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London: 1985 and Today

April 27, 2020

London: 1985 and Today

On the Anniversary of ITDP’s 35th Year, Transport Matters will be publishing a series of articles about cities that ITDP has worked in, comparing them from 1985 and today. The article in full can be found in the Sustainable Transport Magazine. Read previous articles about Buenos Aires here, Chennai here, Rio de Janeiro here, Dar es Salaam here, Mexico City here and Guangzhou here.

Thirty-five years ago, London was struggling with growing traffic congestion and pollution. Margaret Thatcher’s government fought against a greater commitment to transit, and passed a sweeping national deregulation and privatization policy called the Transport Act of 1985. Today, London is a very different city. According to Transport for London, over half of trips in London are made by bus, walking, or cycling. The city anticipates that fewer and fewer trips will be made by cars, a shift that can be attributed almost directly to the city’s many efforts both to decrease cars and improve all other sustainable transit modes. Much of London’s success in enacting pedestrian and cyclist forward initiatives is because it has a strong public transportation network to rely on. London can serve more of its community, continue to lower emissions, and focus on building from its many successes in the past 35 years.

London Before

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Double decker buses have been a common sight in London, and throughout the United Kingdom since the mid 1800s.

A medieval city, London was constructed densely and grew organically over hundreds of years, giving it narrower roads compared to many younger cities.

Double decker buses have been a mainstay in London transportation both for transportation, shown here, but also tourism.

With villages surrounding London and residential communities outside of the city center, London has created suburban and commuter trains.

The government passed a sweeping national deregulation and privatization policy called the Transport Act of 1985.

In 1985, congestion was growing, along with things like pollution and poor air quality.

London was, and remains, a multicultural hub and destination for people from the former British Empire, later Commonwealth and elsewhere.

London, an economic, commerce, and cultural hub, has been a significant economically and culturally for centuries.

Medium and long distance trains have been commonplace in London and its surrounding area for over a century.

London may be best known in the transport world for its famed London Underground, the oldest Metro in the world, and one of the longest, at 402 kilometers. London also has one of the largest bus network in the world, featuring 24-hour service with 8500 buses, 700 routes, and 19,500 stops. However, London’s exceptional commitment to cycling deserves equal praise. The cycle sharing service saw a record 10.5 million journeys made in 2019 with an average of almost 30,000 trips every day, and annual membership to the bike share, Santander Cycles, is growing every year and is its highest at 360,000. Cycling has become more popular and remains on the rise with increased routes. London’s Cycle Network includes 900 kilometers of bike lanes, greenways, and recently established cycle superhighways, and 15 kilometers of quietway cycle routes. London’s transit successes have also been made possible by improved management, with the creation of Transport for London (TfL), enabling integrated fares with the Oyster Card, and an overall improved approach to connecting Londoners throughout the city.

London Today

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Double decker buses remain a common sight on London’s streetscape.

Today London is boasts abundant cycling and walking infrastructure.

Cycling infrastructure has been a major investment by London, and today cycling makes up 2% mode share.

One of London’s commitments to cycling fall along the the city’s commitment to more sustainable transit and better air quality.

In 2008, London won the Sustainable Transport Award for its congestion pricing.

London has enacted various congestion charging schemes

London has established quiet cycleways and cycle highways, all varied infrastructure to support cycling.

London won the Sustainable Transportation Award in 2008 for the expansion of its successful congestion pricing scheme, by increasing motor vehicle fees, increasing the size of the congestion zone, and expanding tolls to be city-wide. As a result of congestion pricing, the number cars into London have decreased by 35 percent. The accompanying Low-Emission Zone (LEZ) has managed to improve air quality so much that in 2019 London enacted an Ultra-Low Emission Zone which further restricts vehicle and charges a higher fee, the and ULEZ has resulted in a 20% reduction in emissions and in six months has decreased highly polluting vehicles by 40,000 cars over six months.

London in Numbers

Of all the cities surveyed in this project, London has had the highest RTR of all cities. London has the world’s oldest underground metro and has been a city invested in public transit for over a century. This strong foundation of public transit has allowed London to focus on other sustainable transportation measures like cycling and congestion pricing. Like all the other cities in this project, metrics were employed to study each city. The population, density, built up area, kilometers of rapid transit (defined as rapid transit that meets the definition of BRT basics in the BRT Standard), and RTR. Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (RTR) is a helpful metric that measures the population of a city against the length of rapid transit lines, essentially demonstrating how many people are served by rapid transit. London started out with an RTR of 52.82 in 1985, and it actually dropped down to 51.78 in 2018. Does this mean that London’s public transit has reached its peak? Not necessarily, but it does indicate that with enough people served through public transit, the city can focus on other sustainable modes like cycling, walking, and congestion pricing. London’s growth in population has been closely matched by its rapid transit growth.