ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Campaigners have criticised what they say is a lack of investment in cycle safety in the capital after Transport for London unveiled a £148m kitty for infrastructure.

Boris Johnson said the cash – handed out to town halls to help them carry out “local implementation plans” in line with the Mayor’s Transport Strategy – was “specifically targeted to help make our roads, town centres and open spaces more attractive places with better facilities for walking and safer cycling”.

But Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy dismissed the announcement as "spin", pointing out that less than 1 per cent of TfL’s budget actually goes on cycling. Cyclists make up 3 per cent of the capital’s inner city traffic.

“More will be spent refurbishing one Tube station at Bank than will be spent over the next six years on making all of London’s roads safer for cyclists,” Mr McCarthy claimed.

“London is better than most local authorities in the UK, but compared with what the Dutch are spending it’s a tiny fraction.

“We call for £500m a year to be spent on cycling in London within a generation.”

The London Infrastructure Project cash represents a tiny slice of TfL’s £11.5bn budget, he added.

“Despite 13 London boroughs having zero protected cycle lanes on their roads, last week’s funding round contained not a single new major physically protected cycle-lane.

“While the two new protected superhighways currently being built are positive first steps in the right direction, they will only deal with a tiny percentage of London’s roads, of which only 0.3% currently have protected cycle lanes that are safe enough for children to use.”

He believes no more than a few million from the LIP cash will actually go on improving the lot of cyclists, despite Mr Johnson's claim that safer cycling facilities were one of the key factors in dishing out the funds.

Transport for London admitted it had spent £83m last year – just 0.7 per cent of its annual budget – on cycling projects.

But a spokeswoman said other schemes, such as junction redesigns and improvements to road surfaces, would also benefit all road users – including cyclists – even though these costs were not included in the £83m figure.

For instance, TfL said on Tuesday the redesign of Bank junction would include “widened footways, cycle routes and improved public space to make the busy junction safer”, while pledging “£1m to transform public spaces and create better cycling routes through the West End”.

“All the local implementation plans include benefits for cyclists,” the spokeswoman said, “whether it is new cycle infrastructure like new cycle routes or ‘mini-Hollands’ or removing dangerous gyratories and introducing 20mph speed limits to improve road safety.

“We are investing nearly £1bn [over the next 10 years, out of what is likely to be a budget in excess of £110bn] in improving and creating safer routes for cyclists – upgrading the existing Cycle Superhighways with greater segregation, introducing major new segregated cycle routes and backstreet quiet routes, and overhauling dozens of junctions both on our roads and on borough roads to give more protection to pedestrians and cyclists.”