Will Norman: There are over 730 thousand daily journeys made by bike in
London over the years since 2000 we've seen one hundred and fifty three percent
increase in cycling across all of London but in central London the story is even
better we've seen a 253 percent increase since 2000
and that is a direct result of the investment in the cycle infrastructure
that we've been putting in around the city
Ruth: So I've been cycling for about 7 years in London and definitely the infra has gotten better.
Chris: The new routes proven hugely successful in terms of
of increasing the number of riders and we are starting to see a change in the
type of riders getting more women more children older residents on bikes.
Paul: I use it for about half mile each day at the end of my commute and it just makes it
easier easier to share the space.
Iian: So these major cycling facilities are now in there working they've made a
really huge change in London and they play there a huge change in the city of London.
Will: We have 40 miles of cycle superhighway
rolled out at the moment we're also building a quietway network that's as
though the smaller routes on some of the residential streets and back routes
allowing people to get around the city as part of their daily journeys.
Ian: So as you can see behind me is a considerable difference physically there's a big Lane
being created four meters wide for cyclists to go in both directions and
there are facilities there and curves and islands and things to actually make
sure there's physical segregation that also provides occasional space for
people who are crossing on foot to wait on.
Will: This is Blackfriars Bridge in the
center of London you can see how protected the cyclists
are away from the general traffic on this route alone at the busiest time of
day cyclists account for 70 percent of all the journeys go across this
bridge compared with before this cycle lane was here we've seen a 55 percent
increase in the number of cyclists using this bridge on a daily basis
Ian: The London Road network is very difficult to understand so I think the
biggest benefit for me of the cycle superhighways is that it gives you a
point-to-point route network so I know if I want to get from the centre of the
city out to the northwest I can get on a superhighway and it's going to take me
exactly radially where I want to go.
Esther: London has many quiet streets that they are actually known 20 mile per hour or
30 kilometres per hour streets when you use that Street you know it's a quiet
street from a residential there's not much traffic so you can actually make
your way through the city most of the times by using loq speed streets.
Ian: I started to notice about ten years ago that London was investing in quieter
routes through neighborhoods throughout London and they would take streets that
were formally through streets and they would block them off except for a look
at a narrow passage for a bicycle and then they use that space for a small
garden - maybe a benches or something like that - but what it did is it made the
streets so peaceful that bicycling through those neighborhoods was really a joy.
Paul: What you seen actually happen organically already who is counterflow
cycle lanes have actually made things accessible where people doing things
illegally they've now become part of the system and the planning and the
observations of the planners have made has actually improved things.
Ruth: On the superhighways you tend to have to stay in inflow and yeah go at the speed
the pace favoring us going at
David: Those big, big bike lanes are really intense I mean
people are biking fast they know where they're going, there's an intensity on
some of those things it's like people are trying to get to work this is not a leisurely thing.
Ian: Cyclists tend to ride pretty fast on them and I can see that
especially for an urban rider that's not highly experienced that that might be a bit of a challenge.
Iain: There's still a predominance of males riding and people
would drop handlebar bikes people who want to cycle very quickly but
ultimately here in the city we're looking for something where actually
everybody slows down a good speed for vehicles and cycles to go is about 10
miles an hour because the differential between them and someone who'd walking
on at 3 miles an hour and the pedestrian is actually more easy to kind of
understand and deal with try and bring that civility and that calmness into people's journeys.
Chris: Our road system actively excludes certain groups from taking part in
active travel we see fewer women fewer old residents and an almost no children
whatsoever able to cycle on our streets and we think this is an issue of social
justice it's an issue of active travel and councils need to say look in fact to
travel is importance of a health strategy for a capital then how do we
make sure it's available to everybody not just the brave.
Ruth: When you have a bike lane and then it shifts to going in with the rest of the traffic you have to be
quite careful and I think that's when perhaps older people with children don't feel comfortable.
Will: We need to make sure that cyclists really reflect the
diversity of London's communities at the moment sadly they don't, and what we're
doing is we're working with schools last year we trained over 40,000 children to
cycle around the around London. We do the same thing with adults twenty thousand two
adults were trained that they can cycle confidently and are familiar with London's
infrastructure. We're working with community groups across the city.
Esther: There has been some research in London in relation to the bike sharing schemes
that they actually help to normalizing psyches because is a way of cycling that
is quite unpredictable there are trips that sometimes are unplanned so you
might be dressing your normal clothing no helmet and you just grab a bike
because that's the most convenient way of doing a trip that you had in London
David: I rented one of the city bikes there and I was really cheap I think I
was like two, two pounds for 24 hours and I felt like the bike was a way to like
connect with other bikers.
Will: We've got record numbers of people hiring our
Santander cycles last year over 10.6 million people use this as a way of exploring our great city.
Will: What we're aiming for in our mayor's transport strategy the work that we're
doing in London is to radically change the way people move around the city so
shifted from 64% of people using bikes walking and public transport to 80%
that's getting people out to their cars and using safer more healthier and more
sustainable modes of transport to get around the city.
Iain: We've had far fewer vehicles during the day when most people around we've seen really big
improvements in air quality at certain locations that's really good.
People having to change how they do things so we're working really hard with
businesses and delivery companies to ensure that all deliveries happen at night.
Chris: We'd like to see the mayor move faster now on getting the routes rolled
out, the superhighways need to be rebranded as either bike boulevards or
neighborhood greenways and we also now need to see them across the city.
Iain: Certainly many of the organizations and the opinion formers in places like the
City of London are now calling for fantastic streets with far fewer
vehicles wonderful for people many of matching this up as
"healthy streets" the Mayor of London is it's a great term.
Will: We're doubling the investment of the previous administration investing on average
about one hundred sixty nine million pounds per year in cycle infrastructure
now that brings London up to the levels of infrastructure investment that we see
in Copenhagen in Amsterdam really putting forth in London as a global big
global city will be at the forefront of social infrastructure going forward.
Paul: I know we we hold up the mini Holland and the Copenhagen models as ways of doing
things but let's be honest they've been doing it for over 50 years it takes time.