Kingston was, in 2014, selected to receive £30 million of funding to build an Amsterdam-style cycleway along certain roads in and around Kingston, including Portsmouth Road and Penrhyn Road. Work started, in 2017, to turn Kingston into a centre for cycling, encourage more people to cycle and to connect New Malden, Surbiton and Kingston town centre by bike. 
To this end, construction was duly finished on the river route from Surbiton to Kingston, on Portsmouth Road, in February 2018. Having spoken with local residents, some feel that the new road is more accident-prone due to its decreased width, and more vulnerable to congestion when local buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. They also believe that the re-doing of parts of the riverfront were an unnecessary extravagance.
However, others feel differently. Anne and Tony, who live on the nearby Woodbines Avenue, are regular users of the new cycleway. They believe it is a good thing that the new road is narrower, as “the traffic doesn’t go as fast, and it’s much less dangerous now for cyclists and pedestrians”. They complained that the old cycle route, simply painted along the side of the road, meant “cyclists were often cut off by vehicles turning left”.
Local residents also debate on the quality of consultation offered by the contractors, Kier. Public consultation sessions were held in a premises on Castle Street, in central Kingston. However, locals say that they “didn’t get many notifications”, and “the contractors should’ve sent more letters about the consultations”.
On the 9th of January, construction began on the Penrhyn Road cycleway, which proves to be a project equal in size to its Portsmouth Road counterpart. The local scheme involves, as well as the creation of a ‘shared pedestrian-cyclist transition zone’, a widening of the main road. On one thing do local residents agree; £30 million must surely be enough to end Kingston’s traffic and cycling woes!