Londoners of all ages are being challenged by the Mayor to get pedalling through a series of London 'cycle challenges', where workplaces and schools can compete based on the number of miles clocked up and the number of people they get cycling.

New figures released today show a bicycle boom is underway with an estimated 545,000 daily bicycle journeys now made in London, up nine per cent in the year since the Mayor was elected. Speaking at the launch, the Mayor said he was determined to reach beyond dedicated commuter cyclists and encourage more Londoners to join in.

A record £111m investment in cycling is being made this year, which includes funding for new Cycle Hire and Cycle Highways schemes and safety training across London.

The Mayor also unveiled a major new marketing campaign 'Catch up with the bicycle', which shows the freedom of cycling and how, as in other European countries, cycling can be a stylish and desirable way to travel. 

The Mayor said:

Cycling is on the up in London, but there is still much to do if we want to really revolutionise the way that Londoners get about.

'That's why we are making record investments in cycling, developing the cycle highways and cycle hire schemes, and are unveiling a summer schedule stuffed full of biking events, competitions, and campaigns designed to boost cycling across London's boroughs.

'Through this, Londoners of all ages and abilities can take part and experience the joys of travelling in one of the most handy, healthy, and environmentally friendly ways possible, and we can achieve our aim of making London a city where two wheeled, pedal-powered transportation is the norm, and not the exception.

With London's cycle revolution gaining pace and thousands of potential cyclists set to join you on the streets of the capital; I am writing to draw your attention to plans that the Mayor, in his capacity as Chairman of Transport for London, has drawn up to ensure the continued safety of you and your fellow cyclists.

Download the draft Cycle Safety Action Plan (927KB)

I hope you will be able to spare some time to read through what TFL believe is a further important step in their plan to make taking to two wheels in the capital as safe as possible.

The new plan highlights the need for action in London by:

• Promoting the cycling safety message to all road users.
• Delivering new, safe cycle routes and facilities - such as the new Cycle Superhighways routes and the central London Cycle Hire scheme with its 6,000 bikes.
• Providing confidence boosting training for cyclists, and other road users - £3 million has been invested in cycle training this year.
• Encouraging HGV operators in London to take cycling safety seriously - including engaging with 7,000 London companies and encouraging them to join TfL's Freight Operators Recognition Scheme.
• Working with over 300 freight companies which operate construction vehicles - they will be encouraged to install side-bars or other safety devices on HGVs which are currently exempt.
• Calling for improved HGV safety - by reviewing the current exemption for some construction vehicles to have side-bars and requiring cycle safety awareness as a mandatory part of HGV drivers 'Certificate of Professional Competence' (CPC) periodic training requirement.
• Championing the need to allow trials of innovative safety measures - such as Trixi mirrors in London to examine their potential benefits for cycling safety.
• Creating a Cycle Safety Working Group of key road user and cycling organisations.
• Arranging 'Exchanging Places' HGV/Cycle events similar to those we organised to mark the launch of this plan - with more to follow in November and coming months - giving London's cyclists the opportunity to learn about riding safely near HGVs.
• Using the latest research into collisions involving cyclists - to ensure the efforts of TfL and other partners are focused where they will make greatest difference.

1 Camden to the British Library and beyond
This is from my friend Eliane Glaser: "Starting in Royal College Road or College Place, you can cycle through Somerstown, which is almost entirely barred to cars, or if they are allowed, for some reason they avoid it. You may need a map the first time since the sign-posting is hit and miss, but you pop out just by the British Library, which is your gateway to central London. There's a special traffic light for you, which is a symbol of a bike. (There's one of these at the end of Wellington Street on the way to Waterloo bridge too. They are funky.)

2 Camden to the west
Take Gloucester Crescent and you will hit the Outer Circle of Regent's Park, which is the only bit you can cycle without getting harassed by a parkie. This is like a hub of the western entry point to central London.

3 The Greenway
Jack Thurston, who does a bike show on Resonance FM, recommends the Greenway, which runs along the northern outfall sewer pipe, from Victoria Park out to Beckton Alp and Barking Creek. The whole sewage network is a cyclist's playground: "There's a map of all the sewage outflow pipes. When they had the great stinks in London, they built these sewage pipes. Because shit has to flow downhill, they make terrific cycle routes. Some of them already have thoroughfares along them, like the one from Notting Hill to Marble Arch."

4 Oxford Street
Matt Seaton, the writer of G2's weekly cycling column, says: "Take any route at all to avoid this. You either get stuck in a canyon of double-decker buses or you run over a tourist." If you're going north to south, he says, stick to Wigmore Street for as long as you can, dropping down Orchard Street at Portman Square, feeding you into North Audley Street, which will in turn lead you round Grosvenor Square and pop you out in Park Lane by the cute Animals at War memorial ("They had no choice") and into Hyde Park.

5 Hyde Park
The park's broadwalk is a good way to avoid the fiendishly fast Park Lane, though Seaton says that at weekends the soap boxers get in the way. I suggested he set up a soap box to warn of the dangers of getting in the way of a cyclist on a cycle path.

6 South to east
On any journey to Tower bridge or farther east, from the south-west or south, you are actually better off dropping south and crossing Old Kent Road closer to Peckham, rather than tootling around all the monster roundabouts of Elephant and the Bricklayers. Even if you're coming from Clapham or Stockwell, get to the Walworth Road however you like, take Albany Road and duck straight over the A2, behind Tesco's, take a right up to Bermondsey, past that underwear bar with the blacked-out windows (the Fort), right again into Tower Bridge Road and there you are. Incredibly direct and quiet.

7 Woolwich ferry
Thurston reminds us: Woolwich ferry is free. And Greenwich foot tunnel is nice.

8 Southwark bridge
Easily the quietest and safest, given the choice between that, Waterloo and Blackfriars

9 The South Bank
Black Prince Road pops you out on the South Bank if you want to get away from the high-speed Kennington arterial roads. Watch out for dozy tourists.

10 Dulwich
If you want to do interval training, Dulwich Village into College Road into Fountain Road (this is really all one long road) is traffic-free in parts, goes through some pretty bits of park and, crucially, only has one traffic light after Dulwich Village, so you can have 10 minutes' unbroken uphill cycling.

... and five places where you'll need a strong lock:

1. Outside the White Cube, Hoxton Square

2. Liverpool Road, Islington, outside Sainsbury's

3. Kellett Road in Brixton

4. Brewer Street in Soho

5. Paddington station (in the bike-parking area)