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Kingston, Enfield and Waltham Forest are to benefit from millions of pounds to create ‘mini-Hollands’ in the London suburbs – but other boroughs won’t be left empty-handed.
The three winners are each getting up to £30m as part of the biggest ever investment in bike paths in outer London, while Transport for London has pledged to work with five other boroughs to bring their schemes forward.
In the winning boroughs, the full gamut of cycle routes has been proposed – full Dutch-style segregated tracks, traffic-free ‘greenways’ away from roads, and turning residential roads into no-through-routes for cars. The plans are:
Meanwhile, “substantial parts” of the plans submitted by Bexley (the runner-up), Ealing, Merton and Richmond will be taken forward by TfL. These are:
Newham, which planned to remove the Stratford gyratory and reshape Stratford town centre, has been invited to make a full bid to TfL’s major projects fund.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “I have been incredibly impressed with the standard of the mini-Holland entries and by the thirst among all the finalists to transform themselves into better places for people. It has been so hard to choose between them that I have decided that all shall have prizes. Areas once terra incognita for the bicycle will, over time, become every bit as cycle-friendly as their Dutch equivalents - places that suburbs and towns all over Britain will want to copy.”
Although most recent headlines have focused on cycling in central London, TfL believes that the suburbs have equal potential for cycling, and aims to move those suburban car journeys which are “short and highly cyclable” onto bikes. Cycling champion and former racer, Chris Boardman, explained: “Almost half of London households do not have a car, so it's logical that infrastructure and resource for this desirable form of transport reflects this.”
The news also marked a step forward for the ‘Quietway’ concept, of “direct and continuous” through-routes on back streets where traffic has been reduced. The routes will be devised by TfL, the London boroughs, and Sustrans, the charity behind the National Cycle Network.
The first two such routes have now been announced: from Waterloo to Greenwich, serving a wide area of south-east London, and from Bloomsbury to Walthamstow. A further six routes covering all points of the compass will be opened in 2015.
Sustrans’ London director, German Dector-Vega, said: “We are extremely excited about these first two Quietways as they are both routes that people already use or where significant regeneration will take place. They will be fun to ride, will show off some attractive back streets and will greatly reduce barriers to cycling. New links, improved crossings and better access to the many attractions along each route will make local trips and journeys into central London easier.”
To no-one’s great surprise, the London boroughs of Hackney and Camden walked off with the prizes at this week’s London Transport Awards.
Hackney was crowned Transport Borough of the Year chiefly for its cycling work. The borough is well known for closing residential streets to through motor traffic, forming a network of quiet routes for cyclists. The judges said:
“Hackney have enhanced their tradition for innovation in cycling with further advances in cycle parking and monitoring progress through cycle counters and apps. The range and breadth of the sustainable transport work undertaken in recent years indicates that there is a lot more to Hackney than simply cycling.”
Camden won the Achievements in Cycling title for their Royal College Street scheme. The street has been given lightweight segregated bike lanes, with planters and ‘armadillos’ to keep cars out. There is a full 2m of space for cyclists in each direction.
Royal College Street is one of the first Dutch-style schemes in the city, and fittingly, London Cycling Campaign was awarded the Travel Information & Marketing prize for its ‘Love London, Go Dutch’ campaign. LCC is seeking to make cycling around London as easy and safe as it would be in a Netherlands city, with separate, protected tracks on main roads and safe traffic conditions on minor streets.
Finally, Heathrow Airport’s commuter team was given an award for their work in increasing cycling and car sharing among airport staff, with a 10% rise in bike use during 2013.
Birmingham’s often muddy and bumpy towpaths are being resurfaced for cyclists in a £6m upgrade.
The scheme is the first part of Birmingham City Council’s £24m ‘Cycle Revolution’ project. Work will get underway this month and take 18 months.
Four canals within the city boundary have been selected for the upgrade:
The first work will take place on the Main Line, one of the straightest canals in Britain after its route was upgraded by Thomas Telford in the 19th century.
Cllr James McKay from Birmingham City Council said: “The canals are a great place to go for an enjoyable ride – and once this work is complete, it will be easier than ever for people to use their bikes on towpaths in the city.” Peter Mathews of the Canal & River Trust added: “This investment won’t just make cycling easier and safer along our towpaths, but also benefit the boaters, walkers and joggers who enjoy our wonderful waterways.”
Famously, Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice, with the ‘Birmingham Canal Navigations’ totalling some 100 miles – and even more in connecting canals. However, much of the BCN is actually in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, while this upgrade project will only consider those towpaths within the city boundaries.
You might think that selling the trials and tribulations of British cycling to the pampered Dutch would be an uphill struggle – but that was exactly the point of a recent delegation.
Because if there’s one thing that Yorkshire does well, and Holland doesn’t, it’s uphill cycling. And Rupert Douglas from cycle charity Sustrans, accompanied by Malcolm Hodgson for the Yorkshire Wolds Way and Cleveland Way walking routes, was in the Low Countries to promote cycle tourism in our rather more rugged landscape.
In January the pair were at the Fiets en Wandelbeurs (cycling and walking) show in Mechelen, Belgium, where almost 13,500 people came through the doors. And last weekend, they were at its sister show in Amsterdam, which is estimated to have had around 20,000 visitors.
Rupert Douglas explained: “With P&O ferries from Zeebrugge or Rotterdam, Hull makes a great gateway into East and North Yorkshire for the Belgians and Dutch. With our growing network of cycling and walking routes we're increasingly able to tempt them to spend more, if not all, of their trip in our area, which is very good for our local accommodation and other tourism-related businesses.”
Several high-profile cycle routes run through the area, including the Way of the Roses, the Pennine Cycleway, the Yorkshire Dales Cycleway, and of course, the opening stages of 2014’s Tour de France. Janet Deacon, from local tourism body Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “With the Tour de France, the biggest annual cycling event, visiting the county this year, the eyes of the world will be on what Yorkshire has to offer those who love the outdoors.”
Twenty-two streets in the City of London have been given cycle contraflows, so that cyclists can ride the ‘wrong way’ up one-way streets.
The aim is to provide alternative, quieter routes to some of the busiest streets in London’s financial district. The City of London says that cycle contraflows “reduce journey distances and times for cyclists, while maintaining functionality for all road users”.
The 22 streets in question are:
Work was carried out at the end of February, comprising new signage and road markings.
Up to 11 more streets are planned to follow this summer. See the map of affected streets. We will, of course, be updating our journey-planner to take these new opportunities into account just as soon as the data is in OpenStreetMap!
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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