More than a million cyclists have used the Cycle Superhighway along Embankment and Cycle Superhighway over Blackfriars since the segregated routes opened on 19th February this year.
As of 7.30pm on Tuesday 12th June, 1,004,423 cyclists had passed through the counters placed on the two cycle lanes. The true number is likely to be even higher given that the counters don’t always register large groups of riders accurately.
The Twitter page of the CS3 Embankment route posted a picture of the two lane counters and the rapid growth of use since earlier in the year.
In total, the Embankment route has seen 646,624 cyclists passing through in the four months since the count began. In the past six weeks alone, the route has been used by over 340,000 cycle commuters, while the Blackfriars route has seen in excess of 150,000 riders pass through.
The two segregated cycle lanes are among the most used in London with on average 10,000 to 12,000 cyclists using the Embankment stretch during the working week, around the same as the number of motorised vehicles on the main road alongside.
During morning and evening rush hour, however, the number of cyclists is far greater.
Add that to the number of cyclists using the other five London cycle superhighways, not to mention the many other riders using roads without segregated lanes, and it paints a picture of healthy growth for cycling in the city.
London’s commissioner of cycling and walking, Will Norman, told Cyclist of his pride at the success of the network of highways and his wish to see it expand to cover other areas of London.
‘We are delighted to see that since February, over a million cyclists have travelled through the counters on the Cycle Superhighways on Blackfriars Bridge and Victoria Embankment,’ Norman said.
‘It’s brilliant to see so many people taking advantage of the segregated cycling routes to get around our city, and I’m sure that their popularity will continue to increase as we expand them further across the capital in future years.’
That expansion, however, has been far from forthcoming with many safety campaigners and would-be cycle commuters aghast at the empty words coming out of City Hall when it comes to making London a place for people rather than the motor vehicle minority.