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

Cycling in London is too macho and needs more women on bikes to “reduce the testosterone”, a top Boris Johnson advisor has said.

Andrew Gilligan claimed more women and older cyclists would mean fewer pedestrians injured by boisterous male riders.

The Mayor’s Cycling Commissioner said he wants a “continental” culture with people of all ages riding “clunky bikes in their ordinary clothes”.

At a London Assembly Transport Committee hearing Mr Gilligan said the way to reduce complaints about wayward cyclists was to diversify the types of people riding.

He claimed the Mayor’s plans for cycling superhighways would help different riders feel safe enough to get on their bikes.

The commissioner said: “At the moment cycling is disproportionately young and male and that’s because of the conditions. I suppose those are the people who feel able to cycle.”

He went on: “What I want to see from these changes, and I think we will see, is far more women doing it, for more older people doing it.

“What that will do is just generally reduce the testosterone level, calm things down a bit, change the culture of cycling a bit more towards what we see in continental cities...people of all ages, riding along quite slowly on quite clunky bikes in their ordinary clothes.”

The start of the hearing at City Hall yesterday was delayed after committee chair Caroline Pidgeon said cycling guru Mr Gilligan needed time to “change out his lycras”.

The mayor’s advisor later went on to say that he did not back the idea of requiring cyclists to register before riding in London.

He claimed the idea would be “disproportionate”, create an unnecessary bureaucracy and be a burden for police.

There were nine pedestrians seriously injured by cyclists in 2011 compared to more than 1,700 injured by cars, he said.

Mr Johnson’s cycle superhighways are bicycle routes running from outer London into and across Central London.

Four have already launched with a number of new routes to open by 2016, including an east-west superhighway from Tower Hill to Acton and a north-south one from Elephant and Castle to King’s Cross.