Boris Johnson’s cycling plan could be revolutionary if he faces down its opponents

Analysis: The politics behind the schemes is going to be hard for the prime minister, writes Jon Stone

Boris Johnson cycles past the Houses of Parliament in 2013 during his second term as mayor of London (Getty )

The government unveiled a raft of new cycling policies yesterday: chiefly a £2bn infrastructure fund to build segregated bike lanes in towns and cities across the country, a major update to the design standards councils have to follow and changes to the Highway Code. The main message is that from now on, cycling infrastructure has to be more than a bit of paint.

In content it’s what most cycling campaigners have been calling for for a decade or more, and it’s certainly the most ambitious cycle infrastructure plan announced by any British government.

But will it happen? The amount of money pledged is not huge, and still pales in comparison to the road budget. But £2bn is a reasonable sum, cycle schemes are surprisingly cheap, and the pot of cash, if spent wisely, will pay for somewhere between 500km and 1,000km of segregated cycle lanes, based on the costs of past schemes.