The mayor of London has announced a 19 July 2010 launch date for the first two Cycle Superhighways.
The routes, which are sponsored by Barclays, are the first of 12 Cycle Superhighways
planned for the capital, run from Merton to the City via the A24 and A3, and Barking to Tower Gateway via
the A13 and Cable Street.
Four of Cycle Superhighways will be completed by October 2012 and the remaining
six by 2015. The assessment process has now started on the next two proposed routes, from Ilford to Aldgate and Wandsworth Town to Westminster.
Boris Johnson said: "Barclays are going to help us deliver the cleanest,
greenest and healthiest form of public transport that London has ever seen."
Johnson continued: “I am determined to transform London into a city that
cycles and where hundreds of thousands enjoy the elixir of using two wheels to get around the capital.
There's huge potential to increase the number of journeys that Londoners
make by bike and today we're setting out exactly how we're going to do that.”
There has been criticism of the capacity of the superhighways to cope with
the increasing number of cyclists in the capital – cycling levels are up 14% since Johnson
was elected in May 2008.
Chris Peck, CTC policy coordinator commented: "It is amazing that in
London the Cycle Superhighways are being built to a design minimum of 1.5 metres wide, yet
on some of these routes there are already more than 13,000 cyclists a day, meaning lots of
cyclists overtaking other cyclists and the potential for two people to want to cycle next to
each other. A measly 1.5m doesn't give the chance to do that – 2m might, but a nice Dutch
2.5m certainly would."
