London Mayor Mayor Ken Livingstone has launched a new a new TV advertising campaign to encourage more Londoners to take to their bikes this summer.
The ‘You’re better off by bike’ campaign comes as figures published today reveal the number of cyclists in London has soared by 83 per cent since 2000 with an estimated 480,000 cycle journeys every day across London – up 30,000 since last year.
Since 2000 spending investment in cycling has risen from just £5.5 million to to £36 million in 2007/08. Transport for London has installed 10,000 cycling parking spaces across the capital in the past two years.
Speaking today Mr Livingstone said the capital was “experiencing a cycling renaissance” adding “we can now justifiably call ourselves a cycling city, a proposal that would have seemed ridiculous just six years ago.”
“Record investment in cycling through Transport for London, an expanding network of cycle and bus lanes, and the confidence given to cyclists through tackling congestion in central London, has transformed levels of cycling in the capital. And, critically, while numbers of people cycling are up, levels of those being killed or seriously injured on bikes are down”
The Mayor was supported by transport advise and Green Party AM and Jenny Jones who said 2007 “is the year of the bike in London.”
