Council 'Not Ambitious Enough' on Cycle Lanes

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Hammersmith & Fulham Lib Dems call for more infrastructure

Pop-up cycle lane on Hammersmith Road

The Liberal Democrats in Hammersmith & Fulham are calling on the council to take further action to improve cycling infrastructure in the borough.

Joe Dodd, a member of the party in the borough has written to Cllr Iain Cassidy the council’s Cycling and Walking Champion, welcoming the speed at which the council has introduced segregated cycling lanes and reallocated road space to pedestrians in light of the Covid-19 crisis but that this is only partly compensating for earlier inaction. He says that due to the imminent threat of significantly increased car use which could damage air quality in the borough, walking and cycling infrastructure needs to be prioritised to ensure residents are able to maintain social distancing rules.

Mr Dodd adds that the separation of cyclists from other road users has been proven to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers while also enhancing the appeal of cycling for everyone.

He writes in his the letter, “H&F council have woefully failed to improve cycling provisions in the borough over the past five years. It is a shame that it has taken a pandemic and the threat of uncontrollable toxic air to finally act to make even minor improvements to cycling infrastructure. The council declared a climate emergency one year ago. In the meantime they have only scratched the surface of the kind of action urgently required to deal with the emissions caused by transport within the borough. The current temporary cycling lanes do not inadequately extend throughout the borough and improve connectivity between Hammersmith and Fulham.”

He called on the borough to scale up the strategy for temporary cycling lanes and develop an improved long-term strategy for cycling and walking in the borough.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council have introduced a range of measures across the borough to make social distancing easier and walking and cycling safer during the coronavirus lockdown.

They have widened pavements in King Street and Uxbridge Road and new segregated cycling lanes have being temporarily installed with bollards on key routes across Hammersmith, Shepherd’s Bush and White City.

More than two miles of pop-up cycle lanes have been marked out with barriers from King Street at the border with Chiswick, around Hammersmith gyratory and down Hammersmith Road to Olympia, using more than 3,500 barriers.

Cllr Wesley Harcourt, H&F Cabinet Member for the Environment said, “With fewer cars on the road, this is the opportunity to support businesses and keep commuters safe by improving our public spaces for pedestrians and cyclists.”

July 10, 2020