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Cyclists are furious after council rubbish collectors drove a lorry along Boris Johnson’s flagship cycle superhighway to bypass traffic during rush hour.

Cycle Superhighway 5 was officially launched by the Mayor of London on Thursday and is the capital’s first fully segregated cycle track, linking Oval and Pimlico.

It was designed to improve the safety of cyclists – in particular keeping them away from lorries which have been involved in nearly every cycling death in London this year.

But bike commuters found the supposedly dedicated route completely blocked by Lambeth Council’s bin collectors during the morning rush hour.

A cyclist who gave his name only as Chad was riding in Harleyford Road, between Oval and Vauxhall, at about 8am last week when he filmed a bin lorry taking up both cycle lanes.

He told the Standard it was an “accident waiting to happen” as the “huge smelly HGV” forced people to ride on the pavement and put pedestrians at risk.

The 22-year-old said: “It was my understanding that the whole purpose of the lanes being segregated from traffic was to protect vulnerable road users such as cyclists from HGVs like this, especially as they are the leading cause of injury and death for cyclists in London.

“I doubt the bin men knew just how dangerous this is.”

The cyclist, who commutes from south-east to central London, said it was only the second or third time he had tried to use the new path.

Several cyclists were forced to come to a halt as there was no safe way around the truck, he said.

“I was pretty shocked if I'm being honest,” he added.

"I'm concerned that the driver feels it's okay to use a HGV to entirely block both lanes of a cycle path which is there for our safety, instead of blocking a single lane of a road.

"I feel it represents the general opinion that cyclist safety is second to vehicle convenience."

Lambeth Council said there have been a number of reports of "incursions" by bin lorries.

A spokesman said: "This is something we have discussed with TfL and our contractors in order to iron out any teething troubles."

Transport for London said vehicles are banned from the cycleway under a traffic regulation order.

TfL's head of project sponsorshop, Nigel Hard, said: "We have worked closely with Lambeth council to ensure refuse lorries can continue to make collections from properties along the Cycle Superhighway 5 route, however they should not be using segregated cycle routes.

"We have reminded Lambeth of this and they have assured us it would be addressed immediately."