Plans for Europe’s longest protected urban cycle routes were unveiled in London today as part of a “Crossrail for cyclists” that will criss-cross the capital.
The routes, due to open by March 2016, will be substantially separated from motor traffic and will run from east to west and from north to south across the centre of London, where a quarter of rush-hour traffic is now made up of bicycles.
Locations such as the Victoria Embankment and Parliament Square will be fitted with segregated cycleways in a bid to boost safety for cyclists and reduce congestion for motorists. The scheme is the centrepiece of Boris Johnson’s £913 million investment in cycling facilities in the capital over a decade.
The east-west route will cost £47 million and cover 18 miles from Barking to Acton. It will take cyclists in front of the Houses of Parliament and over the Westway flyover, a symbol of car-centric urban planning from the 1960s.
The north-south route will cost £17.5 million and run for three miles King’s Cross to Elephant and Castle, where plans have already been announced to tear out and redesign the northern roundabout, a notorious accident blackspot for motorists and cyclists.
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Mr Johnson, the mayor of London, said: “Bikes already make up 24 per cent of all rush-hour traffic in central London – hundreds of thousands of journeys every day that would otherwise be made by car or public transport.
“Because this isn’t just about cyclists. Getting more people on to their bikes will reduce pressure on the road, bus and rail networks, cut pollution, and improve life for everyone, whether or not they cycle themselves.”
The plans, which were opened to consultation yesterday, will also increase space for pedestrians and will install bus-priority measures at key locations to avoid conflict.
Dangerous junctions at Tower Hill, Blackfriars and Lancaster Gate will also be re-designed.
The London Cycling Campaign welcomed the plans as a “big step” towards making the capital a cycle-friendly city and said it would be contacting Transport for London about parts of the propsals that still need improving.
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Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC foundation, warned that the plans must take care not to reduce road capacity for “essential freight and commercial movements”.
While Transport for London has committed nearly £1 billion to cycle improvements over the next decade, the government has spent £374 million on cycling provision for the rest of England and Wales over this parliament, the equivalent of just ten miles of motorway.
There is no regular government budget for cycling, with funding only handed out in sporadic grants. The Times’s Cities Fit for Cycling campaign is calling for an annual budget of £600 million, or 4 per cent of the transport budget.
These calls have been supported by the AA, British Cycling, the CBI, the Commons transport committee and James May, the Top Gear presenter.