The 2025 London Healthy Streets Scorecards have been released, which cover progress during the previous year. What do Merton's results say?
https://www.healthystreetsscorecard.london/results/your_borough/merton/
Sustainable mode share slipped from 62.6 % in 2024 to 61.9 % in 2025.
People cycling 1x a week fell sharply from 13.7 % to 11.1 %.
Walking rates improved slightly from 34.1 % to 34.9 % people walking 5x a week.
The proportion of households without a car rose from 29.7 % to 31.5 %
Protected cycle track provision has slipped from 3.6 % to 3.5 % of road length, and Bus priority length stayed at 14.5 %.
School Streets coverage dipped from 40.5 % to 39.2 % of schools. Merton claims to be committed to school streets, but this result says otherwise.
The number of low-traffic neighbourhoods is unchanged.
Our view is that over the past few years, Merton's approach to highways has not been working. It has failed to make credible bids for LIP funding (the main source of funding for cycling improvements), hence provision of protected cycle tracks and low-traffic neighbourhoods remaining static. Merton is one of London's most congested boroughs , and has the biggest decline in bus speeds of any London borough over the last decade. It is home to 2 of the top 5 worst bus services in London (93 and 154), based on passenger compaints. Yet there has been no new investment in bus priority (Bus priority length stayed at 14.5 % of road length). We recently enquired what work is being done on Merton bus priority schemes and what schemes Merton may bid for in the next year - and have received no response.
These facts are all inter-related. Congestion affects bus service speed and reliability, and the failure to tackle traffic in residential areas with school streets or low-traffic neighbourhoods, coupled with the failure to expand protected cycle tracks, means cycling is less attractive.
While the proportion of car-free households is going in the right direction, this may be due to financial pressures rather than the quality of sustainable transport options. Thus if cost-of-living pressures reduce, this progress could easily reverse.
Poor bus services and a failure to make cycling safer means the car remains the default transport mode for many people. This in turn drives up traffic, making bus services worse and cycling less attractive. And of course more traffic and more congestion is bad for everyone: cyclists, bus users, car users, and businesses. Yet there seems no sense of urgency at Merton Council to address a transport situation that is clearly getting worse as a consequence of them sitting on their hands. This really cannot continue. And it need not: funding is available from TfL to invest in the cycle network, traffic reduction and bus priority.
Merton actually has a lot going for it in terms of historical legacy. It has a significant number of very popular low-traffic neighbourhoods and it was an early adopter of School Streets. Parts of it have very good public transport: Tramlink, great connections from Wimbledon mainline station, and 2 tube lines. It wouldn't take that much to leverage those assets better so that areas with lower public transport access level (PTAL) are better-connected with the light-rail, heavy-rail and underground networks. Such connections would include cycling (including the increasingly popular hire bikes), and a faster and more reliable bus network. Why should good transport options be the sole preserve of the west of the borough?