Green Assembly Members Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones have called on the Mayor to make London’s cycling budget representative of the number of journeys traveled in the capital by bike.
Jenny Jones urging Boris Johnson to rethink spending of cycling
The Mayor is currently due to spend £104m on cycling and making junctions safer during the coming financial year – £41m short of the amount identified in the cross party London Assembly report “Gearing up”. This report recommended that Transport for London spending should reflect the proportion of people who make journeys by bike (2%):
“£145 million – 2 per cent of TfL’s 2012/13 budget – to be allocated to cycling in 2013/14”
The Mayor’s Budget assumes that cycling expenditure will be £111m in 2014/15 and £119m in 2015/16. Under current plans, spending would then fall to under £100m for the following 7 years. If proportionality was agreed, as recommended in the Assembly report , then expenditure on cycling would grow as the number of cyclists increased. The Mayor’s target is for 5% of trips to be by bike by 2025.
Darren Johnson commented:
“As the number of people cycling grows, it is reasonable to expect the amount of money spent on cycling to grow. Londoner’s are using cars less and cycling more, so the Mayor should respond by shifting resources towards making the cycling safer and easier, especially in outer London. A lot of money has gone into cycle hire, but spending on cycle parking, training and green routes has remain fairly static in the last five years. The Mayor needs to increase the budget to give cyclists a fair share and I will be calling on fellow Assembly members to join me in putting pressure on the Mayor to achieve this.”