The Mayor and bike revolutionist said to The Times: “There is a proposal, which is very interesting, to hook up mainline stations in London along the side of the raised railway tracks, with a new cycle path. So from Clapham Junction to Waterloo – around town like that.”
Cycling doubled in London between 2000 and 2012 according to Transport for London. Thanks to the new superhighways the bikers keep increasing and the Mayor meant that literally high ways would keep getting more people in the capital on pedals.
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: “The Mayor is committed to leading a cycling revolution in London. The use of railway land or elevated cycle ways to provide fast and direct cycling routes around the capital is an exciting idea that his team are looking into.”
The Mayor is said to be inspired by the High Line in New York – an old railway through Manhattan that was turned into a now popular park where people can walk without being disturbed by traffic.
He gets support from German Dector-Vega, the London director of the cycling charity Sustrans, who told The Times: “This is a great opportunity to extend London’s cycling network, enabling more people to get about by bike and ensure a sustainable transport legacy for the Olympic Games.”
According to The Times, ten people have died on bikes in London so far this year and a spokesman from the London Cycling Campaign urged Mr Johnson to also focus on making the existing cycle paths safer.
He said: “While we’re fascinated by Boris Johnson’s plan to put cycle routes along London’s working railways and would love to know how far his negotiations have got with Network Rail, we’d much rather hear the Mayor saying he’s prepared to build high-quality cycling facilities on the streets that Londoners use every day.”
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