Sadiq Khan must take “urgent and bolder action” to slash carbon emissions, cut car use and speed up buses in the capital, environmental campaigners have warned.
In a report authored by Healthy Streets - a coalition of groups lobbying for greener transport - the London mayor has been told he is on course to miss several of the targets set out in his own transport strategy.
It comes after Mr Khan’s transport deputy, Seb Dance, admitted to the London Assembly on Wednesday that the mayor is already forecast to miss a key milestone in relation to the number of journeys made in London on foot, by bike and using public transport.
But a new analysis, drawn up by groups including Future Transport London and the London Cycling Campaign, reveals that Mr Khan is also falling behind on several of his other goals, like eliminating road deaths and achieving net zero carbon emissions in the capital.
The mayor said in his 2018 transport strategy that by 2041, he wants to see a minimum of 70 per cent of able Londoners doing at least 20 minutes of walking or cycling per day. The report says the target is “far from being on course”, and a greater focus on cycling infrastructure would help get it back on track.
To make buses “an attractive alternative to the car”, the mayor’s strategy also anticipated that “bus speeds will improve by approximately 5-15 per cent London-wide, with particular improvements expected in inner London”.
But according to the environmental groups’ research, bus speeds between April 2023 and March 2024 were on average no faster than during the equivalent 12 month period just prior to the pandemic, between April 2019 and March 2020. Both periods saw an average bus speed recorded of about 9.27mph, including time spent stopping.
When it comes to reducing road casualties, the mayor has set a ‘Vision Zero’ target to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from London’s transport network by 2041.
The report acknowledges “significant progress” on that front, with 2023 seeing the lowest number of people killed or seriously injured on London’s roads outside of a pandemic-affected year - since the adoption nationally of a new definition of ‘seriously injured’ in 2017.
But it also notes that an interim target in 2022 was missed, and that Mr Khan is “a long way off the trajectory” needed to hit a second interim target in 2030.
The report says clear progress has been made in improving air quality and in meeting the mayor’s aim for there to be 250,000 fewer privately-owned cars in London by 2041 - though the paper’s authors argue that the latter target is “unstretching” and would still leave more than 2.2million private cars across the capital.
Finally, on carbon emissions, the mayor set a target for London to become a “zero-carbon city” by 2050, though he later revised this target to 2030.
The report says that not enough action has been taken to reach the new goal. It quotes from a Transport for London (TfL) document which said in December 2023: “While we are broadly on track to meet the original 2050 ambition, urgent and large-scale action at all levels of Government is needed to meet the accelerated 2030 target”.
To get closer to his goals, the report argues that the mayor should “work with the new national Government on both a funding settlement and establishing the means to work with boroughs to ensure every single one acts to deliver the targets, with financial penalties for those who fail to act with sufficient speed”.
A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “Since 2016, the mayor has taken some of the boldest action of any city in the world to reduce emissions and boost active travel.
“We’ve quadrupled the size of the cycle network, resulting in 1.26million cycle journeys being made each day in our capital, introduced new pedestrian crossings, and supported the delivery of hundreds of school streets.
“The Superloop, a network of express bus routes, is connecting communities in outer London and the mayor has committed to a zero emission bus fleet by 2030. The London-wide Ulez expansion has resulted in 70,000 fewer non-compliant vehicles seen driving on London’s roads on an average day. The impact of the Ulez on reducing air pollution in London has been transformative.
“Thanks to leadership from the mayor, London has the largest electric vehicle charging network in the UK. All of these measures combined are helping to clean up London’s air, reduce our carbon emissions and contribute towards more liveable, better-connected communities.
“However, we recognise that there is still more to be done, and London will continue to lead the way remaining at the forefront of bold action around the world.”
In an annual ‘scorecard’ published by Healthy Streets, London’s boroughs have each also been ranked on the different measures they’ve taken to cut car use and encourage greener alternatives.
Hackney, Islington, and Lewisham all perform highly for having a high number of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), school streets, and bus priority lanes.
Among the lowest ranked are Bexley and Bromley, primarily due to their low number of 20mph-limited roads, controlled parking zones, LTNs and bus priority lanes.
