Mayor Boris Johnson has confirmed that two of his planned cycle superhighways have been dropped.
Plans to “de-lycrafy” cycling and encourage more casual cyclists onto the roads included building 12 cycle routes, including one between Penge and the City via Camberwell and Elephant and Castle (CS6) and another linking East Archway to Angel (C12).
However, responding to a question from London Assembly member Darren Johnson, the Mayor said these schemes will no longer go ahead.
News of their axing comes a week after it emerged a planned segregated route linking east and west London could be disrupted for up to three years by the construction of the Thames super sewer.
In addition, work on drawing up plans for two other routes – CS11 and CS4 – has been delayed until 2015 while work on extending CS5 has been pushed back until 2017.
Papers presented to the Transport for London board says the three schemes are “scheduled to complete later than originally forecast due to a decision to defer delivery”.
Commenting on the Mayor’s answer and TfL report, Darren Johnson said: “The Mayor has dithered, delayed and dropped so many of his promises on cycling.
“I have a real worry that Boris Johnson will leave office having failed to build the safe cycle lanes that are so desperately needed.
“This year’s mild weather has encouraged many more Londoners to jump on their bikes, but the promised changes to make the road network safer are still not in place.”
On Tuesday the Mayor and TfL opened a public consultation on plans to upgrade Cycle Superhighway 2 from Whitechapel to Bow from “a painted line” on the road to “a world-class fully and semi-segregated cycle track.”
Mayor Johnson said he was committed to ending the car’s “dominance” of London’s streets “and allocating road space to reflect the actual usage of central London’s roads – which have seen a sharp fall in motor traffic, and a big rise in cycling.”