A Conservative councillor from the London Borough of Havering has said that a 1.2 metre wide cycle lane, next to a busy road with drivers encroaching the lane, is “safe” and “easy to cycle”, and encouraged cyclists to be “brave”, despite numerous people demonstrating their concerns over using the bike path.

Councillor David Taylor from Romford, Essex posted an image of Mawney Road and wrote: “Even at rush hour, Romford’s Mawney Rd is easy to cycle up thanks to this cycle lane. Drivers are politely keeping out of the lane and the absence of bollards meant they could move over when a fire-engine came through.

“My only criticism is that the cycle path isn’t coloured.”

However, when one cyclist explained why they’d be cautious of using the lane, both while passing a queue of cars as it “puts you right in the passenger door zone”, as well as freely moving traffic as it would “encourage drivers to pass without leaving the required 1.5 metres”, Taylor commented: “I’d encourage you to be brave. It’s very safe and I cycle it on a regular basis. Cyclists must be alert to opening doors, absolutely.”

Twitter user the Ranty Highwayman, who lives in the area, went down to assess the state of the cycle lane. After measuring the width, he found it to be barely 1.2 metres, less than the minimum 1.5 metres and way lower than the desired 2 metres. He said that the disconnectedness of the cycling network in the area and infrastructure like this result in people being discouraged out of cycling because of the inconvenience and safety risks.

He also said that assuming Mawney Road must remain a through road due to it carrying a high traffic (data from 2016 shows 14,500 vehicles in a day), then “objectively and obviously, this is not somewhere that most people would find easy to cycle along”. notwithstanding the network issues around the area.

He told road.cc: “Romford very much feels like a place for drivers and cycling is an outlier from a cycling as transport point of view,” while also adding that the main issues were not technical but political.

He added: “Politics is interesting here. It was previously a conservative led administration, but he [Taylor] wasn’t part of it as he was only elected last year when they lost to the Residents Association led administration.

“The previous administration pretty much did nothing for active travel. He has tweeted like this a lot and talks about being a friend of cycling, so I thought it was fair game to set out the bigger picture.”

Councillor Taylor claims to cycle but on on many occasions, including this latest exchange, has said that cyclists need to be careful on roads and played down active travellers’ concerns. He is also launching a campaign to save Romford’s High Street by engaging against ULEZ and asking for cheaper and more car parking areas.

Taylor also argued against putting in bollards at the cycle lane, as the drivers “could move over when a fire engine came through”, but when a cycling campaigner pointed that “if fewer people drove even easier for fire engines to get through”, he replied: “Yes, if no one owned a car then fire engines would have free use of the roads.”

Others also remarked that the cycle lane was not fit for cargo bikes or trikes.

However, Taylor seemed unfazed with the all the concerns and criticisms, replying to people who raised issues of poor driving because of such cycle lanes with “Drivers and cyclists should do better” and that this road is “like any road”. “Every road user must be alert at all times. Cyclists, pedestrians, drivers. All,” he said.

Cllr Taylor has reached out to road.cc and pointed out that he agreed the cycle lane should be upgraded to a stepped kerb lane, as well as the fact he also suggested a route through existing LTNs. 

He also said that he regularly advocates for better cycling infrastructure in Havering. “I sit on the planning committee and recently told developers to engage with cycling groups in their planning,” he said.