Roger Geffen is angry

Cycle Superhighway 7 – one of many planned for the capital as part of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s ‘cycle revolution’ – has come under fire from national cyclist organisation CTC.

The Superhighway in question is due to open on July 19th, but one section of the route currently leads cyclists into a bank of parking spaces. 

The section is close to the front door of CTC campaigns and policy manager Roger Geffen.

He said: "In Copenhagen, cyclists are made to feel gloriously welcome on the city's streets, with wide areas of blue paint to give you clear priority through even the busiest of junctions.

Geffen recently returned from Velo-City, staged at Copenhagen where 37 per cent of residents cycle to work. The city aims to increase that amount to 50 per cent by 2015 and recently closed Norrebrogade – a main road linking to the inner city Norrebro district – to private cars. Cycle use increased from 30,000 cyclists per day to 36,000 due to the measure.

Copenhagen didn’t get to where it is today by cyclists writing letters or sending out press releases:

During the activism of the 1970's and 1980's there were massive rides by citizens demanding safe infrastructure.

Any chance of the CTC and the LCC organising a mass demo to seize one of the six lanes of the Euston Road car superhighway for cycling? After all, cyclists who did this could claim to be acting lawfully to reduce air pollution on a road which exceeds EU safety limits. Increasingly, all kinds of campaigners successfully use the "lawful excuse" defence – committing an offence to prevent a more serious crime – as a tactic in their campaigns.

Everybody could bring along some blue chalk and colour in one lane of this filthy, toxic, car-choked six lane nightmare which doesn’t even have a poxy cycle lane.

(Sorry, silly idea. Far too radical for London’s supine cycling fraternity.)