Mayor Boris Johnson has been accused of “giving up” on his promise to deliver a “cycling revolution” in the capital.
Figures released by City Hall and Transport for London on Thursday show there are now around 610,000 cycle journeys a day in the capital, a rise of 25% since Mr Johnson took office in 2008.
Despite the growth in cycling, the numbers killed and seriously injured on the capital’s roads has fallen, with last year’s total of 432 last year marking a 12 per cent fall on the year before.
Mayor Johnson described the figures as “tremendously encouraging” and expressed hope that they’d give “more people the confidence to get on their bikes.”
Greens on the London Assembly have welcomed the rise in cycling but want Mr Johnson to re-instate his target of ensuring five per cent of all trips on London’s roads are completed by bike by 2026.
TfL recently said the target, which was announced the the Mayor’s 2010 transport strategy, is no longer being actively pursued because of “population flux”.
Assembly Member Johnson said: “The growth in cycling on London’s busiest roads is welcome but by recently dumping his target for five per cent of all trips to be completed by bike by 2026, the Mayor is giving up on delivering the real cycling revolution that he promised to Londoners.”
Mr Johnson has called on the Mayor to “stop underspending the cycling budget and properly fund schemes that would make safer for cyclists not just in the city centre or busy corridors but in outer London too.”
