LONDON MAYOR BORIS Johnson just got final approval for his ambitious plan to reshuffle the city’s roads into a more cycling-friendly format.
The plan includes the creation of “cycling superhighways” through the British capital.
Traffic lanes will be converted, new kerbs installed, and parking spaces moved to put Johnson’s plan for the bike lanes with dedicated traffic signals in place.
“Quietways” will also be installed, which are less segregated bike lanes on streets with less traffic.
There will be two main highway lanes — one north-south, and another traveling east-west — and the project is expected to cost £160 million, according to ITV.
These improvements, all part of London’s massive Road Modernization Plan, will reshape and modernize some of London’s busiest intersections and roads, creating a very different flow of traffic in the British capital.
London’s City Hall has reportedly also admitted this may cause traffic disruptions for motorists, though this worry hasn’t borne out in other cities with dedicated bike lanes. Some taxi and business groups opposed the plan because of this, however, as well as the plan to ban vehicle turns at some intersections where turning is currently legal, according to the Guardian.
For a look at how drastically the roads will change, check out Transport for London’s map of the changes below.
Johnson is famous for his championing of bike riding in London and was a main proponent of London’s bike share program, which have been named “Boris bikes” in his honor. Cycling has doubled in London in recent years, but that rise is correlated with a rise in deaths from bicycle collisions with larger motor vehicles, according to NPR.
- Dennis Green.
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