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£3.5m for London cycle routes
David Williams, Motoring Editor14 Dec 2007
Cycling in London is set for a boost after a national project linking thousands of miles of cycle routes won £50million of Lottery funding.
The capital will receive more than £ 3.5million to fund six key schemes masterminded by Sustrans, the walking and cycling campaign group.
Campaigners estimate that when completed, the routes will be used by around 1.5 million Londoners and help to get even more people to take up cycling.
The Connect2 project involves building bridges, tunnels and crossings to create new cycle routes and improve the quality of existing routes.
The £1.4million Ingrebourne Valley Links scheme in Havering will receive £700,000 of the Lottery money.
Other beneficiaries include walking and cycling routes in lslington (£600,000), the Croydon Parks Link scheme (£550,000) and the Westbourne railway bridge and links project in Paddington (£600,000). The Senegal Bridge Links scheme in Bermondsey will get £600,000, while a new bridge over the Regent's Canal at Bethnal Green, part of the Tower Hamlets and Mile End project, will get £300,000 towards the overall cost of £800,000.
Carl Pittam, London director of Sustrans, said the new links would close "vital gaps" in important cycling and walking routes. He called the money great news for London.
In most cases the new routes run close to existing or proposed parts of the London Cycle Network.
Connect2 won the People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway in a public vote, beating the Eden Project in Cornwall, Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire and the Black Country Urban Park in the West Midlands.
Reader views (13)
Yes I agree with Huw, Duncan, C Harrison, Marc, Stephen & Frank Kelcz comments that there should be an East to West segregated and traffic free two way cycle path/highway through central London. One of the most suitable places would be along the wide pavements of the Thames Victoria Embankment along the river.
- Nick, London, 12/01/2010 09:20
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I agree with Duncan's comments. In terms of a East - West cycle route through central London - why isn't there a continuous pedestrian and cycle route along the Thames northbank from Tower Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge ?
In some parts of the Thames in zone 1 there isn't even a walkway – the path just runs to an abrupt end! For example near Southwark Bridge between Watermans Walk & Pauls Walk you are forced to divert your walk/ cyle about 500 metres up busy Upper Thames Street which is hundreds of metres inland away from the river!.
In these places a new pier/or pathway about 4 metres wide could easily be put in place to run parallel and along the river which pedestrians and cyclists could be directed onto rather than unto the unnecessary long and dangerous roads.
- Stephen, London, 08/01/2010 19:48
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Thank goodness for some investment in something Londoners can actually benefit from! Bravo Boris, you get my vote!
- Nicolei Zuraw, London, 17/12/2007 12:01
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Very laudable, I'm sure. But will anything ever be invested in ensuring that cyclists observe the rules of the road?
Three weeks ago I actually saw a cyclist stopped at a red light. If only I had had my camera with me.
Cyclists do not realise (A) how vulnerable they are and (B) the dangers they pose to other road users - to say nothing of pedestrians using footpaths, who are at the mercy of aggressive two-wheelers illegally charging along the pavements.
Bike users seem to take this eco-conscious climate as a 'green' light (pun intended) to ride roughshod (and again)over the rules that motorists are routinely and rightly punished for breaking.
Time for fair play, please.
- Rob, Canary Wharf, 16/12/2007 13:51
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The gradual approach shows lack of will and lack of vision. Take a look at the bicycle paths being built all over Paris - and their pay-as-you-go rental system. In central London there are so many obvious places where bike routes would work (all along the Thames .etc) and yet it takes years to happen. Reducing carbon emission, reducing traffic, and reducing the burden on the National Health Service would be benefits to us all.
- Frank Kelcz, London, 16/12/2007 10:09
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Great idea and plan from Boris. I really hope he will win the London elections next year. London deserves him better than that Red Ken waste.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London, 15/12/2007 10:21
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Yeah... whilst undoubtedly commendable it's also pretty pathetic. Why should it take lottery money for this when to my mind it should be a priority for local government funding - i.e. the Major?
I ride a bike when I can, ride a scooter and drive a car and to be honest never really feel that safe on London roads tucked into a bus lane, over taking parked cars, and getting whizzed by kamakaze bendy bus drivers.
For instance. I live in Notting Hill and work in Angel but the ride along the Marleybone Road is vile so I often drive instead. The road is very wide as are the pavements the whole way along, but the bike lane is terrifying and a tiny bit of the bus lane. Just not good enough.
Again whilst this is highly commendable it seems little more than a token gesture covering little more than several miles whereas London as a city would be one hell of a lot more pleasant with more people on our bikes more of the time - and for that we need a far more coherent national and local strategy and proper investment rather than celebrating a national lottery win.
Whilst the fleet of (dangerously driven and very smelly) buses seems to have quadrupled in recent years I cannot think of any new major bike routes and that's poor.
- Andy B, London, 14/12/2007 23:29
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"We need to be more radical and take over some key roads..."
Yes, as long as only roads are taken over and not pavements.
- Robert Zimmerman, London, 14/12/2007 18:52
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I wonder why it is that most car drivers want good infrastructure for everyone (themselves, cyclists etc), whereas a significant number of cyclists (e.g. "Duncan") are only satisfied if car drivers are made to suffer by having the roadspace that they've paid for taken away from them? Why can't everyone have what they want? Why can't these cyclists be positive instead of spiteful? It's pathetic. Let's have good cycle routes, good pedestrian routes and good roads for drivers. Win-win, except for spiteful people with a chip on their shoulder who want to force their extreme ideology on everyone else.
While I'm at it, "Duncan" should also stop jumping red lights, racing car drivers, cycling on pavements and deliberately getting in the way. Live and let live, please.
- David Trent, West London, UK, 14/12/2007 18:40
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Duncan and Huw are correct - the volume of bike traffic is big enough to justify proper routes. More bikes are used everyday in London than the total number of vehicles using the A4, A40 and A1 into central London.
West-East 2 routes - Holland Park have as suggested plus the Embankment
North-South at various point. Plus a bike-only bridge to connect Canary Wharf with Bermondsey.
- Marc, Fulham, 14/12/2007 18:18
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Many of the cycle paths in London are useless, some are laughable and a few are actually quite dangerous. This money will largely be wasted unless the cycle paths are designed properly.
I'll echo the other views here: London needs a 'core' network: North-South and East-West, and perhaps also a route following the Thames. But they'll need to sacrifice pavements, bus lanes and road space to make it work well. Also remove some traffic lights (cyclists need momentum not stop-start journeys), provide better bike racks, more office showers, compulsory large left-hand mirrors on all large vehicles.
- C Harrison, London, 14/12/2007 18:01
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I would like to add that Duncan's comments are spot on. If London had an East/West route and also North/South it would be a HUGE success.
- Huw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 14/12/2007 16:56
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Much as I admire the gradual development of these London routes they strike me as mostly suitable for leisure cycling rather than commuting. We need to be more radical and take over some key roads to make it easier for the many Londoners who would commute if it weren't so dangerous.
For example, will any Mayoral candidate support a central London East-West route on Holland Park Avenue, Bayswater, Holborn and through on to Liverpool Street? If that route were cycle only you would see an explosion in commuters cycling. Most of the cars using those roads today come from outside London in any case.
Looking at North-South routes, I wonder if there are plans for cycling provision on the Cross River Tram route? It does not appear to be part of the plan.
- Duncan, London, 14/12/2007 13:38
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