A London Cycling Campaign (LCC) report says that women are afraid to cycle in London because of the abuse they face. It was launched with and responded to by the Deputy Mayor for Policing, who detailed actions the Mayor himself would take to address the problem.
This is a new departure. Nine years ago the LCC was promoting research saying that women are afraid to cycle in London because of being close-passed by vehicles and “feeling unsafe”.
That research, combined with claims that the way to encourage more people to cycle was to build a network of cycle tracks, led to substantial amounts of money being spent on introducing kerbs, removing pedestrian refuges and widening roads to accommodate those special lanes.
The more responsible Transport for London officers of the time pointed out that these schemes involved a 25 per cent reduction in motor vehicle capacity within the central area and would probably result in equally significant extra congestion as a consequence. When congestion duly occurred, excuses included a rise in the number of Uber vehicles and Amazon deliveries to workplaces. Politicians argued it could all be sorted out by re-phasing traffic lights.
Such scrutiny as there was, via official channels, typically only invited evidence from those involved with supposedly increasing cycling by building tracks or lanes. The capital’s official transport-users’ advocate, London TravelWatch, ceased to be asked. Few criteria for success seem to have been set, such as a realistic percentage increase in people cycling. And little increase was seen.
Reports from TfL hypothesised that people who already cycled were re-routing themselves onto the new infrastructure and cycling further. Although it is clear that there has been some rise in the number of people cycling since the pandemic, that growth appears to be mostly in leisure cycling at weekends, and no studies explore what proportion of cyclists are providing food delivery services.
Meanwhile, bus speeds have slowed, with many bus priority measures, such as bus lanes, replaced by cycle lanes. At the same time, blind and mobility-impaired people have become less independent. Many “feel unsafe” when getting off buses at stops to which bypasses for cyclists have been added or when having to cross cycle lanes to board.
In addition, walking has become a less efficient mode since the removal of pedestrian refuges – the most familiar examples are best known as traffic islands – and the widening of roads. Other measures, have reduced opportunities for informal road-crossing at desire lines. For regular cyclists, such as myself, cycle journeys in London have become less direct and therefore longer because Google directs you to cycle tracks.
Some people have benefited from the increase in cycle tracks in London – after all, road space has been set aside for their exclusive use. The evidence suggests they are overwhelmingly white, middle-class and male, a demographic profile little altered in recent years.
Hence, Sadiq Khan funding projects that seek to increase diversity in London’s cycling population – though, again, with no success criteria – and now committing to various actions to help women as a result of the new LCC report.
We can only hope that those actions do not have the negative impact on a wide range of Londoners as did the actions arising from the previous LCC research – and that, nine years from now, the LCC itself is not looking for more new reasons why women don’t cycle.
Update, 01 March 2024
Sceptical comments about my article following its publication included questions about my sources supporting my arguments. I thought it would be helpful to say more about them.
The reference to a 25 per cent reduction in motor vehicle capacity in central London was sourced from contributions made by Helen Cansick, a senior Transport for London officer, at a board meeting of London TravelWatch, the capital’s official transport watchdog, which took place on 12 April 2015. They appear in the minutes, which include the following quotes:
“Schemes will permanently reallocate capacity from motor vehicles to cyclists and this change would need to be managed in the longer term.” (page 6)
And:
“Following completion in December 2016 there would be a reduction in road capacity for motor vehicles of 25% within the inner ring road”. (page 7)
The references to re-routing came in part from surveys of cyclists using new infrastructure that were published in TfL’s Travel in London Report 12 (2019). Cyclists were stopped and asked questions. The relevant section of the report is 6.9.
I also considered the graph below, derived from TfL’s annual cycling data census.
This seems to show cyclists taking different routes from before but little overall growth in the number of people cycling.
The year 2019 was the first in which the impact of active travel interventions in the outer London boroughs given so-called “mini-Holland” funding was assessed.
Assessing the results, Travel in London report 12 said (in section 6.10 on page 116): “While interpreting these findings it is important to be mindful of the limitations of a study of this sort, primary among which is the limited sample size…” This caveat has been ignored in media coverage of the study.
The “mini-Holland” study has concluded after five years. Its final report has just been published. (Impacts of active travel behaviour on travel behaviour and health: Results from a five-year longitudinal travel survey in Outer London, Feb 2024). Using the same small sample, it draws attention to a range of impacts but hardly any growth in cycling.
It is also worth noting that TfL’s method for counting cyclist journeys has changed this year, which has also seen it report a substantial increase in the number of cyclist journey stages. No details have been published about the methodology used to arrive at this latest figure.
To repeat my point above, there is no way of disaggregating food delivery services and the contribution they make to the numbers cycling. From observation their contribution seems substantial.
One commenter has asked what I meant by saying that walking has become a less efficient mode. The answer is that pedestrians must now frequently:
- Walk out of their way to get to a crossing.
- Step over multiple kerbs or avoid plastic poles in the carriageway.
- Wait at crossings, often for uncomfortable lengths of time.
- Can no longer use their common sense for judging when to cross a road part way, because the introduction of cycle tracks has entailed roads being made wider and the removal of pedestrian refuges (traffic islands).
Of London’s cycling demographic the most recent Travel in London report (annual overview), published at the end of last year, said (page 24):
“Over time the proportion of London residents who cycle at least once a year has increased across all demographic groups. However, in relation to the sociodemographic profile of all London residents there is still under-representation of many of these groups and cycling continues to be more prevalent among men. White people and people who are working”
This profile has been the same for many years. The definition of cyclists as “residents who cycle at least once a year” is of itself notable. Does TfL define a bus user in the same way?
In relation to diversity, Will Norman, London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, recently wrote on X/Twitter:
“Grants help diverse communities enjoy the benefits of active travel. ⭐ 339 projects across all boroughs. 😄 69000+ beneficiaries.🚶 🚲 21500+ walks & rides organised. 🚲 5500+ bikes refurbished. 🔧 11000+ people trained in bike maintenance”.
These balance sheet-style figures are quite striking, but whether the demographic profile of Londoners who cycle changes as a result of these programmes remains to be seen.
Rita Krishna was a Hackney councillor from 2002 to 2014 and in that capacity chaired the borough’s road safety scrutiny review. She continues to take an interest in streets and streets policy. Follow her on X/Twitter. Support OnLondon.co.uk and its writers for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money too. Details HERE. Photo from On London July 2019.