Christian Wolmar

The spate of five cyclists being killed within the past fortnight on London's streets demands an urgent respone. As I have argued in the Observer in the piece posted on this site, the Cycling Vision set out by Andrew Gilligan,Boris Johnson's cycling tsar, is full of good ideas, but it is all too slow and cumbersome. In the Observer article, I mention that change must be brought about quickly and efficiently. ...

London has become a cycling city – and Britain something of a cycling nation – by default. The recent surge in its popularity has been a grassroots phenomenon, prompted by overcrowded and expensive public transport, a large number of young, talented people on low wages and a wider recognition of its health and environmental benefits. As demonstrated ...

So what does the Department have against the Barking- Gospel Oak line? On the face of it the case for electrifying the line is unanswerable, and the deeper one digs, the stronger the case appears. Yet, time and again, the project to electrify the line, costed officially at £90 million has been put on hold or deferred and is currently not even in the industry’s long term spending plans The line ...

The London Mayor’s Vision for Cycling could be a landmark in UK policy on cycling even though there are numerous obstacles to its implementation. The Mayor’s plan breaks with the current British tradition of trying to squeeze in cycling facilities without taking road space either from flowing traffic or parking, and simply abandoning any provision when the going gets tough at junctions The policy too is in marked contrast with Boris ...

I have, belatedly, sampled the Cycle Superhighway that runs along the A11 through Mile End having gone to Stratford twice in the past week. I must say that the comments from the cycling fraternity (and sorority) made so far have been  far too mild. To say it is a joke is to demean the concept of humour. On the section I cycled between Mile End station and the infamous Bow ...

The creation of a mayor for London was supposed to stimulate a new type of politician who would offer brave new ideas for the city. Unfortunately, the paucity of thinking on transport in the manifestos from the two main contenders suggests the experiment has failed. Ken Livingstone went early on his Big Idea, reducing fares by seven per cent and not increasing them in 2013. His manifesto elaborates on this, promising ...