Mayoral candidate responses 2024

You have emailed the candidates to be Mayor of London all the reasons you love cycling. Here’s what they said back…

Responses listed in order received

Zoë Garbett, Green Party

We absolutely share your passion for cycling and if elected we promise to do everything we can to make active travel easier, safer and more enjoyable for everyone that wants to cycle. This, for us, means making cycling safer for the many women who want to take up cycling, by making routes safer.

We also promise to greatly increase investment in the Heathy Streets programme, to over £300 million a year. This will help us achieve our pledges for Vision Zero and increasing active, sustainable travel across London. We will commit to ending cyclist and pedestrian deaths from traffic on our roads by 2032, earlier than any other party. We will reduce motor traffic, reclaim space for people cycling, people walking and people using wheelchairs to commute from cars, install more safe cycle-optimised junctions and replace on-street car parking along main roads with cycle and bus lanes, and much, much more. We will also invest much more money in improving London’s outer boroughs, so cyclists can travel safely around the outskirts between town centres, as well as in and out of the city centre.

Thank you for your continued work in making cycling safer and pleasanter in London.

All the best, The London Green Party campaign team

Rob Blackie, Liberal Democrats

Thank you very much for your email – and my apologies for the slow reply. I’m afraid we have a very small team to cover a city of 9 million people! Thank you also for your passionate email and for highlighting the importance of cycling in London. As a candidate for Mayor, I share your enthusiasm for making London a safer and more accessible city for cyclists.

I’ve campaigned for better cycling in London since the early 1990s, when I joined the London Cycling Campaign – and used to volunteer at the HQ. I’ve been a regular cyclist in London since the 1980s – and continue to use bikes a lot. While my normal bike is a bit neglected right now (Mayoral journeys are rarely simple round trips!), I use dockless electric bikes almost every day to speed up my journeys around town.

I am generally committed to the London Cycling Campaign’s policy requests and want a future where cycling is a viable option for everyone in London. To make cycling safer, we will bring forward ‘Vision Zero’ targets to 2030, focusing on preventing deaths and serious injuries on our roads through increased funding for collision investigation and junction improvements.

In terms of cycle routes, I aim to complete the ‘Strategic Cycling Network’ by 2028, ensuring that 70% of Londoners are within 400 meters of a high-quality route. Additionally, I will maintain TfL’s active travel budget at 2022/23 levels as a minimum until 2028 to support the expansion of cycling across London’s communities.

Beyond cycling, I will work towards creating a more reliable and accessible transport system overall. This includes reversing the Mayor’s ineffective fares freeze, which mainly helps tourists and does nothing for people who hit the daily cap, or have a travel card. I will work to extend the London transport network, and improve bus and tube services, after cuts to tube maintenance and bus routes under the current Mayor.

I will pilot making the Santander cycle hire scheme free on Sundays and work to fill gaps in the cycle network. Along with these measures, we’re focused on pedestrianising areas like Oxford Street and the broader centre of town.

Thank you once again for getting in touch.

Note: We can confirm that Rob Blackie is a long-time London Cycling Campaign member.

Susan Hall, Conservative Party

No response

Sadiq Khan, The Labour Party

No response.

But we did get a wave and a shout-out when we cycled past him this weekend.