Controversial cycle lanes: lessons from Cycleway C9, Chiswick High Road

Implementing cycle projects often encounters significant challenges. This paper examines the planning and implementation of Cycleway C9 in Chiswick, west London. In-depth interviews and thematic and discursive analysis are used to examine the different viewpoints from the proponents of the project (transport planners), relative to those experiencing the project (politicians, local businesses and residents), in support and opposition. There are strong contestations over the use of streetspace, analysed through key themes concerning: scheme objectives, local versus strategic role, streets for whom, space design, politics, participation, funding, adapting to change and impacts and evaluation. Mediating such subjectivities is critical to the successful implementation of cycle projects, requiring a much stronger participatory and deliberative approach to transport planning.