Boris Johnson has appointed London's former cycling commissioner as transport advisor, reports Forbes. Andrew Gilligan, a senior correspondent for the Sunday Times, played a major rule in the construction of many of the capital’s Cycling Superhighways and has been a vocal critic of Sadiq Khan’s efforts to improve cycling infrastructure ever since.
Gilligan was London’s cycling commissioner from 2013 to 2016. He has said in the past the process of getting approval for the Cycle Superhighways was “a pretty big fight” and that he at times doubted it would happen.
Referring to his successors after leaving the job, he said: “I think the struggle for clean air in London is as important as the struggle for clean water in the 19th century and that struggle cannot be won without a significant increase in cycling, so the new team has, in its hands, a policy instrument – the segregated cycle lane – which is now proven to bring about dramatic and huge increases in cycling, and I hope they use it.”
Earlier this year, he cycled many of the routes created since his departure and subsequently accused Sadiq Khan of presiding over the construction of a “fake cycle network.” He claimed that in many areas the mayor was doing little more than adding Quietway signs to roads and claiming them as new routes.
In 2017, Gilligan was tasked with creating a vision of what would be required for cycling to become a “super attractive” mode of transport in Cambridge, Oxford and Milton Keynes.
His eventual report, “Running Out of Road” recommended widespread construction of segregated cycle lanes and cycle-safe junctions.