As the capital grapples with today’s Tube strike, tens of thousands of Londoners want to use their bikes as an alternative way to commute. Yet most won’t do so — because they find our streets too dangerous to cycle. Many more want to cycle regularly for all sorts of everyday trips but daren’t ride alongside heavy lorries or around fast-moving cars and vans.

The sad fact is that cycling is not safe or convenient enough for the millions of Londoners who tell surveys they want to get around by bike — something that today’s Tube strike throws into stark relief.

That is why it is so important that our city’s streets are redesigned to the highest international standards. They need to be made safe and inviting enough for Londoners of all ages and abilities to choose to cycle for everyday journeys, to work or to school, safe in the knowledge that they have the protection they deserve.

Let’s be clear: cycling this week is not about the rights and wrongs of the Tube strike. It’s about making our city’s transport system the best it can be: a city in which people can walk or cycle safely, especially for local journeys; in which they have access to extensive, excellent Tube, bus and train services, especially for longer journeys; and one in which they can use cars for those occasions when that’s the best option for their journey.

Safety is at the heart of this. No one thinks twice about using public transport or a taxi because of a fear of being seriously injured or killed. Why should they have to do so when thinking about cycling?

But it isn’t just about safety: it’s also about making London a healthier and more attractive place to live and work. Cycling is one of the best ways to head off the obesity crisis we face (especially the capital’s children). Making London a safer place for people to ride instead of drive will improve the poor air quality that causes thousands of Londoners to die prematurely each year.

Plus, stories abound of high-earners asking if London is a good place to cycle when deciding whether to relocate here — just look at the popularity of cycling among City workers. Indeed, at peak times cyclists can outnumber motor vehicles into the City and other business areas. And Transport for London has reams of data showing that spending in shops is often highest for those who generally walk or cycle to them (or use public transport).

With London council elections coming up on May 22, this is my message to those standing for election: support safe Space for Cycling all over London, so that everyone has a genuinely safe choice to cycle for their everyday journeys. Councils are in charge of 95 per cent of London’s roads — not the Mayor or Transport for London — so those who run them have a responsibility to make them safer.

Like every other commuter, I hope the disagreements at the heart of the Tube strikes are speedily resolved to the benefit of the travelling public. But I also hope the strikes remind London’s political leaders that much of the travelling public also wants, and deserves, safe Space for Cycling.

Ashok Sinha is chief executive of the London Cycling Campaign. The LCC’s Space for Cycling campaign is at lcc.org.uk