London cycling lanes face opposition from Transport for London

Senior figures at Transport for London (TfL) believe Boris Johnson is trying to rush through his plans for segregated cycle lanes in London too quickly, Politics.co.uk can reveal. The London mayor has promised to build a series of segregated cycle routes across London over ten years. The plans are broadly supported by cyclists but are meeting stiff opposition from motoring and business groups, who believe the lanes will cause congestion. A senior source at TfL told Politics.co.uk that they were concerned that the mayor's cycling ambassador Andrew Gilligan had not effectively explained the policy to Londoners."It's not a bad policy as long as you communicate to people what it entails and I'm not sure that's been done," they said. The source described Mr Gilligan as a "zealot" and suggested that he had failed to convince anyone beyond those already persuaded by the need for the new segregated cycle lanes. They pointed to new figures showing the mayor's cycle superhighways will delay other journeys across London by up to 16 minutes on some routes. Read more here. For London planners, read: 'Enabling Cycling Cities, Ingredients for success' where preventing this problem is addressed.