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A cyclist in Oxford Street.
A cyclist in Oxford Street. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
A cyclist in Oxford Street. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Boris Johnson moves to meet City concerns about cycle superhighways

This article is more than 9 years old

London’s mayor has acknowledged business community worries about his flagship scheme that were questioned by his cycling policy adviser

Last week’s release of Transport for London data estimating the effects on other road-users of Boris Johnson’s most ambitious cycle superhighway plan was accompanied by a conciliatory message from the mayor. He stressed that “the design is by no means set in stone” and that “we will work hard with all parties to improve [it]” in order to “get the right result for London”.

Johnson’s overture was to an important audience - his natural allies in London’s business community and the City who had complained that essential information about the proposed east-west superhighway’s possible effects on London’s economy, traffic levels and pedestrians had not been supplied. It appears that these things trouble Johnson too. Business sources (as they say) have reported that when he digested the TfL data he “went mad”.

In fact, the figures suggest that the overall effect will be varied. In many cases TfL finds that the increases in journey times would be pretty trivial and that some would even get a bit shorter. But it acknowledges that “not all delays are modest”. Longer queuing times east of Tower Hill could contribute to one of the journeys assessed being extended by 13 minutes and another by 16. Johnson, remember, has long professed solidarity with impatient motorists.

The mayor’s receptiveness to those business interests - which, while backing the scheme in principle, have concerns about aspects of its design - contrasts with the approach of his part-time cycling adviser, fellow Telegraph writer and long-standing media supporter Andrew Gilligan. Last week, Gilligan claimed in the Evening Standard that “there are grounds for asking whether the City of London Corporation is in step with those it speaks for”.

How very bold. The density and complex street patterns of the Square Mile require transport (and other) planning skills of high pedigree. Gilligan, by contrast, had no experience in the field when Johnson gave him his job. Eyebrows have been raised both at City Hall and across the river. It’s no secret that Gilligan hasn’t endeared himself at TfL either. My information is that they thought the traffic modelling data ready for release some weeks ago, but that the “cycling czar” had certain reservations.

At TfL Gilligan is described as, among other things, “uncontrolled”, “impolite”, a “zealot” and as seeing himself as “a bit of a Lone Ranger”. It’s not all negativity, though. The former BBC journalist is adored by the London cycling lobby (“a man who needs no introduction!”) and defended, rather surprisingly, by members of every political party represented at City Hall. One, not a Tory, even argues that the next mayor should keep him on to ensure that Johnson’s cycling vision isn’t watered down.

Happily, those elusive TfL stats are at last out there undiluted and in full, any threat of judicial review created by their absence has been avoided, and the deadline for the superhighway consultation has been extended to compensate for the hold up, just as London’s capitalist heartlands wanted. The mayor, it seems, has put his foot down. Look closely at the soles of his shoes and you might spot a bit of masked man underneath.

More on this story

More on this story

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