indeed a climate emergency, despite having declared one.”
The recently launched Cycleways include Cycleway 9 linking Kew Bridge to Brentford, Cycleway 27 linking Marylebone to Clerkenwell, and a 2.83 kilometre Cycleway in Waltham Forest linking Leytonstone to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
According to TfL’s annual casualty statistics released earlier this year, walkers, cyclists, and motorcyclists made up 80% of all people killed or seriously injured in 2023.
However, the number of people killed while cycling dropped 40% from London’s 2010-2014 baseline from 13 to eight, despite cycle journeys increasing to 1.26 million in 2023.
