Put cycling at heart of all transport plans, says Olympic gold medalist Chris Hoy

Sir Chris Hoy today called for cycling to be “put right at the centre” of every future transport decision in London, warning that half-hearted efforts will not create a truly bike-friendly city.

The six-time Olympic gold medal winner said London was “still a long way off” the likes of Amsterdam and Berlin, where cycling is the norm, but the challenge was “not impossible”.

Former track cyclist Sir Chris, 42, told the Standard: “Putting cycling right at the centre of any key decisions about any sort of transportation, or any type of infrastructure being put into place [will promote cycling in London].

“You need to consider for every junction, for every intersection, how as a cyclist you get from this side to that side safely, using other nations and other cities as an example and seeing how they do it.

“It is a big challenge but it is not impossible. You look at Manchester and you see Chris Boardman ... he has done great work up there and that is what it takes. It takes one city to really commit to it and not just sort of do it half-heartedly but really commit to it, and show the rest of the country what you can do.”

Former Olympian and Tour de France stage winner Boardman is the Greater Manchester cycling and walking commissioner and recently announced a 1,000-mile, £160 million “Beelines” grid that will become the UK’s biggest connected walking and cycling network.

Sir Chris’s intervention comes as Mayor Sadiq Khan faces criticism over the pace of progress towards achieving his vow to “make London a byword for cycling around the world”. Mr Khan promised an average of £169 million a year for cycling, but no new cycle superhighways have been started after several proposals fell through. The Mayor has extended two existing superhighways.

Sir Chris, a “coffee obsessive” and trained barista, spoke before launching the capital’s first Cycle-Thru Coffee Shop in Shoreditch. Cyclists can find free De’Longhi coffee today and tomorrow at 2-10 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6GY.

A Mayor’s Office spokesman said: “Sadiq is almost doubling the money invested in cycling in London compared to the previous Mayor. Already 140km of new safer cycling infrastructure has been built under Sadiq.”