London's Bike Tube lives again as Mayor Boris announces Cycle Fridays

London Mayor Boris Johnson will today announce weekly Cycle Fridays in the city with the hope that the rides encourage novice cyclists to commute to work. The idea builds on the successful Bike Tubes organised by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) during the recent tube strike in the capital.

The new Cycle Friday initiative will be run by the LCC in partnership with Transport for London, the rides will officially begin on Friday, August 14 for eight weeks. road.cc understands that there was a suggestion to run the rides on Tuesdays rather than Fridays - Tuesdays being statistically the safest day of the week for accidents on the road in which case the rides would have been Tubesday Rides, but TfL wanted Friday and they are putting up the cash so the less snappily titled Cycle Friday it is.

The LCC will provide qualified and experienced marshals to guide each ride, and each ride will consist of up to 40 people. The LCC will also be giving out goody packs on the day with lots of free stuff for those who take part too.

There will be eight rides per week and each will leave its starting point at 8am every Friday. The first week will see six routes running from the suburbs into Central London. These will be from Brixton to Russell Square, Finsbury Park to St Pauls, Mile End to St Pauls, Ravenscourt to Trafalgar Square, Swiss Cottage to Holburn and Greenwich to St Pauls.

The rides are designed to help guide hundreds of new cyclists from the suburbs into central London using safe routes.

Transport for London will be publicising the led rides through their website from today and you can find out more from http://tflgov.uk/cycling