For the capital's cyclists, the revolution is finally here. Or is it? The words of London mayor Ken Livingstone are certainly impressive. Announcing the creation of 12 "cycling superhighways" leading in and out of the heart of the city, he said that "we want nothing short of a cycling transformation in London".
The cost - £400m - represents the biggest investment in cycling in London's history, and in addition to the new routes - five of which are intended to be ready by Olympic year 2012 - the money will provide for a free bike hire scheme modelled on Paris's hugely successful "Velib".
It's all slightly jaw-dropping stuff, and we should tip our helmets in Ken's direction, even if claims that London is destined to become Europe's leading cycling city will not impress the residents of Amsterdam and Copenhagen. But I hope I don't sound churlish if I raise an immediate fear of what dedicated cycle lanes on this scale might lead to - the banning of bikes from stretches of the public highway.
A Guardian report on Saturday quoted the AA president as saying, "I think separating out cyclists can only be good for everyone". 'Tis but a short step from "separating out" to legally obliging us to go only where the bike paths dictate. Everything depends on the extent of those routes. The sheer volume and complexity of bike journeys around town - more than half a million a day on current figures - suggests to me that the new infrastructure can't possibly accommodate everyone's needs.
The big plus, as far as I can tell, is the feeling of safety that the new environment ought to generate. When non-cycling friends tell me why they don't use a bike to get to and from work, the reason is nearly always the same: the prospect frightens the life out of them.
We'll just have to wait and see. Meantime, Ken has thrown down a pre-mayoral election gauntlet that biking Boris must surely respond to. Indeed, I have found it puzzling, to say the least, that the Tory candidate - who seems to be as devoted to his two wheels as Ken is to using the Tube - has had so little to say about cycling in the run-up to the vote in May. True he wants to ban bendy buses, but that's just a start. With his Tour de France triumph of 2007 and now his superhighway scheme, it's Ken who's making all the running.
Many cycle paths in the Netherlands are obligatory. That's not we want. In effect, we want our cake and to eat it, too. We want cycle paths and continue to use the roads.
I'm happy to use cycle paths when I've the time or the inclination, but roads are generally fastest, if I want to get somewhere quickly.
Now, if roads were the 'long way round' and cycle paths always took the short cut, I'd revise my opinion.
Top marks to Ken, though. He's got balls and to push through any really pro-cycling measures a politician needs to ignore a large part of the electorate, for the greater good.
Posted by: Carlton Reid | Sunday, 10 February 2008 at 06:06 PM
In Copenhagen it seems like you can both have your cake and eat it.
There the policy is that all roads are and should be open for cycling (with very few exceptions) - no special reservates for cycling! Always the shortest possible route should be available.
On most major roads in Copenhagen there are dedicated cycletracks, but even if no cycletrack on a road, bikes are viewed as a natural part of the traffic. Then - but just as a suplement - the municipality is creating cyclerutes that are totally seperated from cars.
Posted by: Andreas Roehl | Monday, 11 February 2008 at 08:50 AM
Please support the petition below, posted at No 10 this week, some of Ken's cash could be well spent improving what we have already got ie shared road space. Go to the following address:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Panda-Junctions/
The petition reads:-
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Introduce Panda Box Junctions.
Conflict occurs at traffic light controlled junctions, between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. The losers are the cyclists who wait alongside lorries, and are then hit when the lorry turns left. Women are most at risk, because they obey the current rules. Panda road crossings exist that allow sharing of crossings by cyclists and pedestrians, it is a short leap of the imagination to consider the whole of a junction crossing area as a Panda Area. The area could be demarked as existing box junction markings, extending to the furthest edges of the pedestrian crossings. Alternatively an area covered in coloured paviors would be more atractive.When lights are at red in both directions the whole of the marked area would be available for non-vehicle use. This will legitamise the present law breaking efforts of mostly male cyclists who see the safety of crossing a busy junction while all lights are at red. I believe that once pedestrians understand the reasoning then they may be less aggressive to cyclists sharing "their" space.
This proposal moves towards the new thinking on street design outlined in the DoT Manual for Streets, without losing the lights at busy junctions.
Posted by: Geoff Brandt | Tuesday, 12 February 2008 at 09:34 AM
There are a small number of cyclists who live outside London. We'd be pleased to see £400 spent on our cycling facilities. Kindly bicker more quietly, will you?
Posted by: Paul Reid | Wednesday, 13 February 2008 at 01:59 PM
Come on Paul, where London leads the Provinces might just follow, be a bit creative in your own locality.
Posted by: G Brandt | Wednesday, 13 February 2008 at 08:16 PM
I am a member of the Kent Bicycle Advisory Board (no, not that Kent -- Kent, Washington USA http://www.ci.kent.wa.us/ ), and after riding here for years and being a member of the Board I have come to the conclusion that cars and bicycles simply do not mix.
Everything should be done to separate the two -- preferably by reducing the roadway surface (road diet) devoted to automobiles. Indepedent, bicycle only roads, such as London proposes, are an excellent direction to take.
Posted by: John Bailo | Friday, 15 February 2008 at 10:30 PM
I think it has been said elsewhere on the net, the roads can't get any wider and the buildings can't suddenly shrink. Shouldn't we start encouraging cycle only roads and banning cars from existing routes. Build a few hundred large multi-storey car parks and make everyone bike around the city centres, with trams and such like for the infirm. Barcelona seems to have it sorted.
We should have our cake and eat it, cars should be removed. Cycling is horrible in the wet but is a true advantage in reducing the UK requirement on foreign oil.
Now if only the trains were cheaper and could take bikes.
Posted by: Andrew | Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 02:00 PM