Cycling in London could increase tenfold after coronavirus lockdown, TfL says

TfL has plans to widen pavements and introduce temporary cycle routes after the lockdown
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A plan to overhaul London's streets after the coronavirus lockdown hopes to see cycling increase tenfold and pavements widened to allow for more social distancing to take place.

As part of the London Streetscape plans, Transport for London is considering fast-tracking plans to introduce temporary cycle lanes along routes such as busy Euston Road and Park Lane.

The plans also include widening pavements to allow for physical distancing and queueing outside shops.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ) on Wednesday that a "bigger and more expansive tube service" could make it easier for people to observe social distancing regulations.

He said: “We’ll certainly be working with the mayor to try to achieve that, though there must be – and we’ll come to this on Sunday and next week as well – mitigation to help people, for those reasons of social distancing, who cannot use mass transit.

“There’ll be a huge amount of planning going into helping people to get to work other than by mass transit, and this should be a new golden age for cycling.”

But the office of the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan warned the city's public transport capacity could potentially run at a fifth of pre-crisis levels.

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Mr Khan said: "If people switch only a fraction of these journeys to cars, London risks grinding to a halt, air quality will worsen, and road danger will increase.

"The capacity of our public transport will be dramatically reduced post-coronavirus as a result of the huge challenges we face around social distancing.

"Many Londoners have rediscovered the joys of walking and cycling during lockdown and, by quickly and cheaply widening pavements, creating temporary cycle lanes and closing roads to through traffic we will enable millions more people to change the way they get around our city."

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The Mayor and TfL said they would work with boroughs to focus on three areas; the rapid construction of a strategic cycling network, a complete transformation of town centres to encourage people to walk and cycle wherever possible, and reducing traffic on residential streets to create "low traffic neighbourhoods".

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