Across London there is a total 734.2 km of protected cycle lane, including 239.2 km on the carriageway in addition to off-carriageway tracks, for example through parks.
The Scorecard measures the length of all protected track – on and off carriageway – per kilometre of road length in order to demonstrate the scale of coverage in each borough. The actual percentage of coverage of protected tracks on carriageways, however, will be much lower.*
[*The score is given as a km of protected cycle lane as a percentage of overall borough road length. However, it is important to note that the cycle tracks can be delivered both on borough-controlled roads and TfL-controlled “TLRN”/ Red Route roads, as well as off-road, for instance in parks. So while the percentages reflect the overall scale of cycle tracks each borough is delivering compared to how much roadspace there is in the borough, it doesn’t reflect a “true” percentage of road use and should not be quoted as such.]
Just a handful of councils have made significant progress installing segregated cycle lanes, often in conjunction with TfL, including City of London (16.1% of road length*), Enfield (14.4%), Tower Hamlets (13.2%), Westminster (12.5%) and Greenwich (10%).
What stands out is that protected cycle lane amounts to just 5% of road length across Greater London (again, that doesn’t mean 5% of London’s roads feature tracks*). Of course, not all streets need them, but the figures show there is a long way to go to create a comprehensive network of safe cycle routes.
This score measures protected track on both TfL and borough-managed roads which means some boroughs, such as Westminster City Council, score highly as a result of work carried out by Transport for London. But, given councils must work in consultation with TfL on protected lanes, this is still a useful indication of a council’s intent on active travel. The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for example (where just 1.3% of roads have protected lanes for cyclists) recently withdrew support for a segregated cycle lane on Holland Park Avenue and Notting Hill Gate.
There is more of an even split between Inner and Outer boroughs on this measure. The Outer London borough of Enfield, for example, has the second longest stretch of protected cycle lanes in London with 14.4% coverage. Waltham Forest has 9.1% and Hounslow 8.6%.
Conversely, London boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Haringey, that score well on other inputs are lagging behind on protected cycle track. Just 2.3% of roads in Hackney, 2.5% in Islington and 3.5% in Haringey have protected cycle lanes.