Taxi leader says cycle superhighway is “sucking the lifeblood of London”

The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) is today seeking a judicial review of London’s east-west cycle superhighway. Even though the superhighway is already being built, LTDA argues that an alternate route should have been used and says TfL should have sought planning permission before beginning construction.

London 24 reports LTDA general secretary Steve McNamara as saying that the current route “is not the right scheme for London,” before accusing Boris Johnson of rushing it through as a “last hurrah” before the end of his term as mayor.

“Boris is implementing this scheme as quickly as he can before he leaves office at the end of April. It is being rushed through as his last hurrah.

“We don’t actually disagree that there should be a scheme, but we want to get the right scheme for London. The one being built is not right for our 24-hour city.

“There is evidence that it is sucking the lifeblood of London, causing traffic jams, with hundreds stuck bumper to bumper, poisoning everybody else with pollution.”

LTDA wants to see a route through quieter streets south of the River Thames used instead.

McNamara has previously described a proportion of cycling campaigners as the "Isis of London". Speaking to LBC radio about his organisation’s opposition to cycleways in February 2015, he said:

"These people, the zealots of the cycling world, are unbelievable. We have had cyber attacks on our websites. They are all over us like a cheap suit on Twitter and social media. We have had physical threats of violence. You name it, we have had it. It’s absolutely unreal.

“The loonies out there in the cycling world, they’re almost the sort of Isis of London. Their views and their politics – if you are not with them, and we are with the majority of it, then nothing is too bad for you. These people are unreal."

In 2013, the LTDA used footage from a carefully-chosen junction to allege that 50 per cent of cyclists jump red lights.