London is bursting at the seams. Traffic in particular regularly reaches its limits. Gensler’s London Underline aims to create a fast route through the city for cyclists – in unused subway tunnels.
London needs an answer: the metropolis is growing, almost unchecked. When Londoners travel to work in the morning by tube, bus or car, the transport network already regularly grinds to a halt. You can just about imagine what it will be like in a few years’ time. Various concepts are therefore designed to make walking and cycling more attractive to the population. One of these is the London Underline by Gensler.
In large metropolitan areas, there is often a lack of space above ground, while subway there are often unused subway shafts and maintenance routes. This is the basic idea behind the London Underline. Why not use these paths and offer cyclists an undisturbed route beneath the city? Whether the project will ever become a reality is questionable, as many points have not been clarified: What will the connection to the above-ground traffic area look like? And how exactly would a potentially scary space like the long tunnels be transformed into pleasant lanes? The London Underline – rather a rebellious thought-provoking idea.
Read more about London’s transportation planning for the future in Garten + Landschaft 07/2016 – The return of the human.
