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Historic day for London cyclists as TfL board approves Cycle Superhighways (+ flythrough video)

Campaigners in capital and beyond hail decision to approve plans for segregated routes

The board of Transport for London (TfL) has today given its formal go-ahead to the two planned Cycle Superhighways that will cross the capital from East to West and North to South. Campaigners have hailed approval of the planned routes as an historic day for cycling in the capital.

The city’s mayor, Boris Johnson, who last week presented the final details of the planned routes after what was said to be one of the biggest consultation exercises ever undertaken by TfL, described the outcome of the meeting as “fantastic news.”

Work on the two routes bisecting the city centre, from Kings Cross to Elephant & Castle and Tower Hill to the Westway, is due to begin next weeks, with the scheme approved by TfL’s board despite the opposition of members including National Express chairman Sir John Armitt who was accused of victim-blaming after claiming cyclists were their own biggest danger on the city’s streets.

He, and others opposed to the infrastructure, were in the minority however, and Danny Williams of Cyclists in the City blog reflected the views of many of the capital’s cyclists when he tweeted: “Today's vote by TfL board for cycle super highways is the work & emotional commitment of 1000s of people over 6+ years. Just wow, London.”

British Cycling’s policy advisor, Chris Boardman, said: “This is a fantastic day for Londoners, as well as the many million people who visit the capital every year.

“This vision for large-scale, properly segregated cycle ways will make cycling a more attractive transport option, creating a more pleasant, healthy and sustainable London for everyone.

“The move brings the capital one step closer to creating a true cycling culture to rival cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. But most importantly of all, it will set a standard for the rest of the country.”

That final point was echoed by Cambridge Cycling Campaign, which said in a post to Twitter: “Dear London, THANK YOU for approving proper cycle infrastructure and making our own job easier in the coming 5 years. Yours, the regions.

The meeting was shown a fly-through video of the route of the East-West Cycle Superhighway which gives an unprecedented overview of what cyclists can expect.

Speaking to the Guardian’s Peter Walker for an article published ahead of this morning’s TfL board meeting, Rosie Downes, campaigns manager at the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), highlighted the importance of the mayor’s support for the plans.

She said: “Obviously, there has been some resistance. But the mayor has made it very clear he thinks this is something that should go ahead, and there has been a strong and very clear response from Londoners.”

Last week, Mr Johnson said he expected cycling to feature in the Conservative Party’s manifesto at May’s general election and that nationally, it would be “suicide” for any party to ignore the issue.

Ms Downes said that in London at least, that political consensus already exists, observing that “there’s a recognition now that trying to stop or delay the plans is not going to be a wise political move.”

Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who in 2012 was appointed London’s first cycling commissioner by Mr Johnson, said that he expected today to be “a momentous day.”

Referring to the TfL vote on the issue, he said: “I think it will go through, and for the first time London will be spending really serious money on cycling, and producing a facility which has met with universal praise from cyclists.”

Opponents of the scheme such as Canary Wharf Group, whose managing director of finance Peter Anderson sits on TfL’s board, had warned of traffic chaos if the proposals went ahead, and remain firmly against them, despite Mr Johnson last week presenting revisions including narrowing the cycle lanes at three pinch points.

But Mr Gilligan said: “What I’m hoping is that when this opens people will see that the traffic doesn’t melt down, and the world doesn’t come to an end, and it will open the way to more in the future.”

Meanwhile Green Party politician Baroness Jones, a former deputy mayor of London under Ken Livingstone, accused Mr Johnson of failing to deliver on his promise of building 12 Cycle Superhighways in London and described the progress in introducing safe infrastructure as “painfully slow.”

In a press release issued this morning, she said that TfL board papers showed that by the time Mr Johnson steps down at the next mayoral election in 2014, only six Cycle Superhighways of those original 12 would have been built.

She did acknowledge that one of the reasons for that was that following a number of serious injuries and deaths in 2011, Mr Johnson and TfL had been forced to go back to the drawing board to prioritise the safety of cyclists in the design of the routes.

“The mayor promised 12 superhighways, but will leave office having finished half of that,” she said.

“Boris Johnson thought that a bit of blue paint on the road was good enough protection, but after a dreadful flurry of serious injuries and deaths he was forced to start again and put in some proper safety measures.

“London is now starting to get the cycle infrastructure it needs, but the pace of change is painfully slow and the lack of ambition is criminal.”

She welcomed development of Quietways on less busy routes that take cyclists along roads that are relatively free of traffic and also have traffic free section, through parks for example.

But she maintained that development of those should not be at the expense of infrastructure on busier routes, pointing out that different cyclists have different priorities.

“The Hackney scheme is a great Quietway, but it is not a superhighway,” she said. Giving cyclists the choice of a good route along residential roads is welcome, but the Mayor also needs to fix the main roads and junctions which he controls on the parallel route.

“Many cyclists will enjoy a quieter, less polluted route, but many others want the directness and speed of the main roads. With the deaths of two cyclists on Hackney main roads, so far this year, we have to make both choices safer.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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27 comments

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ronin | 9 years ago
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Great news. It's only a shame that something that is obviously common sense has taken this long.

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arfa | 9 years ago
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I really don't get some of the negative views, this is a massive turning point for the bicycle as a recognised mode of transport, as a solution to congestion, as the way forwards in crowded and congested cities. The dam has been breached as finally we have officially recognised the need for safe space for cycling. Some of the roads that the route goes through are proven death traps and we now have segregation and prioritisation of the bicycle.
In 20 years of cycling around London I've seen so much fudging and obfuscation around paths that I doubted this would happen. It's happening and it is so important that all who want to see mass cycling get behind it and the network will grow outwards.

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Jonny_Trousers | 9 years ago
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That's it! I'm buying a TT bike to commute on now!  1

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bikebot replied to Jonny_Trousers | 9 years ago
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Jonny_Trousers wrote:

That's it! I'm buying a TT bike to commute on now!  1

Get yourself a nice wicker basket for the handlebars whilst you're there.

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phillyd | 9 years ago
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Im waiting for someone to say they are livid that it hasn't been rolled out right to there front door.

This is a massive shift in policy and how cycling in London.
It will hopefully mark the start of big things both for the capital and for other cities in the UK.

Its never going to be ideal till cars are taken off the central London streets but this is great news and Im excited to get down there as soon as its opened.

Im with all the others who see this as a great thing.
Hurray indeed.

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TeamExtreme replied to phillyd | 9 years ago
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phillyd wrote:

Im waiting for someone to say they are livid that it hasn't been rolled out right to there front door.

Isn't that what darrenleroy's whinge was about?

It's a great start, I'm interested to hear what's happening with CS2 as well, IIRC there was supposed to be a decision on the proposed upgrades to that as well this week.

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bikebot replied to TeamExtreme | 9 years ago
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TeamExtreme wrote:

It's a great start, I'm interested to hear what's happening with CS2 as well, IIRC there was supposed to be a decision on the proposed upgrades to that as well this week.

Approved at the meeting, CS2 was part of the packaged they voted on.

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jacknorell replied to phillyd | 9 years ago
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phillyd wrote:

Im waiting for someone to say they are livid that it hasn't been rolled out right to there front door.

Oh, but some people have! No pleasing some no matter what you do...

This is a great start, some stretches of this I'll use about weekly which is nice.

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RinseCharming | 9 years ago
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Absolutely fantastic news.

Sets a great precedent. Since Boris bikes were viewed as a great success, similar schemes have popped up all over the country. Hopefully the same thing will happen here.

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ibike | 9 years ago
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Great news! Hope it’s just the start.

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teaboy | 9 years ago
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It's a great start....

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Okinawa | 9 years ago
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I work at TfL. Borosilicate just Walked past; he's so sexy.

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cerutticolumn | 9 years ago
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Clearly not everyone will be served by the new routes, and there will be problems at specific points, but nevertheless, viewed from afar, it seems to me that these superhighways represent real progress. London will, perhaps, soon reach a tipping point where cycling is 'normalised' to the extent that it is generally accepted as just another legitimate form of transport. Well done London!

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Quince | 9 years ago
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Hooraaaaaaaaay! _(゜▽゜;)/

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bikebot replied to Quince | 9 years ago
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Road.cc does have some complete miserable sods. I'm with this chap.

Quince wrote:

Hooraaaaaaaaay! _(゜▽゜;)/

I may well combine my good mood with beer later.

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darrenleroy | 9 years ago
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All nice and shiny in the City and central London. Then a massive deviation from east-west to south-north up to the Westway and then... ah, forget about it.

If you live west of Hyde Park on roughly the Uxbridge Road axis or below there's not a cat's chance in hell you're going to use the superhighway as it's super-miles out of your way home.

So cyclists will continue to brave the traffic along the top of Hyde Park on Bayswater Road/Holland Park Avenue and then risk the madness of Shepherds Bush and the Somalian school of eccentric driving in east Acton before the pinch of Acton proper and on from there against the motorists intent on getting home at all costs. Fucking waste of time. Waste of time.

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JimKillock replied to darrenleroy | 9 years ago
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“If you live west of Hyde Park on roughly the Uxbridge Road axis or below there's not a cat's chance in hell you're going to use the superhighway as it's super-miles out of your way home.”

Isn't this to do with problems with Kensington and Chelsea, who don't want segregation on any of their roads? Though Ealing are more co-operative, it seems impossible to route through K&C's road network, hence prioritising the Westway route.

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bdsl replied to JimKillock | 9 years ago
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Isn't this to do with problems with Kensington and Chelsea, who don't want segregation on any of their roads? Though Ealing are more co-operative, it seems impossible to route through K&C's road network, hence prioritising the Westway route.

Maybe it would be possible to go through K&C without using K&C's road network. The A4 runs through Kensington & Chelsea but is managed by TFL.

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Trackal | 9 years ago
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Am sure someone in TFL has spotted this but the segregated lane on upper Thames is on the right hand side of the road and on embankment it is on the left. No indication of how they join up.

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Trackal | 9 years ago
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Am sure someone in TFL has spotted this but the segregated lane on upper Thames is on the right hand side of the road and on embankment it is on the left. No indication of how they join up.

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congokid replied to Trackal | 9 years ago
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Trackal wrote:

Am sure someone in TFL has spotted this but the segregated lane on upper Thames is on the right hand side of the road and on embankment it is on the left. No indication of how they join up.

That had me worried as well.

But on Map 2, you can see there is a signalised crossing for cyclists just west of Blackfriars Bridge

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SteppenHerring | 9 years ago
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Near miss at 3:12.

Also, the lanes appear not to contain broken glass, dogshit or wandering iPeds.

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Leviathan | 9 years ago
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Those ants are very obedient. What is supposed to happen when they reach the two parks on the route, reduce to 4kph?

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Okinawa replied to Leviathan | 9 years ago
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?! We having a very serious discussion about women's crotches in Lycra. I can't see the connection?

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Okinawa | 9 years ago
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Oops sorry. I've by mistake come onto a cycle site. Thought I was on the Women's Institute forum How to Keep your Man Happy in Bed. Saying that, not all wasted time: I'll get me some Lycra shorts. Discuss: do all guys look at females crotches when they're in Lycra? Add your thoughts and come and join us at the Women's Institute website.

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Okinawa | 9 years ago
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I'm new to this and a girl. Is this the same as the internet superhighway? I've only got my head around this and the HS2. Yet something to think about.

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Roger Geffen | 9 years ago
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CTC says today's hard-won support from the TfL Board marks a 'game-changer' in cycle provision - see press release:
https://www.ctc.org.uk/press-release/2015-02-04/go-ahead-londons-cycle-s...

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