Closing the Gap as Cycleway 4 connects Greenwich to London Bridge

There’s no need to mind the gap anymore, as it has become easier to cycle from Greenwich to London Bridge after a break in the cycle lane at a busy road junction was closed.

Cycleway 4 runs between London Bridge and Greenwich, but a gap existed around the busy Surrey Quays gyratory, that was always on the plan to fix, but was delayed by the pandemic. It’s only a small section, but it passes through a complicated and busy set of road junctions which are quite offputting if trying to cycle around them.

However, it’s now finally closed, and also marks the completion of a quadrupling of London’s Cycleway network over the eight years, to more than 360km. It’s now estimated that nearly a quarter of Londoners live within 400m of a cycleway route, and the number of cycle journeys increased by 20% since 2019 to 1.26 million per day in 2023.

As London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, explained this morning, the growth in cycling means that the number of cyclists on the roads is equivalent to a quarter of all bus passengers or a third of all tube passengers.

London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman

Opening the completed Cycleway 4, he said that “cycling is no longer a minority transport mode, its gone mainstream and as the [Cycleway] network continues to grow more people will choose to use it because it is safer”

He added that increased cycling means less congestion as people swap cars for cycles and fewer cars means less pollution. Although not stated this morning, reducing the number of cars on the roads creates space for more segregated cycle lanes, which in turn encourages even more cycling, which reduces the number of cars on the road.

While celebrating the expansion of Cycleways to reach 360km in length, the Commissioner said there’s still much more to do, including expanding the network in outer London and reducing road accidents to make cycling safer. He also highlighted the efforts to improve the diversity of cyclists, which, for manifold reasons, still seems to be skewed to a subsection of Londoners.

The new section of Cycleway 4 on Lower Road includes 1.3km of protected two-way cycle lanes, which connects the previously completed sections on Jamaica Road and Evelyn Street. As well as the new Cycleway, a new signalised pedestrian crossing has been installed outside the entrance to Southwark Park. Cycleway 4 now connects central London and Greenwich, with further connections to Cycleways 10 and 14, and has eight new and 28 upgraded pedestrian crossings along the route in total, along with six Santander Cycles docking stations.

Now that the Cycleway 4 is complete between London Bridge and Greenwich, work is underway to complete the cycle lanes to Woolwich, and a consultation is open to extend it on to Plumstead.

TfL’s cycle hire scheme also reintroduced their daily hire fee this week, ahead of adding more e-bikes this summer.

During the next financial year, TfL will continue to work with London’s boroughs to deliver more cycling schemes with £19.5m of investment already announced. This funding will complete Cycleways between Lea Bridge and Dalston, between Deptford and Deptford Creek and Hammersmith and Kensington Olympia. This funding will also progress design and delivery of Cycleways across Bexley, Harrow, Hounslow, Newham and Redbridge.

To encourage more people to switch to cycling, TfL will be focusing on improving wayfinding, including installing on-street signs, producing new TfL cycle maps, and collaborating with third-party navigation app providers.