London’s bike lane: has the mayor bought it back?

Plans to close Fixer Bike Lane have been ditched. The road now closed until further notice, due to dangerous conditions

It was hoped that #FixerBikeLane would become a hashtag among Londoners.

The Fixer Bike Lane was on the wrong side of Oxford Street. It was purpose-built to allow bicycles to navigate shoppers, pedestrians and fast buses.

However, in the past few weeks it has attracted negative attention after being closed several times. (Can you see a tweet about it? We’d love to know.) Traffic has been detoured, and pedestrians and cyclists have spent their time in between the road’s many street furniture obstructions weaving among cones and anything else that might impede them. Londoners have taken to social media to complain and post in between the traffic.

London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the bike lane would be safe again by Friday. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

But now it seems that the mayor, Sadiq Khan, has bought back the bike lane. Late on Thursday, the mayor tweeted: “The Fixer Bike Lane on Oxford Street is safely open, starting again for Londoners. It’s great to see the city working together. I thank teams at @BorisBoris2020, @BcycleLondon and @HealthyOutcomeCT for their hard work.”

According to @BorisBoris2020, the bike lane will remain in place until further notice and is currently closed from Frith Street to Drury Lane.

Bicycle news blog Backalot were first to spot the news that the Fixer Bike Lane was open again. Photograph: Backalot

And according to @BorisBoris2020, the Fixer Bike Lane will be kept open until further notice until TfL’s intention to demolish it is known. Bim Afolami MP has also called for it to be kept open until a new design is found, and that work must be done soon.

Here is Twitter reaction to the news.

Have you seen anything funny on Oxford Street? You can tweet us @GdnLondon

And here is the Fixer Bike Lane in its working form.

Just one happy cyclist. Photograph: @BorisBoris2020

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