Cycling is too white, male and middle class, says bike tsar

CYCLING must be made more attractive to black and minority ethnic people, the capital’s first walking and cycling commissioner has said.

Will Norman said cyclists in London were overwhelmingly white, male and middle class, adding that many schemes which encourage people to take up cycling are seen as a way to get “middle-aged men cycling faster around the city”.

Mr Norman, whose job it is to deliver on the Mayor of London’s pledge to make walking and cycling safer in the capital, said he was considering setting diversity targets for London’s cycling population.

Mr Norman told The Independent: “Getting middle-aged men cycling faster around the city is not the objective at all … a real challenge for London cycling is diversity.”

Sadiq Khan’s mayoral office has unveiled a number of projects to address the lack of diversity, including cycling training, grants for community groups that do not typically cycle, promoting electric bikes and expanding cycle routes.

He said that despite growing numbers of cyclists, there had been little change in diversity. “Safety is paramount for getting different people from different walks of life cycling: older people, younger people, those from different backgrounds,” he said.

The number of cyclists in London has continued to rise and accounts for 2 per cent of all journeys. However, the city falls short of those on the continent, with cycling accounting for 3 per cent of travel in Paris, 13 per cent in Berlin. In Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the figures exceed 30 per cent.

Despite efforts to make cycling safer in the capital, the Mayor was recently criticised after the latest death of a cyclist who was hit by a lorry on a roundabout in Greenwich.

The London Cycling Campaign has called on Mr Khan and Mr Norman to “hurry up” fixing the most dangerous cycling routes.

Mr Norman said: “We have ambitions to make this route safer for cyclists. We’ll continue to work with the council, who are responsible for the road, to make this a reality.”

Mr Khan has promised to spend more than £150million annually on cycling schemes over the next five years.

Duncan Dollimore, of the charity Cycling UK, supported the initiative, saying authorities should be “focusing on the barriers that deter people from cycling rather than on existing cyclists”.