Labour London Assembly Member John Biggs today raised serious concerns about the progress of Mayor Boris Johnson’s ‘Better Junctions’ programme after requests for an update on the project’s progress were refused.
The Better Junctions programme was established to assess 500 of the worst junctions in the capital but was later ‘refocused’ by the Mayor to only tackle 33 of the worst performing junctions and gyratories across London, including Bow Roundabout, a key danger hotspot in Tower Hamlets.
Currently, discussions in East London are dominated by discussions on the Cycle Superhighway proposals, which will tackle some challenging junctions. But the fact remains that others not on the Superhighways remain risky for cyclists. Just this week another cyclist was killed at a junction at Ludgate Circus, on the very Western edge of the City of London, in spite of serious reconstruction having already taken place there recently. And the Bow Roundabout, in spite of works already carried out, remains widely recognised as a risky junction for both cyclists and pedestrians.
Last month Val Shawcross asked the Mayor when he expected the work on each of the 33 dangerous junctions to be completed. Mayor’s recent evasive response that “this information will be released within the coming months” has prompted fears that the programme could be scaled back further.
Labour London Assembly Member for City & East London, John Biggs AM, said:
“London’s cyclists and road users will be deeply concerned that more than two years on from the Mayor promising to review these danger hot points very little seems to have been done.
“Despite originally promising to review the five hundred most dangerous junctions the Mayor has scaled this back to only thirty-three, and now he can’t, or wont, even say what, if any, progress has been made on those including the infamous Bow Roundabout junction in Tower Hamlets. It is staggering that Boris Johnson has adopted such a secretive, snail-pace approach to this problem; especially given the number of cyclists killed and injured which prompted this review. As we head into winter and road conditions become more dangerous for cyclists people will want to know what is taking the Mayor so long.”
ENDS