Elevated cycleways to segregate cyclists from other traffic and a hanging cycleway under Putney Bridge - these are the visions set out by Wandsworth councillor Elizabeth Howlett, now the GLA member for Merton and Wandsworth, as she addressed a cycling audience for the first time at MCC’s great cycling debate before the elections.

She was less specific however on how these futuristic plans or even existing proposals for improving cycling facilities would be funded. Charging vehicles to enter central London was definitely not an option for her, nor, she said, would there be any budget surplus for the GLA to spend on funding cycle facilities. But she did promise that if elected she would conduct an audit of cycleways in each borough to create safe routes to schools.

The former girl guide from Dundee who had been a regular cyclist in her youth, voiced her support for cycling as a healthy pursuit, and recognised that more people would cycle if it were more convenient and safer. She supported the idea of cycle training and the observance of the highway code by all cyclists to improve cycle safety. Answering a question on whether she supported improvements for travelling with bikes on trains, she stated strongly that the customer must always come first - which we presume is support for that idea, too.

So now we look to her as our elected member to raise cycling issues in the assembly and convert some of these good sentiments into action for all local cyclists.

The anti-through traffic brigade won the election for the committee of the Friends of Richmond Park, changing the balance from a 6:18 minority to a 10:18 majority in favour of restricting through traffic.

Merton Cycling Campaign coordinator Richard Evans was elected to the committee. He predicts exciting times ahead to ensure that the all members support the constitution and rules of the society which quite clearly exclude the right to rat-run through the park.

And as a first step towards a complete removal of through traffic, proposals are being drafted for consultation which are likely to include closing and re-turfing the pen ponds car park and traffic restrictions on the north-south routes, according to Royal Parks Agency spokesman Simon Richards.

Plans to double the number of cycle journeys by 2002, a key feature of the government’s 1996 national cycling strategy seem doomed to fail, according to the results of recent research. Out of 36 English counties surveyed by Rodney Tolley and colleagues of Staffordshire University, only one had implemented the measures suggested, and most local authorities will not even have a cycling strategy in place by the end of this year.

Merton celebrates cycling with a week full of activities for all cyclists.

Saturday 17 June: Dr Bike will be outside Centre Court shopping centre, oppositeTesco metro from 1100-1600 hrs. Have a bike check before coming out on one of our rides!

Tuesday 20 June: MCC monthly meeting and special festival barbecue. All MCC members are invited to come along with a guest. Bring a bottle and something to cook. Venue: the garden, 88 Aylward Road, London SW19.

MCC’s display of cycling will be on view all week in the lower shopping mall of Centre Court shopping centre. Visit us there for more information on cycling and enter our prize draw to win a bike, courtesy of Wimbledon Cycles.

We know it from our commuter races, we know from our own journeys, but now official statistics confirm it: it’s faster by bike.

According to the latest survey of average door-to-door journey times by various modes of transport in London published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions both commuter journeys and inner London journeys are quicker

For short radial journeys between central and inner London, bicycles took 35 minutes on average compared with 40 minutes by car. For journeys entirely within central London, journeys by bike took 18 minutes on average compared with 29 minutes by car.

And just to prove it again, the Wandle Valley Commuter Challenge will take place on Friday 9 June in Green Transport Week. Commuters will start from various points in Merton and surrounding boroughs, converging on the finishing line at the Civic Centre in Morden.

Yes, this is what Merton is becoming, according to councillor Su Assinen who chairs the council’s environment committee. The council has recently signed up to two European networks (the Car-Free Cities Network and Alter Europe) which share best practice with other authorities across Europe in an effort to reduce car usage and encourage vehicles which do not pollute. Why then has the council taken the retrograde step of removing a well-used cycle path in Wimbledon town centre (the Victoria Crescent route between the Broadway and Hartfield Road)? We need positive action, not just membership of networks, to deliver what cyclists need.

At a recent conference on delivering the national cycle network, even Ben Bradshaw MP, chair of the House of Commons all-party cycling group, speaking about what government can do, said "Government can do a helluva lot. We haven’t done much yet. I do wish that opinion makers would get real about cycling".

John Lee, the London Cycle Network project manager, speaking at the same conference, demonstrated to what extent the network is underfunded and incomplete: currently it receives £6million, whereas he felt a more realistic sum would be £600million to complete the 2900 km of routes, only 1200km of which are so far finished.