London’s cycle superhighways will combat pollution, congestion and inactivity among the city’s growing population, according to campaigners.
The London Cycling Campaign believes that fear of the roads is the biggest barrier to people cycling and that opposition to TFL’s proposals are largely made up of myth, with the population set to grow from 8.6 to 10 million.
The recently proposed CS4 and CS9 would provide fixed cycling routes between Tower Bridge and Greenwich and Brentford and Olympia.
Simon Munk, LCC Infrastructure campaigner, said: “Most of the biggest concerns raised about such schemes are simply myth.
“We know that most cycle track schemes don’t cause major congestion and don’t increase pollution.
“TFL, the Mayor and the boroughs have to get far better at engaging people on the principles of a scheme earlier.”
He added the need to embrace the reality that some journeys by bus and car will get harder because the alternative is more pollution, worse congestion, inactivity-related poort health and fewer active and healthy children as the city grows and gets more congested.
Mr Munk also reinforced that often opposition to proposals is based on fear rather than evidence.
TFL’s survey says 59% of people support their proposal for the Brentford to Olympia cycle superhighway.
The full proposal and a response received from a Freedom of Information request show a wider range of figures more accurately represent the level of support.
The CS9 would provide a continuous route between Kensington Olympia and Brentford town centre via Hammersmith and Chiswick, work would start in late 2018.
A TFL spokesperson said: “A consultation is very different to social research, in this case, where we are asking people about changes to cycling facilities, we would expect a significant number of people who cycle to respond.”
They added on the questionnaire respondents could check more than one option in response to the question “how do you travel through the area?”, allowing more than one mode of transport because of the way people travel in London.
The survey shows 65% of people who responded regularly cycled, while 67% take the tube and 60% the bus but only 17% of people marked themselves as commuters from, to or through the area, as 73% said they were local residents.
Overall 53% of people strongly supported the plans while 29% strongly opposed it and 46% of responses came from a single postcode, W4.
