Today’s Transport for London Board meeting gave the go ahead for the cycling superhighways program, with the Mayor saying that:
“We should start thinking of more superhighways… across London”
Papers presented at the meeting show that the Mayor has fallen short of his pledge to create 12 cycling superhighways in London. Only 6 superhighways and their extensions will be completely finished by the time Boris Johnson leave office in 2016, leaving plans for 2 more extensions and 2 new superhighways to be finished by the next Mayor.
Jenny Jones has questioned whether one of the Mayor’s 10 schemes will count as a superhighway, as it has virtually no ‘on road’ segregation and TfL state that it has “minimal impact on traffic operations over its 11km length”. Plans for superhighway route 1 from Tottenham to Liverpool Street show that “the majority of the route runs along quiet borough roads and without a requirement for significant engineering interventions.”
Jenny Jones said:
“The Mayor promised 12 superhighways, but will leave office having finished half of that. 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.”
“The Hackney scheme is a great quiet way, but it is not a superhighway. Giving cyclists the choice of a good route along residential roads is welcome, but the Mayor 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. We have to make both choices safer.”
Notes to editors
Jenny is available for interview
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The Board papers can be found at bit.ly/1CYfQ1M. The key paper outlining the schemes to be completed pre-2016 and after 2016, can be found at Appendix 1 – Project Authority Calculations. Four of the original superhighways have been dropped CS6, CS9, CS10,CS12. CS1 is on residential roads with no segregation and while a good scheme, it does not meet other criteria for being a superhighway.