Guido’s FoI Unit can reveal that since Labour took office, Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London has forked out a whopping £235,000 of taxpayers’ money on social media influencers to encourage cycling in London. All while Khan complains about “insufficient funding” for the Met Police and misses his own housing targets…
The TikTok brigade were hired to explain the Cycle Hire Scheme – the Santander ‘Boris bikes’ seen all around London – and to “encourage participation” in Cycle Sundays. Some were paid to post about “how to help when there are incidences of sexual harassment on the transport network.” TfL also splashed another £107,045 on its own social media ads across Facebook and TikTok to promote:
- Priority Seating Week
- Road Safety
- The TfL Go app
- “Encouraging car drivers to use public transport”
- Walking maps
- The Cable Car, Santander Cycles, and e-bikes
- Raising awareness of the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle
They probably could have just relied on the tube strikes to advertise cycling for them…
