Jenny Jones will ask the Mayor of London at tomorrows Mayor’s Question
Time to explain his motives behind cuts to the London Cycle Network
Plus’s (LCN+) funding.
Over two-thirds of the LCN+’s schemes to make
roads safer for cyclists will have to be dropped or postponed as a
result of reducing the budget to £10 million.
Jenny Jones said:
"Decreasing expenditure on the LCN+ sends out the wrong message about
the Mayor’s attitude towards cycling and road safety.
New evidence from
Transport for London indicates that cycling is no longer getting safer
in London. Until recently the increase in cycling injuries has been
more than cancelled out by the increase in the number of cyclists on
the roads, meaning that cycling has become safer, but the new figures
throw this into doubt.
At a time when the Mayor should be encouraging
LCN+ schemes to make road layouts, dangerous junctions and roundabouts
safer for cyclists, he has cut the budget from £20 million to £10
million.
"Each LCN+ scheme has involved days of voluntary work from cyclists,
who have often had to overcome the added resistance of reluctant
traffic engineers. What we needed this year was a Mayor with some
backbone and the desire to remove the physical barriers to cycling in
London. With Transport for London saying that cycling is no longer
getting safer, it is vital that the Mayor puts money into cycle lanes.
I will be calling on him to reverse his cut to the funding of the LCN+
ahead of the introduction of Vélib in 2010."