London Planning Cycling Superhighway For Bike Commuters
Originally published on ExpertSure.
London now views bicycles as a form of mass transit and is planning a cycling superhighway along the banks of the Thames River to make bike commuting into and out of the city more convenient and safer. It hopes the investment in bicycle infrastructure will encourage more people to ride their bikes to work.
Mayor Boris Johnson told the BBC recently, “Getting more people on to their bikes will reduce pressure on the road, bus and rail networks, cut pollution, and improve life for everyone, whether or not they cycle themselves.”
Not everyone is happy about the plan, though. London’s taxi owners in particular are threatening legal action to block the proposed bicycle superhighway. They complain that bicyclists are just a bunch of noisy loudmouths who are given too much attention by the government.
But London’s Transport Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy, has warned that overcrowding on London’s public transport system could lead to riots. “If we want to avoid disorder or people taking to their cars to get to work – causing even more congestion – then investing in cycling superhighways like these is an absolute must.”
The proposed bike route will add about 6 minutes to the time it takes to drive across the city, which makes some Londoners unhappy. But a study of London traffic shows that the average speed in the city center during the time of horse drawn carriages was 3.5 mph. Today, with all the big red buses and modern traffic improvements, the average speed of traffic in the city center is still about 3.5 mph.
Any ordinary person on a second hand bicycle can top that!
Reprinted with permission.
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That is what the city of Edmonton, Alberta, with weather from + 30 C to -40 C, has had for several years in there river valley and it does get used lots, summer and winter.
A while back there was some heavy criticism of this plan because the bike highway was going to be elevated above street level resulting in very high costs and actually limiting access by middle class and poorer residents.
Has the plan been modified since then? Or is it still just intended for access by the more privileged neighborhoods?
i am aware of that criticism. I writing this story, I saw references to the elevated plan, but I am under the impression this proposal is for a bikeway along the banks of the Thames at ground level.
I am waiting for Boris Johnson to return my call with a fuller explanation! ; – )
Thank you for taking the time to answer my comment, and I look forward to any further updates on this project.
My friend that is a former resident and business owner in central London that now lives in the US and I have been following this with a great degree of interest having been using bikes for work transportation for several decades.
(if anyone has firefox with the “noscript” addon, the comments look much neater with the “disquscdn” script blocked!)
Anyway, so we have these vehicles with over 300 horsepower and people in London can’t use over ONE of those! Yeah that’s a major problem, and that’s a ton of pollution that needs to be avoided – burning gas at idle rpm, just a waste.
I can actually WALK faster than the average car in London.