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London's cycling campaigners hit back at Robert Winston's latest claims that cycle lanes cause pollution

Lord Winston blamed cycle lanes for increased congestion in London: PA
Lord Winston blamed cycle lanes for increased congestion in London: PA

The capital's pro-cycling campaigners have hit back at Lord Robert Winston after he claimed that bike lanes increase pollution.

The professor said in a debate in the House of Lords on Monday that he believes cycle lanes cause increased levels of pollution by forcing cars and vans to travel more slowly.

Calling on the government to publish figures for pollution levels both before and after the introduction of cycle lanes, he claimed: "The reduction of lanes which traffic can travel down means that there are more cars taking longer journeys than ever before at slower speed

“The evidence is that the internal combustion engine is less efficient and pollutes more at slow speed particularly when it’s waiting.”

Simon Munk, infrastructure campaigner for the London Cycling Campaign told the Standard: “As a scientist I expect Lord Winston to back up his claims with evidence, all studies so far show that most cycle schemes in London have decreased pollution.”

Although Lord Winston did not point to any cycle lanes in particular, Mr Munk said that he assumed he was talking about the east to west and north to south cycle superhighway schemes.

He said: “Pollution monitors along the embankment actually show a marginal decrease in pollution levels since the cycle schemes were brought in."

Mr Munk also hit out at Transport Minister, Baroness Sugg, who took part in the debate and said the the construction of bike lanes had reduced available space on the roads increasing congestion.

Pointing to a TFL study which found that the primary cause of the increase in congestion was down to unnecessary car journeys, Mr Munk rejected her comments.

He said that the study found that there was no evidence that cycle lanes had a "significant impact on slowing cars down”.

In order to decrease congestion, Mr Munk suggested that more people should ditch motor vehicles in favour of cycling or walking.

Pointing out the Mayor’s pledge to halve the number of private car journeys on main roads by 2041, he said: “The Mayor knows that the only way to get out of the slow jam is to build more for cycling."

A spokesman for Sadiq Khan's office also disputed Mr Winston’s comments.

He said: “Cycle lanes do not cause congestion and pollution. With our limited street space it is vital that we encourage more Londoners to cycle, walk and use public transport. These are cleaner and more efficient uses of our roads, with cycle lanes proven to help move people along our streets.

“With London’s population set to expand to 10.8 million over the next 25 years, making our capital one of the best cities in the world for cycling is not only about improving our health, wellbeing and quality of life, it is absolutely fundamental for our future economic prosperity.”

Currently, Britain has one of the lowest rates of cycling in Europe with only four per cent of Britons cycling daily compared to 43 per cent of people in the Netherlands.