The protesters donned skeleton masks and lay down outside City Hall after the Green Party’s mayoral candidate Jenny Jones criticised Johnson over his cycle safety record.
During Mayor’s Question Time she accused Johsnon of cutting the capital’s road safety budget by 66% since he took office.
“You have endlessly cut money for the London cycling network,” she said.
“Not everywhere but by and large because there’s all sorts of schemes where had the money been there it would be safer for cyclists.”
Johnson, however, claims to have doubled the amount of money spent on cycling – though campaigners questioned whether Johnson’s figures included London’s cycle hire scheme.
“This is not as good as I would like it to be. I would like there to be no casualties. I would like there to be no deaths. But what you can’t say is that cycling has got more dangerous,” said Johnson.
“If you look at the money we’ve spent it has been considerable. From the period 2005 to 2008, £93 million was spent on cycle safety in one kind or another.
“We’ve doubled that to almost £204 million,” he added.
Speaking at the ‘die-in’ Jones said: “The quantity of needless cyclist deaths and injuries on London’s streets is tragic and infuriating.
“London’s congestion is the worst in Europe and our capital badly needs a real vision for transport that protects all road users safety, urgently addresses the need to make junctions safer and reduces death and injury on our streets.”
Image via Getty
