Boris Johnson vows to continue London's 'cycling revolution'

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has promised to continue a "cycling revolution", predicting that London will become as welcoming to bikes as cities such as Amsterdam or Copenhagen despite recent safety worries.

Speaking at City Hall, Johnson also gave updated figures from a major police traffic operation launched following six cyclist deaths in less than two weeks, saying more than 2,000 motorists and cyclists had been stopped by officers in the past fortnight for infractions such as jumping red lights.

Speaking at a conference about reducing the disproportionate number of cyclist deaths connected to lorries, Johnson said Transport for London would set out a programme to make 33 of the city's more dangerous junctions safer for bikes, and pledged to make London "as popular with cyclists as the streets of Copenhagen or Amsterdam".

The mayor said: "There is now a growing chorus of voices who say that the cycling revolution has been going too fast and that we should somehow get all these cyclists off the roads and people look at me in an accusing way.

"This analysis grossly exaggerates my messianic abilities. I am a passionate cyclist, but I am not some kind of Pied Pedaller. People go by bike because they love to go by bike."

This necessitated a focus on safety, he said, adding: "We must make cycling even safer and wherever accidents take place, we must respond. We must see what could have been done to prevent them, we must immediately work out what we can do to stop them happening again, and we must address people's fears, well-founded or otherwise."

Several of the recent deaths took place on or near so-called cycle superhighways, a network of routes along primarily main roads introduced by Johnson. Critics have argued that they encourage riders to use major roads and are, for the most part, not segregated, just marked by a strip of blue paint. A coroner investigating two earlier deaths on a cycle superhighway surmised that they could give riders a false sense of safety.

Johnson has acknowledged that the current system is imperfect and has pledged to revamp much of it, using segregated lanes if feasible. He said: "We will continue to expand and improve the superhighways and yes, where it is possible and sensible, we will segregate those routes, as we have done at Stratford.

"The cycling revolution will continue, and it will accelerate. This is not the time to slacken off or give up because if we get this right, the prize is huge. London should be in many ways a perfect city to ride a bike.

"If we can get Londoners on to bikes, we can take the pressure off public transport, we can reduce traffic and I believe we can help people to be fitter, calmer, less hassled and to enjoy the glories of the city in a way that is different every day."

Johnson said the police crackdown, Operation Safeway, which has involved 2,500 officers stationed at more than 150 junctions, had led to 1,392 motorists and 755 cyclists being fined for offences, according to figures released towards the end of last week.

Johnson is promising to spend around £1bn on cycle infrastructure, including a pair of largely segregated through routes crossing the city, one north to south and another east to west, and a series of bike-friendly "mini Hollands" in outer suburbs.

There was no reason, he argued, why cycling could not become mainstream: "London should be in many ways a perfect city to ride a bike. We have a flat or gently undulating landscape – much less hilly than Paris. We have more green space and parks than any other city in Europe. We have perfect temperate weather."

The recent police operation faced some criticism after some officers pulled over cyclists to warn them they should be wearing helmets and high-visibility clothing. The Highway Code recommends such gear, but some cycling campaigners argue such tactics are a distraction from the main peril facing bike riders: being forced to share the road with lorries. Trucks make up less than 5% of London traffic but are involved in more than 50% of cyclist deaths, primarily when a lorry turns left over a cyclist.

Johnson and his cycle commissioner, Andrew Gilligan, stress that overall cycling remains safe in London, with the number of deaths falling over the years. Green members of the London assembly argue that the larger data set of deaths and serious injuries among cyclists has been rising recently.

Despite the worries, various studies have shown that regular cycling, even in a city like London, is statistically many times more likely to benefit your health than harm it.