I’ve been on a near-20 mile round cycle trip through S & SE London today, to see a friend, and my sad conclusion is that when it comes to travel/smog/human-friendliness, post-Covid London is in deep trouble.

A mini-thread. 1/x

This isn’t about central London, where flash projects like the Park Lane bike route are going in. This is zone 2/3/beyond and it’s an utter mess. The main roads were virtually gridlocked. The side roads were awash with speeding rat runners. The air was pretty filthy.

2/x

I saw handful of new barriers on side roads to curb rat-running, but that was it. Much of my journey out was on the antiquated cycle superhighway 7, not so much a bike lane as a job-creation scheme for the paint industry. People aren’t going to cycle in conditions like this

3/x

This is a pivotal point for the future of travel in London (& other places, obvs). With no real public transport, people going any distance can drive, Uber or cycle. And with the roads the way they are, no one apart from weirdo enthusiasts like me are going to get on a bike.
4/x

You can’t even rely on gridlock to push people to other modes, as they feel there’s no other way. And pretty soon, driving even a mile in zone 2 is going to become a habit for vast numbers of people. The city will grind to a smoggy, dangerous, bad-tempered halt.

5/x

Everyone - mayor, councils, central govt - need to start putting in temporary bike lanes on almost every major road, with a commitment to make them permanent in time. Make modal filters on residential streets the norm. Give grants for e-bikes. Basically, get moving - now.

6/x

The alternative is London resembling Manila, where people just adapt to spending hours in traffic jams. Sure, there might be a mini-boom in people cycling into the centre. But elsewhere all the lockdown scenes of families on bikes has gone. And who can blame them?

7/end

One extra note: this isn’t about commuting, so people working from home will only do so much. This was mainly just people getting about on a Saturday. It’s the sort of trips that really should be made appealing on a bike - eg a couple of miles down a road to see friends.