The Conservative party candidate for the London mayor’s office has promised to axe what she described as “havoc causing” cycle lanes if she is elected into power later this year.
In an interview with The Evening Standard, Susan Hall claimed that cycle lanes prevent emergency services from getting to incidents quickly and insisted that motorists should be prioritised in terms of infrastructure.
“I’m pro any form of transport, but we must remember there’s only 2-3 percent of the population that are cyclists,” she said. “We must look at some of these cycle lanes that have been put in.
“I’ll give you the example of Park Lane. It’s damn ridiculous quite frankly. It was virtue signalling by this mayor [Sadiq Khan] because there’s a cycle lane that goes through the park right next door.
“The traffic then gets gridlocked. Fumes all over the place.”
Hall also said she would stop what she described as a “war on motorists” if she is elected and replaces the current mayor, Labour’s Sadiq Khan.
“A successful city is a moving city,” she added. “When you’ve put some of these cycle lanes in that cause nothing but havoc, when you put cycle lanes in because you’re virtue signalling that is unacceptable.
“The other thing that nobody seems to bring up, which is so important when we have gridlock streets, is how do we expect our emergency services to get through?
“It is very important that ambulances, fire engines, and police can get through the streets as quickly as possible, as well as the rest of us.
“So, I am pro cycling, but equally we must look at everybody else that uses the streets. And this war on the motorists must stop.”
Despite Hall’s claims regarding the low percentage of cyclists in Britain, data released by Transport for London last year shows that over 70,000 more journeys were made daily in the capital in 2023 than the previous year. This represented an increase of 20% since before the global pandemic.
At the time the figures were published, Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, said that he and Khan are committed to “boosting this further”.
“I’m delighted to see the increase in cycling and walking journeys in London continue for yet another year,” Norman said. “The Mayor and I are committed to boosting this further. We will continue to expand the network of cycleways and make more junctions and crossings safer.
“We’re determined to build a cleaner, greener and more prosperous London for everyone, and investing in sustainable transport options is a vital part of that.”
Simon Munk, from the London Cycling Campaign, added: “The latest data makes it clearer than ever that London loves cycling. Around a quarter of Londoners cycle, around another quarter want to.
“These figures show that the number of cycling journeys on any day is about a third of all Tube journeys or a quarter of all bus journeys – this is a mainstream mode of transport used by a wider and wider range of Londoners.”