Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 2025
Cycle infrastructure in London has negatively impacted bus services alongside a rise in serious cyclist injuries between 2017 and 2023. Boris Johnson’s prediction that cycling volumes would double within a decade has not materialised and recently the London Cycling Campaign revealed the once-celebrated Royal College Street cycle scheme is now among the most dangerous in London. This all suggests the need for a new approach to streets policy—an holistic one that considers all the sustainable modes
In Hackney between Census years 2001 and 2011 cycling to work really did double alongside improvements to the other sustainable modes. Cycling’s share of trips, according to TfL’s household travel survey, rose to 9%. This was a result of several programmes of works by the council, but also a resistance from Hackney Cycling to cycle tracks because of the associated problems. Hackney has a better sustainable transport mix than either Amsterdam or Copenhagen.
Area wide interventions were an early priority
1. Slower Speeds Initiatives: Traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps and side road entry treatments, were implemented across residential and ‘B’ roads to enhance safety.
2. Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs): These limited private car use, removed pavement parking, and introduced double yellow lines at intersections, creating safer streets.
3.Traffic Restrictions on Minor Roads: Residential streets were closed to through traffic, providing safer, more appealing routes for cyclists.
Hackney enthusiastically embraced Ken Livingstone’s bus revolution, installing bus and cycle lanes wherever it could, and was fortunate to benefit from being part of the central area congestion zone, albeit a small part.
Hackney adopted the ideas of Jan Gehl, the world’s foremost urbanist, who was commissioned in 2004 by TfL and the Central London Partnership to set a strategy to develop London’s streets – an initiative regrettably lost in the rush for cycle tracks.
The council adopted car-free development. Almost every development from 2004 onwards was car-free where on-street parking controls existed. This led to thousands of homes where car ownership was difficult or impossible; access to car-clubs was easy.
There were engineering schemes targeted at junctions with clusters of collisions, but these were done with business plans ensuring money was well spent. The notion of spending £17million at locations such as Lea Bridge roundabout where there was a good safety record would have seemed madness – more so when the result would be a confusing system of bike lanes and signals that very few cyclists use as designed, ruining the public realm and degrading the bus service.
And of course cycling advocacy from the council consistently made the case for cycling, particularly amongst young people. This culminated in 2016 with over 1000 pupils smashing the Guinness Book of records for a cycle bus!
Things Hackney didn’t do enough of included tackling the issue of parking on its main roads and the A10. It’s bizarre that on bus routes where safe and efficient movement should be prioritised, squeezing in parking is still a persistent policy. On these streets there is often a legitimate demand for on-street loading and even short-term parking, but why residential parking is not removed to improve bus operation and general safety is incomprehensible.
And finally something highways authorities have been unable to influence: roads policing. To say there isn’t enough roads policing is an understatement. It is nothing short of criminal that 30mph, let alone 20mph and other moving traffic offences go largely unenforced alongside the promotion of the vulnerable modes.
Vincent Stops
Vincent Stops spent 20 years as the Streets Policy Officer at London TravelWatch, London’s statutory transport user watchdog. In that time he worked alongside TfL and represented London’s transport users.
He also authored two reports on cycling in London. During that time he was sceptical of the new cycle activism. He was also a councillor and sometime lead member of Hackney Council, London’s most successful cycling borough.
Vincent now volunteers with the National Federation of the Blind UK, working on their active travel and access programme.
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