LCC Women’s Network study of TfL’s cycle network shows that 24% is routed through isolated or unlit places such as parks that feel unsafe after dark, especially for women.
A new LCC Women’s Network report launching today, “Women’s Freedom After Dark: Are TfL’s Cycleways safe for everyone, 24/7?” shows a high proportion of TfL’s Cycleways are ‘socially unsafe’ outside of daylight hours, i.e. there is a risk of harm from others, due to factors like isolation, poor lighting and a lack of escape routes. LCC’s Women’s Network volunteers have assessed and mapped the whole of TfL’s current Cycleway network against rigorous criteria on social safety. Studies suggest that women’s journeys are disproportionately affected. Findings include:
o 24% of the whole TfL cycle network is socially unsafe after dark
o 58% of TfL Cycleways have at least one socially unsafe section after dark
o 7 Cycleways are 100% socially unsafe after dark
o 11 Cycleways are at least 70% socially unsafe after dark
Women stop cycling after dark in London
The new LCC Women’s Network report follows a year on from its initial survey and report “What Stops Women Cycling In London?” which found one in three women who currently cycle in London stop during winter months or after dark due to a lack of safe routes.
Over half said they were faced with an impossible choice between cycle routes that go through isolated places where they feel at risk, or riding on hostile main roads with no protected space for cycling.
Emma Barnie, a cyclist from Lewisham says:
“One evening cycling home beside Millwall on Cycleway 10, two young guys tried to block the cycle path that I was on. I instinctively sped up and managed to swerve up onto the verge right round them and get away. Now I’m going the whole way around instead on really busy roads, which defeats the whole point of the cycle path. I’m a super confident cyclist but this has completely put me off using this crucial part of the network after dusk and I’ve changed my whole daily commute and routine.”
TfL’s Cycleways quality criteria not good enough
TfL’s Cycleways are their ‘high-quality’ and ‘strategic’ routes that they sign, pay for and often deliver – these routes are the core London cycle network and are vital for delivering the Mayor of London and TfL’s transport strategy on cycling for London.
They have to meet a minimum standard, assessed by TfL’s Cycle Route Quality Criteria tool – but that tool does not include any criteria on directness of route or social isolation.
As a result, councils and TfL have been building and signing routes away from main roads because it is politically convenient, but the result has seen an increasing number of Cycleway routes designed, delivered and signed into the network that simply aren’t suitable for and available for women to cycle on during the winter and after dark.
Kate Bartlett from the LCC Women’s Network comments:
“Half of all Cycleway routes have sections which aren’t usable by most women after dark, which add up to a quarter of the entire length of the cycle network. Women make only a third of all cycle journeys in London – they make over half of all cycled journeys in the Netherlands. Until London has a truly safe inclusive network designed for everyone, we’ll lag behind.”
Report recommendations
As a result, the LCC Women’s Network, a coalition of individual women and organisations focusing on women cycling in London, are calling for the following from the Mayor, TfL, and others:
1. TfL should add ‘social safety’ and ‘directness’ to its Cycle Route Quality Criteria, ruling out poorly lit, isolated areas and convoluted, indirect routes.
2. TfL should urgently bring all current Cycleways up to the new quality criteria standard. Sections of existing routes, or entire routes, should be upgraded or rerouted.
3. TfL should not approve or fund council delivery of routes that do not meet the updated criteria. Leisure routes in parks are a valuable resource but should not count or be funded as part of TfL’s core cycle network.
4. TfL, councils and the police should also make leisure routes safer, with more CCTV and lighting in places like underpasses, particularly at crime ‘hotspots’.
5. TfL (and Active Travel England) should develop new guidance on cycle infrastructure and social safety. Dutch designs of underpasses could be adopted that are far more welcoming.
London Cycling Campaign (LCC) is a charity with more than 20,000 supporters, of whom more than 11,000 are fully paid-up members. We speak up on behalf of everyone who cycles or wants to cycle in Greater London; and we speak up for a greener, healthier, happier and better-connected capital.
The LCC Women’s Network is run by a steering group of volunteers and has hundreds of active members, nearly 2,000 supporters and 11 associate member organisations who want London to be a city where all women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people feel safe to cycle.
The Freedom After Dark report is kindly supported by Forest, the shared ebike service, and Madison, the UK’s leading distributor of cycle parts and accessories.
The Women’s Freedom After Dark protest ride will be held in central London, Thursday 6 February, 1800.
