Cycling on Vauxhall Bridge: a return visit and some new statistics
One year since opening more cyclists seem to be using one of London’s “superhighway” routes, although not all its goals have yet been met
On Monday I stood on Vauxhall Bridge counting cyclists. Sad but true. I did the same thing almost exactly a year ago following a startling radio station row about how many people were using the newly-opened, two-way cycle superhighway, CS5, to cross the bridge and how many weren’t bothering. My return last week was in order to see what might have changed in the ensuing 12 months. Was CS5 being used more or less? Had the overall number of cyclists crossing the bridge increased or reduced? Were cyclists behaving differently?
The cycle superhighway (CS) in question is on the eastern side of the bridge. During the first bitterly cold half hour I spent on the bridge on a Tuesday morning last November, I counted 98 cyclists – a rate of 196 per hour – crossing the bridge on its western side. Almost all were heading north into central London, as you would expect during the morning peak travel period, and made their way through the motorised traffic into the bus lane. During that half hour, hardly any cyclists took advantage of the signalised crossing provided for them on the southern approach to the bridge to get over to CS5 and make use of that bespoke facility for crossing the bridge.
More people travelling by bike. Cycling across London will double in the next 10 years. We will “normalise” cycling, making it something anyone feels comfortable doing. Hundreds of thousands more people, of all ages, races and backgrounds, and in all parts of London, will discover that the bike has changed their lives.
Source: Guardian Transport
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