KEY POINTS:
Thousands of bicycles will be available for hire from street-corner stands under a £500 million ($1.2 billion) programme to "transform" London into a cycling-friendly city.
About 6000 bikes will be available to use for temporary periods in central London, with special stalls to be set up every 300m, as part of plans unveiled by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
His 10-year plan also includes a dozen commuter "corridors" and opening up 20m/h (32km/h) cycle zones in the outer London boroughs. He also pledged to create "streets of gold" in which pedestrians could walk unhindered by traffic.
Livingstone said he aimed to ensure that one journey in 10 was made by bicycle in London, which would save 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. But Boris Johnson, the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, criticised the scheme as being only a fraction of the size of the operation in Paris.
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