What a great idea…..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23672538

Aerial cycle highways for London

An artistic impression of a cycle path above the London skyline
Cycling is booming in London. So much so that at busy times cyclists account for a quarter of all rush hour traffic in central London.

In certain places, such as Southwark Bridge and Theobald’s Road, cyclists make up more than 60% of traffic at peak times. London’s population is expected to grow by another million people in the next decade.

Sam Martin, director at Exterior Architects, says new space needs to be found for cyclists. His Skycycle idea is for a network of elevated routes that would run over Network Rail train lines.

Bikes would remain on the roads but SkyCycle will bring in a new type of cyclist – people who want a direct route into work and those who feel unsafe cycling on busy London streets.

The highways would be 14m wide, accommodating three or four cyclists abreast in each direction. Lifts and ramps would get cyclists up to the cycleway.

The first route to be planned is a 6.5km artery from the Olympic Park at Stratford in East London to Liverpool Street in the City. It would be able to deliver up to 5,000 cyclists an hour in and out of central London and would cost about £200m to build, Martin predicts.

It sounds a lot but compared with Crossrail is cheap, he argues. The scheme would be operated by Transport for London with cyclists paying by Oyster swipe card, although charges would be lower than Tube fares. Other routes from north, south and west London would follow, he says.

“It’s not for your local journey down to the corner shop. It’s for people commuting to work or for families at weekends who want to visit the markets,” he says,

Martin is working with architects Foster and Partners on the project and he says Mayor Boris Johnson is supportive, although no funds have been allocated.

“If we get political will behind it in the next few months, the first one could open in five to six years,” Martin says.

But not everyone is convinced. Sustrans, the transport charity, says although an impressive “statement of intent”, the scheme is likely to cost too much if it comes from existing cycling expenditure and it would be better to improve the safety of road junctions, for example by creating roundabouts that give cyclists priority over cars.

“You can do more by helping people at ground level,” says Huw Davies, the company;’s network director. “It’s less sexy to sort out a traffic junction than to build something in the sky.”

Cost: £200m for first 6.5km artery

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/aerial-cycle-ways-for-london