Boris: I'll let cyclists turn left at red lights

The Tory candidate also wants to rephase traffic lights allowing more time for cars and added that he would consider bringing in the "turn left at red" rule used in America to increase cyclists' safety.

Speaking on BBC2 last night, Mr Johnson said: "There are some traffic lights where cars are idle for too long. There are things you can do with sensors to allow traffic when coming in from a side road to come in more smoothly so the sensor can detect whether there are cars building up to come into the main road or not and if there's no traffic at all then the lights won't change. The whole ideology of the current regime is towards restricting.

"What people are realising is that the more people chew their ties in frustration and bend their steering wheel in a pretzel, the happier the technicians are because they want to use the pain and frustration as a way of stopping people getting into their cars."

But despite saying he wanted to get traffic moving more quickly and would not create more speed bumps, Mr Johnson said he supported the idea of having 20mph zones.

When asked about the "left turn at red" rule in the US - where cyclists can turn against the flow of traffic at junctions to avoid being struck by trucks and larger vehicles - he said: "I do think there is a case for that. We are looking at it and there is definitely a case for cyclists to turn left at red.

"When you look at the casualty figures then there is a clear case. Many women in particular are killed because they are not allowed to turn left on red and they then get crushed by a vehicle that decides to turn left."

But he insisted he was not being prejudicial to pedestrians despite referring to them as "the most dangerous thing on the road" - a joke reference to being knocked off his bike by a pedestrian who ignored a red light. Instead he said he wanted more push buttons on traffic lights where there were none.