South-east London is set to get its first Cycle Superhighway with segregated lanes to protect cyclists from traffic, under road design plans unveiled today.
Cycle Superhighway 4 will link Tower Bridge to Greenwich - a popular cycling route that sees more than 3,500 bicycle trips made daily on the A200 road alone. It is the second new superhighway announced by Mayor Sadiq Khan in two weeks to extend the existing cycling network.
Four kilometres of segregated lanes will improve safety on streets in the area, after 93 collisions involving cyclists were reported on one stretch of the A200 in three years. A consultation on the planned superhighway opened Thursday.
“This route will dramatically improve dangerous junctions in south-east London, including the Rotherhithe roundabout,” Simon Munk, Infrastructure Campaigner, London Cycling Campaign (LCC), said. “It will make them far safer for the thousands who already cycle through them daily.”
It comes after the Mayor announced plans for Cycle Superhighway 9, which would link Kensington Olympia to Brentford and create nearly six kilometres of cycle lanes on major west London roads.
That proposal would transform traffic-heavy roads in west Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick and Brentford town centre. It is now under consultation by Transport for London.
Cycling has soared in popularity in London in recent years, with 670,000 bicycle trips made daily in the capital in 2015.
The TfL consultation on Cycle Superhighway 4 runs until 19 November, while the Cycle Superhighway 9 consultation runs until 31 October 2017.