Lord Foster takes on plans for London SkyCycle with 135 miles of elevated safe cyclist routes

Looks great in the artist's impression but not so sure this is a good idea. There are practical issues like not much flexibility when you're on it, not sure you'd want to be on one alone late at night, ramps etc etc.

From a more of idealogical point of view, I'm with BigFoz in that what we need is new attitudes rather than infrastructure. This will (not that it would ever actually be built) reinforce the idea that bikes shouldn't be on the road.

Personally I think it'll take more autonomous cars and a shift away from the private car ownership model we 'enjoy' now to make our streets better places to be for everyone- but I'm not holding my breath.

Hmmm. Let me see. Car drivers will now realise they DO own the roads, and any cyclists riding the 1/2mile from home to nearest on-ramp will be deemed to be "in the wrong place" and rightfully mown down.

It's attitudes, not infrastructure that needs to change.

Car drivers in general (and I include myself), drive too fast, rely too much on technology and do not pay proper attention when driving, and seem to have this misapprehension that they own the road. If we could beat that out of the system, there would be no need to spend money on cycling infrastructure.

There are indeed some locations where grade separation of traffic (mode, direction etc) can make for less delay and remove the hazard of conflicting movements (a major cause of death & serious injury).

BUT the cycle routes in the sky HAVE to be an integrated part of the whole transport network and the vision of long meandering and ISOLATED routes is not the answer.

There are a few key grade separations which can be built like rail and motorway junctions to provide routes for major flows of cycle, and pedestrian traffic, and in some places the structures, or supporting bases are already in position.

CS2 at Bow - rip out all the inherently dangerous work delivered between Bow High Street and Stratford Station built over the past 5 years. Deliver the official route to the same route taken by over 60% of cyclists currently travelling East-West. Convert 1 lane each way on flyover and make suitable connections at each end at road level

Exit from Waterloo Station (York Road) - a huge bundle of hazards as pedestrians and cyclists and buses & taxis poure out or in to the station with huge congestion at the light controlled crossing, interrupting the through flow along York Road. A high level route connecting directly from Hungerford Bridge, to Waterloo Gate 3 is possible, and a ramped connection to Upper Ground can provide substantial savings for walking (and cycling) times between Waterloo and the South Ban, West End and Whitehall. The cycling connection to Upper Ground would also provide a route for cyclists which avoids the delays and hazards of using the IMAX roundabout to head East for the City (25% of cycle traffic on Blackfriars Bridge is generated by cycle users following the route of the Waterloo & City Tube line - a major use of the Boris Bikes as well)

Old Street/City Road roundabout - a through cycling route, possibly rising at the Junction between Great Eastern Street and Old Street, and serving the second biggest flows of cycle traffic in London to come down to the West Side of the roundabout - or to consider dropping down - slopes of half the length required to go up, and running in a shallow trench which the road rises to go over. Going down means much less land is required for ramps (half the length) and visual impact/overlooking effects are reduced.

Southwark Bridge/Upper Thames Street - Consider making Southwark Bridge Cycles and pedestrian traffic only with emergency only access for motor vehicles. A flyover rising from the crown of the bridge crosses to land on Queen Street, which rises up as a walking and cycling corridor in to the heart of the City. Southwark Bridge is neatly between Blackfriars Bridge and London Bridge, and can be developed as a focus for some of the cycle traffic put off using those bridges with their high levels of motorised traffic. It will need an improved connection to the South Bank and through this provide a clean route from Waterloo to the City which avoids high hazard locations such as the IMAX roundabout, Blackfriars Bridge junctions, St Pauls gyratory melee etc.

I'd like to use something like that if it existed, as it would allow me to travel a lot more quickly and safely (whilst on the skycycle). Wouldn't pay for it though. And realistically, it will never come about, so it's a moot point.

Ridiculous vanity project just delaying and diverting attention from the woeful infrastructure we have in this country.
The only consolation is that this preposterous 'idea' will never happen.
Instead of spending energy on this the parties involved could be bringing out real change using well proven ideas that have been implemented in other cities.
But instead they just twiddle around with computer renderings and expensive proposal documents and do feck all.

The second decree: no more pollution, no more car exhaust,
or ocean dumpage. From now on, we will travel in tubes!
Get the scientists working on the tube technology, immediately.

So it has come to pass.

I think that over the past few years, we've clearly established that drugs and cycling do not mix.

Absolute nonsense from Johnson once again.

Just like his idea for an airport on Grain Island that would cost multiple billions BEFORE any transport infrastructure linking to it is built, this is a waste of everyone's time nonsense.

It doesn't resolve the fundamental issue: London is over congested and is asphyxiating. Creating elevated cycle ways will not solve the issue.

What will happen is that money will be wasted on this that then has to be recouped, which will end up with these cycle ways being entry fee based.

Of course, then cyclists will avoid them so it will only make sense to introduce bye laws to ban cyclists from the road where they are available fundamentally altering the rights of access to public highways.

One of the reasons to cycle (especially in London) is because it's free. By charging people £2 a commute this reduces the incentive massively. It also implies that those who have to use the road are 'fair game' for any collisions despite the reality that people travel as directly as they can - these new routes would by definition create huge diversions.

The idea of elevated infrastructure isn't completely ridiculous, but this sort of 'cycling Westway' is. Make our roads safe so people can cycle for short journeys (to school, the shops, etc) as a large proportion of car journeys are shorter than 2 miles anyway!

I wonder how much money has been spent on this already, and where it's coming from?

Whatever medicine Lord Foster and Boris are taking, they need to half the dosage.

Good peoples time and energy is being wasted and frittered away on this nonsense instead of planning how to use the space we have most efficently

Pie in the sky.

He says "cities where you can walk or cycle rather than drive are more congenial places in which to live" yet he doesn't want to improve London this way, just maintain the unpleasant and unsafe status quo.

My initial reaction was the same as the CTC spokesman - exposure to wind. That membrane thing in the picture seems reasonable, I'm not sure a million advertising boards would be that welcome...

Also, how to stop graffiti? How to stop it becoming a shared-use path (through design or mis-use)? Also, season tickets? If you commute every day by bike and pay £1 a time, you'll spend approximately £500 just for access to a safe route for part of your journey to work. A bit steep?

Complete and utter nonsense. Risk of crime during dark or light hours, sparse on/off ramps, massive cost per mile, everything about this is total BS. Is Foster being paid to distract from doing the only thing that will work?

£220 million for 4 miles? So, literally billions of pounds for the lot?

Will it extend to other parts of the country?

No. It won't ever get off the ground (sic). Brilliant idea. We cannot afford it.

Nice idea if it comes off.
I wonder if the funds would stretch to all parts of the country???