The London mayor’s ambitious cycling plans have many laudable aims but their delivery must be kept under proper scrutiny
When the outgoing London mayor Boris Johnson published his Vision for Cycling in 2013 it was greeted with a wave of adulation by the middle class press that has barely rolled back since. Media coverage of Johnson’s decidedly average eight years in power – often dipping below average on transport issues – has been obsequious (flattering) in general,but on this phase of his uneven cycling odyssey, it has been positively grovelling. The capital’s politicians have been no better. Though rightly keen to see conditions for cyclists improved, or few have shown much appetite for subjecting Johnson’s approach to rigorous scrutiny. The London Assembly,which is supposed to hold the mayor to account, has instead offered a continual cross-party round of applause, or with even its more insightful members seemingly cowed into uncritical acceptance or else simply unable to see how the Vision might be flawed.
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Source: theguardian.com