By Guy Taylor
The boss of Brompton Bicycles has suggested Susan Hall would benefit from a trip to London’s flagship cycleway along the Embankment, to witness the benefits of green travel firsthand before Thursday’s mayoral election.
The Conservative opposition candidate is notoriously anti-cyclist and has spent much of her campaign lambasting cycle lanes and clean air policies like ULEZ, or low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs).
Hall has pledged to review cycling infrastructure in the UK capital if elected and said in March that “virtue signalling” cycling lanes were causing “havoc” for motorists.
“She needs to go in the morning, on a nice day like this morning… get a coffee and a nice croissant and spend 20 minutes on the Embankment,” Will Butler-Adams, chief executive of the iconic folding bike maker, told City A.M. in an interview.
“Is that virtue signalling or is that humanity living in a positive way? Because cycling is universal… everyone can cycle. You can buy a bike for 20 quid and you can get across town faster than you can in the car.”
“Cycling is universal… everyone can cycle. You can buy a bike for 20 quid and you can get across town faster than you can in the car.”
Sadiq Khan’s controversial ULEZ expansion last summer, widely credited for Labour’s surprise by-election defeat in Uxbridge, has brought clean air and congestion policies to the forefront of this campaign.
Hall has vowed to scrap the ULEZ expansion on day one and end Khan’s “war on motorists.” She believes motorists should be prioritised over cyclists, given the latter make up around two to three of the capital’s transport scene.
For Butler-Adams, the engineer who has spearheaded Brompton’s growth since 2008, the argument for improving cycling infrastructure and encouraging Londoners to cycle is a no-brainer.
“When you look at the environment, there are more people travelling along that Embankment by bike than there are by car and it’s using up a fraction of the space,” he said.
“And guess what, it’s delivering health benefits on a colossal scale, mental health and physical health benefits, and that’s the biggest thing. We need to stand back and think about our cherished NHS.”
According to a survey conducted by Brompton, safety is the main barrier to taking up cycling, with London’s high levels of traffic fuelling users’ concerns.
That said, the number of cyclists has skyrocketed in the British capital in recent years, alongside an increase in the use of electric bikes and scooters.
Ridership is up 20 per cent on pre-pandemic levels and Transport for London (TfL) revealed in March that London’s cycling network had quadrupled in size since 2016.
Butler-Adams, who works closely with London’s cycling tsar, Will Norman, said the current leadership had done a “pretty good job” though he’d like to have seen more.
But he warned “to consciously take a backward step” by removing cycle lanes, ULEZ and LTNs, would be “in my mind, irresponsible.”
“If we went back to where London was before Ken Livingstone, that’s not good. The air quality was worse, the traffic was worse, the speed at which people moved across the city was worse, the health benefits to society were worse.”
Susan Hall declined to comment.
