London Will Double Its Spending on Cycling Infrastructure

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been a vocal cycling advocate for some time, and now he has a new plan to put Londoners’ money where his mouth is.

This week, he promised to inject £770 million ($978 million) of new funding over the next five years into improving London’s cycling infrastructure and conditions. This shift is phenomenal. It means London will be spending more than twice the amount on cycling than it did under Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, at 5.5 percent of the total transit budget compared to 2.4 percent under Johnson. The annual spend per citizen will reach £18 ($23), a level of funding that broadly matches what is spent in Denmark or the Netherlands. The new plan is thus more than just a cash windfall for pedal-pushers. Along with Khan’s creation of a far more diverse board for TfL, the transit authority, it suggests a genuine cultural change is afoot.