Cyclists on busy cycle routes are to be given longer green phases at traffic lights, using new technology designed to link signal time to the number of waiting bikes.

The technology, which relies on thermal imaging cameras, is a new element in a system called Scoot, which is used to speed up and smooth the flow of vehicles through London. A trial began yesterday on one of the capital’s cycle superhighways near the East London crossroads where Mary Bowers, a Times reporter, was seriously injured as she cycled to work in 2011.

A thermal camera, mounted on top of the traffic lights, detects the number of cyclists approaching the junction, logging only those shapes moving along the cycle route towards the traffic lights, to eliminate pedestrians and riders travelling in the opposite direction. If the system proves reliable at recognising cyclists during the trial, it will be used to extend the green light phase if there are a large enough number of cyclists waiting at the crossroads, extending the red light phase for traffic in other directions.

Details on the number of bikes needed to change the timings or the amount of time they will be given will be decided later in the trial.

It means that the red light phase for other traffic will be shorter when there are fewer cyclists waiting, as the signals respond to demand. The trial also includes the installation of a radar detector in the cycle superhighway, which is being tested as an alternative. It is planned that the system will be fully operational by next year.

Transport for London has also been given permission by the government to use miniature eye-level traffic lights at junctions to aid cyclists. The capital currently has the highest level of commuter cycling since records began, it was announced this week, with 610,000 journeys a day and a record low number of casualties last year.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, said: “With record numbers taking to two wheels, we are doing everything we can to make our roads more inviting places to be.”

British Cycling, the sport’s organising body, said yesterday that 254,000 more women had taken up regular cycling since 2013 — a 50 per cent increase — through a project to get one million more women on bikes by 2020.

Dame Sarah Storey, the paralympic champion, criticised David Cameron, who pledged a “cycling revolution” in 2013, after news that £23 million is to be cut from the £114 million pledged to cycle safety in eight British cities last year.

“[He should be] using cycling as a way of saving money in other areas of his budget,” she said, adding that there is “a huge amount of waste” in the NHS budget due to people who are unfit and that there is “so much congestion” through cars on the road, which also costs the economy money.

“So don’t take money away from the place that can help solve some of these other ills,” she added. “I would personally like to see him change his mind.”