It's an interesting idea but slapping down a bit of blue paint doesn't sound as safe as a hard berm or something else solid to protect cyclists from traffic. In Paris where we do have cement curbs along a number of bike paths, it is still not perfect due to parked cars, motorcycles and pedestrians but it's better than a coat of paint. With a Conservative mayor and the age of austerity paint may be all for now but the idea is nice. They estimate that 550,000 cyclists commute every day in London so improving the bike paths makes sense.
It's one of two new superhighways to open this summer. The other goes between Barking, east London, and Tower Gateway, which is near Tower Bridge. Twelve such routes are planned in all, with details and maps available on the Transport for London website.
Along with a forthcoming city-wide bike hire scheme, a new cycling police unit, 66,000 extra bike parking spaces before 2012 and better strategic planning, the hope of Mayor Boris Johnson is that they will spark what he calls a "cycling revolution".
His transport adviser Kulveer Ranger says: "People think 'cycling revolution' and think of the hire scheme, superhighways... but it's a lot more than that.
"Boris wants to see the culture around cycling evolving - we have to look at the infrastructure, securing bikes, cyclists' safety and embed cycling in transport policy."
