New Streetspace plan will overhaul London’s streets

6 May 2020

Transformation of London’s roads to be fast-tracked, giving space to new cycle lanes and wider pavements to enable social distancing

• Landmark locations to benefit from temporary bike routes and more space for walking to reduce pressure on Tube and buses
• Clean, green and sustainable travel to be at the heart of London’s recovery
• Cycling could increase 10-fold and walking five-fold post-lockdown

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and TfL have unveiled their ‘London Streetspace’ programme which will rapidly transform London’s streets to accommodate a possible ten-fold increase in cycling and five-fold increase in walking when lockdown restrictions are eased.

With London’s public transport capacity potentially running at a fifth of pre-crisis levels, millions of journeys a day will need to be made by other means. If people switch only a fraction of these journeys to cars, London risks grinding to a halt, air quality will worsen, and road danger will increase. To prevent this happening, TfL will rapidly repurpose London’s streets to serve this unprecedented demand for walking and cycling in a major new strategic shift.

Early modelling by TfL has revealed there could be more than a 10-fold increase in kilometres cycled, and up to five times the amount of walking, compared to pre-COVID levels, if demand returns.

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