Cycle Lifestyle

#72. AS BIG A PRIORITY AS LOCAL PERMEABILITY. ‘Permeability’ in cycling is a technical term meaning the number of connections that can be made on a bicycle between streets, parks, canals and other cycleways. Think of it as being like holes in a sieve. If there are only a few holes then it takes longer for the water to get through. Likewise, the fewer connections there are, the longer it takes for cyclists to get through the capital.

Things which reduce permeability for cyclists are traffic systems like dual carriageways and gyratories (where the volume and distribution of motor vehicles makes it much more risky to be on two wheels) or physical blockages like railways lines.

Permeability is undoubtedly important at a local level, but London needs a global (so-called ‘strategic’) network as well. This is because it’s much harder to cycle from one borough to another than it is to cycle within your own borough, and this is what is preventing London from being a cycling city, as opposed to a series of cycling localities.

Smaller towns don’t face this problem, so increasing their permeability correlates strongly with increasing cycling. But things are different in a metropolis like London, where people’s social, leisure and work activities are typically spread across a relatively large area. Until people can routinely and spontaneously cycle from one part of the capital to another, its predominant modes of transportation will reflect the ease with which this can be done by other means.

Of course, more and more people are discovering that cycling is worth the extra investment in preparation and navigation. But the fact is, if you want to encourage people to make positive lifestyle and environmental changes then you have to make it easy for them. A London Cycle Map would make it so much easier to cycle throughout the capital.

www.petition.co.uk/london-cycle-map-campaign

#73. GREY ROUTES. In an ideal world, all of London’s major landmarks would be directly adjacent to a Tube Station, so that people could access the capital’s treasures as conveniently as possible. (We certainly wouldn’t want to pave paradise and put up a parking lot, anyway).

In the real world, London’s major landmarks are usually waymarked from the exits of the nearest Tube station. That way, you just have to hop off the train and follow signs to get to a particular landmark.

In an even more ideal world, all of London’s major landmarks would also be adjacent to a fully networked cycle route, so that people could access each landmark conveniently by bicycle. In the real world, we have to make do with networked cycle routes which pass as close to London’s landmarks as possible.

Parker’s London Cycle Map incorporates most of the routes of the London Cycle Network. These routes don’t glide directly past every landmark in the capital, but they certainly do a very good job of connecting all of the capital’s regions. One possible solution to making sure that people have no trouble finding major landmarks while riding on the London Cycle Network would be to sign its routes with subsidiary ‘grey’ routes leading directly to major landmarks and terminating there. These grey routes could, of course, be marked on the London Cycle Map itself.

So, when cycling on R1 you might expect to find a grey route which leads to Oxford Street. From N3 you might find a grey route leading to the Serpentine Gallery. From C8, you might follow one to the Monument. No problem! Critics needn’t insist that the London Cycle Network should swoop past every landmark in the capital. Grey routes which deadend at those landmarks would be more than sufficient for providing easy cycle access.

www.petition.co.uk/london-cycle-map-campaign

#75: COSTS COVERED ENTIRELY BY SPONSORSHIP. The cost of waymarking the capital’s streets with the signs and road markings corresponding to Simon Parker’s London Cycle Map design has been estimated at just £50,000 per borough (by Brian Deegan, the development manager of the London Cycle Network). That’s just £1.6 million for the whole capital.

This is a tiny fraction of the price that Barclays Bank are alleged to have paid to sponsor the excellent Cycle Hire Scheme. So even if Brian Deegan’s estimate is way too low, clearly there is every chance that the total expenditure for implementing a London Cycle Map could be covered entirely by sponsorship. As far as the taxpayer is concerned, a city-wide network of easy-follow, direct and safe cycle routes would cost a grand total of... nothing!!!

What’s not to like? (Seriously – I’d be interested to know).

www.petition.co.uk/london-cycle-map-campaign

#77: IT'S A LEAN SOLUTION. Lean is a process management philosophy that helps organisations to flourish by avoiding wastage. Cycling in London clearly involves a lot of wastage when it comes to route planning. To navigate on the London Cycle Network you’ve got to remember hundreds of turn-rights and turn-lefts, or print them out in a long list, or consult an A to Z or a smart phone periodically. All these methods are inefficient to some degree.

The London Cycle Map would change this. A key Lean principle is expressed in the old wives maxim ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. By creating colour-coded signs and markings on the capital’s cycles routes now, at a small short-term cost, there would be an enormous long-term benefit in route planning efficiency. Cyclists could get from anywhere to anywhere in London by following no more than a few clearly marked routes.

Another important feature of Lean is its commitment to solving ‘bottleneck’ problems – small problems whose solutions make a dramatic impact. Despite thirty years of investment, the London Cycle Network is still being held back by its own bottleneck problem: poor mapping and wayfinding. Solving this problem through a London Cycle Map and corresponding signage would have a huge impact, enabling millions more cyclists to access the safer streets of the London Cycle Network.

Let’s Lean cycling in London!

www.petition.co.uk/london-cycle-map-campaign