A statement from Sadiq

“I am determined that we do not emerge from this pandemic to replace one health crisis with another. Getting Londoners out of their cars and cycling will be a huge part of this. In my first term as Mayor, I am proud to have taken world-leading action to promote cycling. I appointed London’s first Walking and Cycling Commissioner and have increased London’s protected cycle space by five times what it was when I started. Over the course of the pandemic, my Streetspace Plan saw 100km of new or upgraded cycle lanes built.

I, like many others, have rediscovered my love of cycling this year. That’s why I will continue my rapid expansion of London’s cycle network to connect communities and town centres with protected cycleways on main roads and low-traffic routes on local streets — so that it reaches a third of Londoners by 2025. I’ll invest to modernise and expand the Santander Cycle Hire scheme so it can be accessed by more Londoners, as well as introducing e-bikes. And I’ll continue to deliver my cycle parking plan, providing 5,000 new residential cycle hangars and parking hubs at stations and more parking on our high streets.

This is all part of my ambition to ensure 80 per cent of all journeys by 2041 are walked, cycled, or made by public transport, so that we can make London a zero-carbon city by 2030. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild our cities and our economies so that they are cleaner, greener and more sustainable, and I’m determined to work with groups like London Cycling Campaign to get there.”

“We’re pleased that Sadiq has responded to LCC, saying he will work with us to achieve his goal of a net zero carbon London by 2030, if re-elected as Mayor. But we are disappointed that he hasn’t accepted our logic that meeting this goal requires achieving zero carbon roads by the same date.

If Sadiq is re-elected, we will press him to bring forward his out-dated 2041 target for ending avoidable car use, to bring it in line with the demands of the climate emergency. And we will continue to vigorously support the accelerated roll out of new cycling infrastructure and traffic reduction measures, to make London greener, healthier and better, whoever is elected as Mayor.”