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Mayor’s cycle superhighway vision takes shape as Crossrail for bikes opens next month

Europe’s longest substantially-segregated city cycle route, dubbed ‘Crossrail for bikes’, is to open on 30 April the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has announced.

The route, which consists of just under 12 miles of traffic-free segregated tracks or low-traffic streets, will allow cyclists to travel from Westminster to Blackfriars, the City, Tower Hill, Canary Wharf and Barking.

It forms a key part of Johnson’s ‘cycling vision’, which was launched in March 2013, that looked to support the cycling boom in the capital through the construction of a network of segregated cycling tracks and routes.

Another central part of the plans, the Vauxhall cycling superhighway, opened six months ago and has seen a 73% increase in the number of cyclists using the route compared to its pre-superhighway days.

Announcing the opening date, Johnson commented: “In 2013 I stood on this very spot on the Embankment and promised that we would soon behold a magnificent cycle superhighway. Many doubted it would ever get beyond the artist’s impression. A noisy minority fought hard to stop it happening.

“But, in opinion polls and public consultations, large majorities of ordinary Londoners, most of them not cyclists, said they wanted this project and what it represents for a cleaner, safer, greener city.

“I apologise to motorists temporarily inconvenienced by the construction works on the Embankment, and I thank them for their patience in putting up with it - but the end is now in sight. I am immensely encouraged by the evidence from Vauxhall showing that now the scheme there is finished, the flow of traffic in the area is also returning to normal.”

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