http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/sep/21/london-cycle-map
First noticed on http://paper.li/cicom
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"campaign for a simple London cycle map"
(16 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Fantastic idea. I shall be in the big smoke in a few weeks' time, so I'll be giving this map a go.
London, though, has the problem of simply being very, very big. The Underground has nothing like as many routes as the road network, which is why it translates so well to the Map. You can't really do that with the roads unless you weed out everything you don't need and boil down the good stuff. The trick is to then make following those routes straightforward, which in my limited experience of cycling in London, depends to a good extent on having acquired some of the knowledge.
Having followed a hundred or so miles of the Waterfront Trail in Ontario, the same problem occurred from time to time as we have when following NCN routes: not quite enough signs in critical places. If an Underground station is physically colour-coded for each line, perhaps kerbstones could be coloured similarly. Goodness knows our roads are drab enough that they could do with some brighter colours.
Edit: Just realised that it bears more than a passing resemblance to Lothian Buses' excellent route map.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Well, I'm into day 3 of cycling in London, and so far I've become lost about 50% of the time. I've not had a chance to try much of the newfangled map, and in fact my GPS hasn't been a brilliant help either! Best results are from studying a paper map and memorising the route.
I haven't seen any of the blue superhighway things!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Back home now. Four days of traffic jamming in London was fun!
London drivers -- cars, taxis, HGVs, and buses alike -- almost without exception showed a far higher standard of driving than Edinburgh's. They tended to pass closer, but the sheer number of motor vehicles and cyclists means that everyone is hyper aware. Cyclists are almost expected to traffic jam and filter through the lanes to get to the traffic lights and a speedy getaway on green (or indeed, amber). I found it quite easy to switch from relaxed-assertive to hyper-assertive, and it's actually quite doable as long as you know where you're going. You do have to watch for the scooters and motorbikes, especially the couriers with their big plastic cargo boxes, because they go for it like cyclists but have speed we can only dream of.
In 65 miles of riding around the place, mostly involving hi-nrg commuting, there was not one piece of tarmac as stone-chippingly bumpy and badly maintained as our own Morningside Road. Subsidence of the roadway, too, is rarely a problem in London. Edinburgh's profusion of formerly cobbled roads, later dug up replaced with tarmac but not with the requisite impermeable substrate, are absolutely shocking in comparison. But neither does the weight of buses and HGVs in London seem to pose a problem, and when bits of road are repaired, they appear to do it properly, as my Brompton's little wheels clearly demonstrated.
And here and there, my commuting took in the quiet backstreets. Now I understand what a properly cobbled road should feel like -- and even our own High Street/North Bridge/South Bridge junction is not as smooth as it could be.
I singularly failed to test one of Boris' blue superhighways, having mostly plied my activity along Piccadilly, Strand, Pall Mall, Brompton Road, and other places I can't remember. But there were some intelligently placed cycle crossings that came as such a surprise I wasn't sure how I was meant to use them.
Boris Bikes are a brilliant idea, nicely executed, and were very well used. It wasn't uncommon to see a rack of 20 bike stands with all the bikes in use.
I never did get a chance to use the new map. I simply didn't know the roads well enough to know where a red route, a green route, a blue route, was taking me or exactly where to point myself at each junction. The sheer number of one-way streets, the big scary underpasses (except Hyde Park Corner, which I took at 26mph), the multi-lane roads, all made my GPS a bit unfriendly, but nonetheless a good tool for checking upcoming street names -- London doesn't have as good or as clear a signage system as Edinburgh. Some London streets' name signs were located on the 1st or 2nd floor, or several car lengths away from the junction, or just absent altogether. So for me, a good paper map, some detailed studying routes, and a mental list of turns seemed the best approach.
It's fun, alright, but it's hard work too!
Posted 13 years ago # -
"there was not one piece of tarmac as stone-chippingly bumpy and badly maintained as our own Morningside Road"
AGREED!!!
"Now I understand what a properly cobbled road should feel like"
Where were you?
The cobbles I've ridden in London (around Hackney) were at the poor end of Edinburgh's variable ones.
I was around Albert Street yesterday noticing that some of the cobbles had been badly covered with tarmac - hardly an improvement.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Where were you? The cobbles I've ridden in London (around Hackney) were at the poor end of Edinburgh's variable ones.
It was along Monmouth St and Upper St Martin's Lane, between St Giles and Strand/Covent Garden. You can see the lovely tight laying of the cobbles on Streetview. I had my GPS recording my track at the time, because I knew I would never remember street names after the event, but it still took me a while to find the right street.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Thought I'd dig up this thread, since I was in that London again this week.
I don't know what was happening the first day I was there, except that they shut the Tube somewhere Hyde Park Corner because of a fire or something, but the car drivers were impatient beyond belief. I was nearly taken out on a mini roundabout, and then ten minutes later I was shunted out into one of the many four lane roads, then undertaken, then beeped at. Then I discovered that in Hyde Park, like the Meadows, there are 'NO CYCLING' words painted on half of the paths. I didn't know whether to observe or ignore, but since it looked like other people were observing them, I did too, so the bike policeman didn't give me a second glance. But overall, I really didn't enjoy cycling that day.
I took the Tube the next day, but by the end of the day I'd decided I preferred mixing it in vehicular traffic rather than pedestrian traffic. Mind you, the Picadilly line wasn't too bad compared with Northern and District.
And the day after that I took to the Thames path which was lovely. Bumpy, but lovely, with wetlands and green wild parakeets and herons and squirrels, robust-looking rowers on the water, and people and dogs to say hello to. I ended up with a mad hour-long dash for my train though, which was a bit touch and go because I didn't filter aggressively enough through the cars and buses. I saw chdot's double on a black AM and he was fairly shifting through the melee of Sloane Square.
What struck me as I eventually emerged outside Waverley in the evening was how fresh our air seemed! I thought Edinburgh was supposed to be a bit poor on the air quality front. I could live without quite so many hills, though.
Mapwise, I liked trying out the proposal from London-Tubemap but on two wheels, I still reverted to my GPS and my increasingly well thumbed and windblown paper map. I still didn't come across any Cycling Superhighways, but this was possibly because I avoided almost every major intersection this time.
The overriding impression I was left with, apart from air quality, is that it's not really the speed of traffic that's the problem so much as the amount of traffic. Traffic jamming is hard work and needs guts, but there is very little alternative because the alternative, at least in London, is that you will progress as slow as a car does. If there's no space to filter, you either jump onto the pavement or you sit and wait. But as soon as you segregate cyclists, like along Torrington Place you lose the ability to proceed at great speed because of the narrowness of the lanes, but endless cross streets notwithstanding you have far less stop-start riding so you progress efficiently, and the mental load is immediately removed. Ducking out from somewhere busy like Kings Road or Charing Cross Road to a segregated lane was quite nice, actually, although you don't see too many cycle couriers or the occasional bakfiets using them.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Thought I would dig up this thread, since it seems to be the season for thread necromancy.
I'm cycling in London again, and what's struck me, beyond the sheer busyness of the place is the sheer noise of the place. It's actually really unpleasant. Any wildlife in the vicinity of Covent Garden is probably deaf.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“the sheer noise of the place”
Yeah I noticed that last week, but then Edinburgh probably does these days too...
Posted 5 years ago # -
This morning with the rain I really noticed the foul quality of the air. Not as bad on bright clear days obviously but with the rain and misty quality of today it was really rank.
I got an AirBNB in Bermondsey without realising that there are no boris bikes. So walked to the nearest (10 minutes) and cycled to work via Tower bridge. London advice . - never cycle over tower bridge at rush hour. Absolutely awful. 0 Infrastructure plus some flooding this morning to make it extra awful.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“the sheer noise of the place”
I've been increasingly of the view that one of the principle positives (and one that will be immediately apparent to people) of pedestrianisation/major traffic reduction in the city centre is the reduction in road noise.
The combined noise of all those engines must have a major effect on people's well-being and stress levels. Being anywhere near a diesel bus or HGV as it pulls away from a junction is very oppressive - I wouldn't be surprised if it caused some sort of fight or flight response in all of us.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I too have wondered if places with high bicycle usage are demonstrably quieter than those with high motor vehicle usage. I have never been to the Netherlands.
Perhaps that is (the?) one advantage of electric cars, although I have also noticed that tyre noise is a huge issue that often drowns out engine noise. Those steamroller wheels on big BMWs and Volvos, and that gullwinged* tank of a Tesla, are very loud indeed.
I'm sitting in my little hotel room and I'm at not-quite ground level, listening to the innumerable 125cc scooters buzzing along the road, the hissing rumble of big tipper trucks, and the hollow rattle of so many taxis. If I had my motorbike earplugs with me I would probably be wearing them. The scooters are actually the loudest vehicles on the road, I think.
* or is it scissor-doored?
But I've done the usual high energy traffic jamming, which is fun I suppose, I've had a chat with the mechanics at Brompton Junction, and I've had an altercation with a gentleman who beeped his horn of his van and then gave me the finger. I'm ready to come home now.
Posted 5 years ago # -
If you can, get to Bank junction where they've banned everything except bikes, buses and pedestrians. It's striking how quiet it becomes during the pedestrian phase. It's also quite impressive generally for the sheer number of bikes going through it
Posted 5 years ago # -
The absence of traffic noise is massively noticeable on major roads on Pope days and snow days, or even in the early morning and evening at home when I can hear trains passing a mile away.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I am convinced that, roughly speaking, Princes Street runs east-west, Leith Walk is basically the same orientation, and Easter Road is parallel to Leith Walk. It's always a bit of a shock when I realise this is completely wrong.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@sally, on your suggestion I did contrive my ride back to Kings Cross to take in the junction. A huge expanse of tarmac but no cars! It was amazing.
Less cycling on this occasion and more underground/overground/
Bromptoning freeto get out of town and back in. Saw a lady riding an Urban Arrow, used Tavistock Place again, nipped out to the Brompton factory, saw a lion with a very straight tail, found a London bus graveyard* and did some CCE-relevant stuff that I shall share later.I'm still amazed at the impatience of the drivers though. Woe betide the person who doesn't set off precisely as the green light comes on, lest you be thought of by all and sundry as intentionally holding up the traffic.
* not an actual graveyard it turned out
Posted 5 years ago #
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