Mayor's vision for cycling

The new flagship route – a true Crossrail for the bicycle – will run for at least 15 miles from the western suburbs through the heart of the capital to the City, Canary Wharf and Barking in the east. It will, we believe, be the longest substantially segregated continuous cycle route of any city in Europe.

The route will incorporate a new segregated cycle track along the Victoria Embankment and the Westway flyover. The Westway, a symbol of how the urban motorway tore up our cities, will become the symbol of how we’re claiming central London for cyclists.

There will be substantial improvements to existing Cycle Superhighways as well as significant investment in new routes. This includes our North – South Cycle Superhighways which will provide a substantially segregated route between Elephant and Castle and Kings Cross and a complete upgrade of the popular Cycle Superhighway 2.

View and comment on the detailed proposals.

A cross-London network of high quality guided Quietways is being created, linking key destinations via peaceful backstreet routes, through parks, and along waterways. They will run far into the suburbs and are aimed at people put off by cycling on busy roads.

Unlike the old London Cycle Network, Quietways will be direct. They will be clearly signed, mostly on the road itself, making it impossible to lose your way. Each route will be delivered as a whole, not piecemeal, and they will not give up at the difficult places.

£100 million has been allocated to transform three London suburbs into cycle-friendly ‘mini-Hollands’. Enfield, Kingston and Waltham Forest were successful in winning full mini-Holland status worth up to £30 million each.

Kingston is creating a major cycle hub and the plaza outside Kingston station will be transformed. New high quality cycling routes are being introduced, together with a Thames Riverside Boardway, a new cycle boardwalk on the banks of the river.

In Enfield, the town centre is being completely redesigned with segregated superhighways linking key destinations. Three cycle hubs are being created across the borough and new greenway routes are to be introduced.

Waltham Forest is building a semi-segregated Superhighway route along Lea Bridge Road. They have already implemented a range of measures to focus on improving cycling in residential areas and the creation of “Hackney-style” cycle-friendly, low traffic neighbourhoods.

Bexley, Ealing, Merton and Richmond will also receive money to take forward substantial parts of their bids to improve cycle routes and facilities.

London led the world in establishing a commercial cycle hire scheme. In 2010 the London Cycle Hire Scheme (LCHS) started out without any members and sought to build the member base on the back of investing in 6,000 bicycles and 10,500 docking points. Today, Santander Cycles has 196,000 members, over 11,000 bicycles and 18,500 docking points.

And the scheme continues to grow: 2014 was a record for hires, with 10,023,987 journeys made - up 5% on 2012 (the previous highest year) and 25% on 2013.

In December 2013, the scheme expanded to south west London with more than 2,000 new bikes and 150 docking stations for Clapham Junction, Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney. The expansion grew the area covered by the scheme by 50 per cent. Half of these new docking points are located south of the river.

Expansion to the Olympic Park and intensification of the scheme in the existing area are our next priorities. We are also looking now to speed up the hiring process with ‘wave and pay’ technology, and giving active consideration to the possibility of electric bicycles for hire as well.

The Santander Cycles website has everything you need to know about how the scheme works.

Three years after the publication of the original Cycling Vision, we assess the great progress made and look towards the future.