The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) has praised initiatives to make travel greener in London and identified the Borough of Camden as “one of the stars” in the capital.
LCC produced a report card for London boroughs a year after the local council elections.
It wanted to measure their progress in delivering on environmentally friendly pledges, dubbed “Climate Safe Streets”.
Hackney topped the list of all boroughs making improvements, with Camden, Waltham Forest and Lambeth close behind on delivering safer cycling and a shift away from private motor vehicles.
The report said Camden was one of the areas which has “surged ahead in delivering on active travel, emissions and road danger reduction” and is one of the top areas for a reduction in people driving their cars.
“Camden is one of the stars of London on climate safe streets — not only committing to a bold and rapid roads decarbonisation programme but broadly keeping it on track,” says LCC.
It had asked the council to deliver 5km of protected bike lanes a year with 44km by 2026.
The council said it is on track for nearly 30km of protected bike lanes in Camden.
LCC praised the West End Project on Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street.
LCC has also campaigned for work to improve the collision hotspots at Holborn where eight cyclists have died in crashes since 2008 as well as King’s Cross where three cyclists died in the decade to 2022.
The report said: “Where the council should increase focus is on road danger — while collision rates are dropping due to rising cycling and walking levels, actual numbers of collisions are not coming down fast enough, and progress on road danger reduction was slowing pre-pandemic.”
Last August the council brought in improvements at Holborn, including a new cycle gate at Southampton Row on the junction with the busy Theobalds Road so bikes could move before the general traffic and created a protected cycle track.
Cllr Adam Harrison, Camden’s cabinet member with responsibility for sustainability said: “We’re proud of the work we’ve achieved to make cycling and walking easier in Camden for our residents.”
He added: “We know we must go further, and we will continue to make progress to deliver on our ambitions as outlined in our Cycling Action Plan to make Camden greener, cleaner and a safer place for cyclists and pedestrians.”
In Westminster, the report said that a “change of administration appears to have had a major impact on delivery of roads transport decarbonisation and other progressive measures”.
“The new council has delivered visible changes already, and its proposals for Cleveland Street mark the first time the council has done cycle tracks itself.
“The main concern for forward movement now has to be levels of collisions and actually starting to move the borough forward on ‘Vision Zero’ and road danger, and relatedly, its actions at junctions — some of which are the most dangerous in London for those walking and cycling.”
Rob Whitehead, the Centre for London’s director of strategic development, said leaders throughout the capital need to take action.
“If they don’t, more Londoners will die or get seriously harmed on the roads. Fewer of us will get the health benefits of walking and cycling. More will suffer from the blights of congestion and pollution. And we will have missed a hiding-in-plain-sight opportunity to tackle the climate emergency.”
London Cycling Campaign: Progress on Climate Safe Streets by London’s Mayor and Boroughs.