Cycle Superhighway Cost £62k For Every New Cyclist Who Used It

17 September 2018, 07:36

LBC can reveal the East-West cycle superhighway has cost over £62,000 for every extra cyclist attracted to the route.

The blue cycle path, which currently runs from Lancaster Gate to Tower Hill, was Boris Johnson's flagship cycling project as Mayor. Heralded as the "Crossrail of cycling", the £47 million project was "designed to encourage the large numbers of people who would like to cycle, but currently feel unable to."

But the latest figures show that despite the expense, take up on the East-West route has been limited.

TfL estimates that 4,744 cyclists now use the route each day on average. This is an increase of 754 riders per day, an 18% rise compared to 2014/15. This means that for every additional cyclist attracted to the route, taxpayers have spent over £62,000.

The news will infuriate taxi drivers and hauliers who have seen their journey times significantly increased, who lost a lane on the Embankment to make way for the Cycle Superhighway, doubling journey times.

Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association, told LBC: "This cycle lane has been an absolute disaster for London. It was put in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"If you go down to the cycle lane outside of rush hour, there's nobody on it. It's a ghost town and that just reinforces the problem with it."

Mr McNamara suggested a scheme in which the Cycle Superhighway is only in operation during peak hours, in a similar way to New York's Rush Hour Lanes.