Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson is angered by the underspend that could have saved vulnerable road users lives, stating the Mayor needed to “get a grip on TfL”.
Darren Johnson urges the Mayor to ensure the TfL are spending the money they are given to spend on improving road safety for cyclists and pedestrians. Image courtesy of Dream out loud.
The Mayor of London has underspent this year’s cycling budget by £38m. This is over a third of the £111m budget that was due to be spent on making the road safer and promoting cycling.
Transport for London has under-spent the cycling budget for each of the last six years. The Mayor had hoped to spend £588m during that time, but has under-spent by over a £150m. TfL’s budget for improving junction safety in the next decade is £100m.
Darren Johnson commented: “I am angry about the fact that people have been killed and seriously injured while money that should have been used to make roads safer has been left unspent. This £150m under-spend is more than the Transport for London budget for safer junctions over the next decade. Transport for London has had the time and the money to have made around 50 junctions safer during the last six years. That is a lot of pedestrian and cyclist deaths and injuries which could have been avoided if Transport for London had got on with it.”
“The Mayor needs to get a grip on TfL and ensure that they start creating the safer places to cycle that they are being given the money to do. Boris Johnson has some good plans for cycling, but unless the delivery improves he will be remembered as the Mayor who brought death and injury to London’s roads.”