Cyclists will no longer have to negotiate a notorious gyratory system at which a rider was killed.
The Vauxhall gyratory in London has been described by cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan as the “nastiest” in the capital.
Under plans published today for central London’s first segregated cycle “superhighway”, a continuous two-way and separated east-west track will be built from Kennington Oval to Pimlico, through the gyratory and across Vauxhall Bridge.
The scheme creates space for new protected north-south routes through the gyratory, the first of which will be installed later in 2015. There will also be more space for pedestrians. Mayor Boris Johnson said: “In my cycling vision, I promised that the worst and most dangerous junctions would be made safe for cyclists. Vauxhall is the first.”
Public consultation opens today on the plans and it will be open for comments until September 14. Subject to responses, work to deliver the scheme could begin next winter.
Last month, Tafsir Butt, 52, a City security guard from Battersea, was killed in an accident with a tipper truck at the gyratory. It was the sixth cyclist death in London this year.
His family said they had pleaded with him not to use the notorious stretch just weeks before his death.
Cycling safety in the capital came to the fore last year after six deaths in a fortnight in the autumn.
London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson said the move was a “major step forward compared to the dangerous plans the Mayor put forward three years ago”.
