"Shameful" - London Lib Dem leader's verdict as Boris Johnson admits huge cycling underspend

Disgusting. So they are sitting on a pot of cash ear marked for cycling which they are not spending, meanwhile cyclists are being killed and seriously injured because of dangerous road layouts or traffic signalling. Fuckers.

One thing to say is the budget is massive and the big issue is separation and the problem ? London roads are generally narrow ...

The main issue with London infrastructure projects seems to be generating the sufficient political will to overcome the dinosaurs objecting to the changes, whether they are TfL bus overlords, old-men-in-limo-friendly boroughs like Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, or NIMBYs not wanting to lose the privilege of leaving their personal property (motor vehicles) on the public highway.

Maybe one way of using the underspent funds (leaving aside the prospect of simply (counter?) bribing councillors at the non-cooperative boroughs to get on board with infra plans) would be to pay off people whose properties are on the streets where lanes need to go in, in order to sweeten the deal of having parking removed. If it helps to clear a common political logjam by easing the issue of removal of current parking provision, which is preventing the implementation of proper infrastructure, then why not?

So what is the point of having a budget?

I hope that when they come to install the EW and NS superhighways, TfL will at least spend a little more on putting in angled (forgiving) kerb stones each side.

The Seven Stations route and other such paths I've used in London are severely compromised because of the right-angled kerb stones that have been used.

These effectively reduce the usable width of any path they've been installed on and, because the paths are narrow and mostly bi-directional, increase the likelihood of accidents happening. I pointed this out in my responses to last year's consultations but wonder how to get this message across more effectively.

That money represents people's lives. Money that should be getting spent on infrastructure that makes roads safer.

While the budget may be rolled over to the next financial year, there is no way that the left over money won't affect how much the departments involved in cycling e.e.g, Surface Transport will be able to appropriate. When it comes to dividing the spoils cycling will get less because they'll be deemed to already have some in the bank.

I would rather the money was spent well than just spent. But you do have to wonder if budget to actual spend is so different and too many people have died whether there really is the will to spend the money at all.