Presenter Jeremy Vine praises Chiswick cycle lane

By Dimitris Kouimtsidis

26th Aug 2021 | Local News

Jeremy Vine called the cycle lane a 'wonderful revelation'. Image Credit: Jeremy Vine Twitter
Jeremy Vine called the cycle lane a 'wonderful revelation'. Image Credit: Jeremy Vine Twitter

JEREMY Vine has praised a temporary cycle lane running through his home borough in Chiswick as some residents have raised concerns about traffic.

The radio and television presenter spoke about the temporary cycleway installed in Chiswick late last year following a Hounslow Council meeting about the issue on Tuesday evening (July 13).

Mr Vine often posts homemade videos of his bicycle commute on Twitter to highlight safety issues with roads that lack segregated cycle lanes.

He said the Chiswick route was a 'wonderful revelation,' reducing obesity, improving safety for families and tackling climate change.

"What slows traffic is cars.

"When people are stuck in a jam, they are complaining about the cars in front of them – it really is that simple," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"We know that in London the vast majority of journeys are three miles or less, which takes half an hour by car and fifteen minutes on a bike.

"The cycle route is speeding the high road up, and if we didn't have it more people would buy enormous cars."

Road space once used by cars is now occupied by a two-lane cycle route running between Kew Bridge Station and the eastern part of Chiswick High Road.

The route has attracted criticism from some residents who argue that it has failed to improve safety, slowed traffic down and worsened air quality due to idling engines.

Hounslow Council's cabinet member for Transport proposed this week that the six-month traffic order used to create the temporary cycleway in December last year will be replaced by a new traffic order.

Bus journey times on the stretch have increased by more than a minute per kilometre, but it is hoped the new traffic order will improve this by returning parts of the cycle route to cars and buses.

There's already been a long public consultation on a permanent cycleway along Chiswick High Road, Mr Vine said yesterday.

"Some people will always complain about everything, but this is loved, loved more and more every day that goes by.

"There will be tweaks that need to be made.

"But there was consultation for 10 years, so to say there was no consultation is absolute rubbish.

"The critics made the condition that the cycle lane should take 'not an inch of pavement,' and that's how it ended up, so now they're complaining it's taken too much road."

     

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