• Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #51: An easy way home, wherever you are.

    Submitted by benirvine on 6 June, 2012 - 16:06

    #51. AN EASY WAY HOME, WHEREVER YOU ARE. If you were lost in London on foot, your best bet would be to catch a Tube train home. To find the nearest station you’d have to consult a smart phone, an A to Z, or a passerby. Then it would be a case of sitting back, relaxing and letting the Tube network do the rest (assuming it wasn't too late to catch a train, you could find a seat, no-one was listening to annoying music next to you, and you didn’t get stuck for three hours in a tunnel).

    A London Cycle Map would help lost cyclists in a similar way. Whether you’d grabbed a Boris bike, or were out and about on your own two wheels, you’d just have to find the nearest route on the London Cycle Network. Then you’d be able to follow signs and road markings corresponding to the appropriate routes on Simon Parker’s London Cycle Map, leading you home.

    As well as offering a seat all the way home, a distinctive lack of ear-phone pollution, and no tunnels or timetables, the London Cycle Network would offer a huge advantage to lost cyclists: you could find its routes even without the help of a phone, a map, or a friendly stranger. Whereas you might walk around for hours in an unfamiliar part of the capital looking for a Tube Station, there’d be a quick and simple method for finding the London Cycle Network: just ride in one direction for a while and you’d inevitably bump into one of the routes (within about half a mile or less).

    How reassuring is that? The London Cycle Network would be like a umbilical chord stretched all over the capital, thereby connecting you to where you live, wherever you were. And all you’d have to do is ride in a straight line to find it.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #52: Making London more creative.

    Submitted by benirvine on 5 June, 2012 - 15:22

    #52: MAKING LONDON MORE CREATIVE. Simon’s Parker’s London Cycle Map is a marvellously creative solution to the problem of mapping and signing the London Cycle Network. His brilliant use of long, straight, parallel, coloured lines to simplify a complex tangle of routes; the clever way in which his route codes are arrayed around the map’s perimeter; his revolutionary-yet-simple proposal to create a Tube-style cycle network – imagination is a wonderful thing!

    It is fitting that Parker’s idea came from a place of great creativity, because a London Cycle Map would make the capital a miles more creative place. Anyone who cycles regularly will tell you about the astonishing surge in creativity that pedaling brings. It’s like tuning your mind from static to crystal clear. Instead of having vague and fleeting impressions, against a background of anxiety-inducing fuzz that stops you from latching onto anything meaningful, new ideas come easily and lucidly on a bike.

    In contrast, Tubes, buses and traffic jams are places of stress, lethargy and mental fog. By inspiring millions more Londoners onto two wheels, Parker’s London Cycle Map would soon transform the capital in wonderful ways we can only imagine.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #53. Real connections.

    Submitted by benirvine on 4 June, 2012 - 20:53

    #53: REAL CONNECTIONS. Last night, for the first time in ages, I went to a nightclub. I was amazed that the DJ only played snippets of songs – about 800 miscellaneous verses and choruses all mashed together throughout the night. I thought I was going mad! I found it even weirder that no-one else seemed to object; they were all too busy on the dance floor taking photos and making videos on their mobiles.

    In this brave new online world, everyone’s so obsessed with making "connections" that apparently nobody’s got enough of an attention span to listen to a whole song, let alone to notice that there’s such a thing as life beyond the internet.

    One of the things I love most about the London Cycle Map is that it would help create a real network of real connections in London – joining every area of the capital to every other, with just a few simple, direct, coloured cycle routes. These routes would be full of real people doing a real activity, seeing real sights, having real experiences, and taking it all in at their own pace, in real time.

    Most of all, by bringing real happiness, as well as tangible health and fitness benefits, the London Cycle Map would make a real difference to people’s lives.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #54. Great for kids.

    Submitted by benirvine on 3 June, 2012 - 11:46

    #54: GREAT FOR KIDS. London’s most vocal cycle campaigners – the ones who wear lycra, hate all car drivers, run red lights and swear at pedestrians – are so angry and selfish that they are only interested in cycle development on the busy main roads they prefer to cycle on.

    But surely even the most hardened cyclists can acknowledge that London’s children would benefit from a properly signed and mapped network of safer, quieter backstreets.

    With a London Cycle Map, children would be able to follow coloured-coded cycle routes while surrounded by lots of other cyclists, in a cycling bubble.

    When I was about eleven my mum used to let me and my friends catch the bus to Walthamstow. It was a three-mile journey but she knew we’d be safe because buses don’t get lost or run over. She would never have let us ride there.

    But what if we had been able to jump on our bikes and follow a trail of breadcrumbs – regularly-spaced road markings – which would lead us safely through the backstreets, before we parked up and walked the rest of the way to MacDonald’s? My mum would have said: “never mind those three flagship Go Dutch schemes in West London: if you stick to the London Cycle Network, you can go wherever you like”. Parents worry about the whereabouts and safety of their kids – problem solved.

    And kids benefit most when they are given the opportunity to explore within well-defined boundaries. This is exactly what the London Cycle Map would bring. Even if we created a London Cycle Map only for children it would be a wonderful thing. In fact, the more I think about it, the network should be organised specifically with children in mind, because if we could make cycling in London accessible to kids, it would be accessible to everyone.

    A London Cycle Map would enable kids to ride away from their computer screens and out of that cotton wool they’re wrapped in these days. And with all that extra exercise, they might even be able to eat a MacDonald’s occasionally without getting obese.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #55. A fun cycle network!!!

    Submitted by benirvine on 2 June, 2012 - 15:55

    #55: A FUN CYCLE NETWORK!!! Why – as Jessie J might put it – are so many cyclists in London so serious? Maybe it’s because they believe they’re saving the world with every revolution of the pedals.

    The problem is, all this righteousness usually backfires. Non-cyclists think cyclists are pompous, while regular cyclists feel so morally superior they can’t actually remember what it’s like to be a non-cyclist, and therefore can’t come up with policies which will really help promote cycling.

    I was riding along in Cambridge earlier today when some kids starting racing me. Needless to say, I opened a can of whoop-ass and left them in the dust. But the experience reminded me of how much fun cycling can be.

    This is especially true in a town where cycling is so popular that it’s part of the furniture. Without the burden of hostility which London’s militant cyclists are afflicted by, Cambridge’s cyclists can lighten up and enjoy the ride.

    The streets on a London Cycle Map would be equally as fun to cycle on. By bringing non-cyclists into the fold, and creating a traffic-light territory where regular cyclists can forget their traditional hostilities, Parker’s easy-to-follow coloured routes would be full of racing kids and victorious magazine editors.

    A people’s cycle network! A fun way to get around the capital! Are London’s cyclists so serious they can’t imagine what a wonderful thing a London Cycle Map would be?

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #56. Safer Cycling. Now.

    Submitted by benirvine on 2 June, 2012 - 01:14

    #56. SAFER CYCLING. NOW. Over 3600 cyclists were either killed or seriously injured on the streets of the 32 London boroughs in the nine years between 2000 and 2008. This map shows where the accidents took place. What stands out, blatantly, is that so many of them occurred on main roads.

    Of course, the biggest tragedy is that invariably there would have been a safer, quieter route available to each of the cyclists who came to harm. Those cyclists could, in many cases, have ridden on the London Cycle Network, and avoided the capital’s heaviest and most aggressive traffic.

    There is one reason above all why this didn’t happen. The London Cycle Network is hard to find, and even harder to follow.

    Simon Parker has come up with a brilliant proposal for making the London Cycle Network more accessible. With the corresponding road signs and markings in place, his London Cycle Map would enable cyclists to travel from anywhere to anywhere in the capital by following just a few coloured routes on safer, quieter streets.

    If Parker’s plan had been adopted by the authorities ten years ago when he first had the idea, fewer cyclists would have come to harm on London’s main roads since then.

    But never mind the recriminations. Here is what matters most: we could, and should, implement Parker’s plan now. Right now. In doing so, we could save lives in the next ten years. It is simply immoral not to recognize this.

    If the militant cyclists at the LCC get their way during that period, a handful of London’s main roads will be equipped with segregated cycling facilities. But there will still be thousands of miles of dangerous busy roads which remain unprovisioned in the capital. And cyclists will still be forced onto those main roads because it is too difficult to navigate on quieter streets.

    Never mind the next ten years, it would probably take a century to convert London’s main roads into a safe, navigable cycle network. How many cyclists have to die or get seriously injured in the meantime?

    A London Cycle Map would bring safer cycling to the capital. Now.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #57. A town within a metropolis.

    Submitted by benirvine on 1 June, 2012 - 01:07

    #57: A TOWN WITHIN A METROPOLIS. In the developed world, I don’t know of a single metropolis – i.e. a huge, sprawling urban space – where cycling is as popular as it is in smaller towns (or town-like cities) such as Amsterdam, Munich, Copenhagen, Cambridge or Oxford.

    Just as bigger ponds contain bigger fish, the biggest cities in the developed world contain the biggest vehicles in the greatest numbers. When a city sprawls (and is sufficiently wealthy) it develops ever-larger transport arteries that heave with enormous but efficient vehicles – trucks, buses, vans, and so on.

    The problem with this inevitable progression is that the traffic on those large roads forms a barrier to cycling – as if hoards of angry bears were lying in wait just around the next corner for the unprepared cyclist. Apart from a few die-hards, no-one wants to ride alongside the monsters of the road.

    In smaller towns (or town-like cities) there are fewer or none of these behemoth roads. In Cambridge, for instance, I can’t think of a single street I wouldn’t be happy to cycle on, and most people there would agree. No-one decides against a cycle journey in Cambridge on the basis that they might get lost and end up straying onto a scary main road. The worst that can happen is that you get lost, cruise around for a bit, maybe ask a stranger, and then get back on track. No angry bears in sight.

    A London Cycle Map would create the equivalent of a town, such as Cambridge, within London. It would delineate a pleasant area where as a cyclist you are unlikely to encounter any terrifyingly massive vehicles. Of course, you could still cycle off the London Cycle Map routes if you wanted – and perhaps into the path of some bears – but as long as you stick to those routes you’ll remain in a town-like cycling environment.

    A properly signed and mapped London Cycle Network would be so comprehensive you could get to virtually anywhere on these safer, quieter routes. And when you reach the closest point to your destination you could even park your bike and walk the rest of the way, as if you were walking from a Tube station to your final destination.

    Let’s create in London some corner that’s forever cycling; a mini-ecosystem for bikes; a town within a metropolis.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #58: Extremists never have good ideas.

    Submitted by benirvine on 30 May, 2012 - 17:06

    #58: EXTREMISTS NEVER HAVE GOOD IDEAS. Extremists are best ignored, whether they’re utopians, communists, anarchists, free-marketers, nationalists, religious fanatics, anti-cyclists or... militant cyclists.

    The problem with extremism is that it is usually based solely on emotion – a sense of resentment or burning injustice that’s so strong that reason withers under its heat, and compromise (the rational weighing up of competing agendas) becomes impossible.

    We live in an age of increasing extremism. The outlandish opinions of columnists sell newspapers; immoderate campaigners shout the loudest and get heard; even the internet, that alleged bastion of free and enlightened conversation, is fragmented into online silos where people tend to interact with people they agree with, and radicalise each other in the process.

    There are cycling extremists in London who are so resentful of petroleum, they are advocating a ridiculous, irrational, confrontational policy of focussing cycle development on main roads. These are the main roads, remember, where buses and lorries trundle their necessary way through the city, ferrying enough goods and personnel to sustain a thriving economy comprising tens of millions of hungry Londoners. While it is reasonable to suggest that cycle lanes should be added to such roads wherever possible, it is nonsense – extreme, ideological nonsense – to suggest that cycle lanes should be embedded in such roads as a rule.

    Alas, it is seductive nonsense. If you’ve ever felt a spark of rage at a lorry barrelling past you as you cycle, you might be reassured that there are cycling campaigners calling for a change to the status quo on main roads. But don’t be too hasty. There is a better alternative: a decent map and system of signage for the London Cycle Network would carry cyclists onto superbly provisioned backstreets and out of harm’s way. This is an affordable policy that would be immediately effective. And, above all, it is moderate and rational. It recognises the necessity of establishing an entente cordiale between cycling development and London’s current road infrastructure needs.

    Let me be clear: in the long run, we should create cycle routes on as many roads as possible - including main roads - wherever it’s practical to do so; some of the routes on the London Cycle Map could even, over time, be diverted onto main roads; and, inevitably, many more cyclists would trickle onto main roads once the London Cycle Map was implemented. But cycling extremism has got its priorities all wrong in the capital. The confrontational policy of focussing cycling development on main roads will only succeed in getting campaigners into the headlines. It won’t achieve its aim of turning London’s main roads over to cycling.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #59. The LCN is for connecting on, not just cycling on.

    Submitted by benirvine on 29 May, 2012 - 22:39

    #59: THE LCN IS FOR CONNECTING ON, NOT JUST CYCLING ON. Why is it important to incorporate as many London Cycle Network (LCN) routes as possible into a London Cycle Map?

    The reason is that the LCN’s routes are not just good for cycling on, they’re good for connecting on; they have been developed over the last quarter century because of their usefulness for transportation purposes, for making logistically meaningful cycle journeys from one part of the capital to another.

    In comparison, some of London’s other cycle routes are either more scenic (like a steam railway you’d ride on for the pleasure of it, rather than to go anywhere) or indirect (like a drunkard staggering all over the place). The less efficient a route is for connecting on, the less important it is to include it into a London Cycle Map.

    The irony is, the main thing the LCN lacks (as anyone who has ridden on it will tell you) is a decent map and system of signage showing how its routes connect together!

    This is where the London Cycle Map Campaign comes in. The LCN is like the ‘raw material’ for the London Cycle Map: a set of routes that already exists in a useful pattern of connections, but which is crying out for a decent map and system of signage.

    The LCN is just like the underground network was in 1931 before Harry Beck came up with his iconic Tube map.

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

  • Olympic countdown - Reasons for a London Cycle Map, #60. Backed by Robert Penn.

    Submitted by benirvine on 29 May, 2012 - 02:20

    #60. BACKED BY ROBERT PENN. Anyone who has read Robert Penn's magnificent book It's All About the Bike will tell that you he's an author who really knows what cycling means. If you thought your bike was just some welded, wheeled metal you picked up from Halfords then think again - Penn's book will reveal to you each and every marvel of imagination and engineering that enabled the modern bicycle to triumph. 

    That's why we're so proud at Cycle Lifestyle that Robert Penn has backed the London Cycle Map Campaign: he knows, more than most, what what great design is and how it can change the world. Here's his testimony in full:

    I lived in London for nearly a decade – the 90s – and rode a bicycle almost every day. I invested a lot of time and ardour in finding the best routes across the city – the safest thoroughfares, the shortcuts and back alleys, the one-ways and parks that turned a simple bike ride into a gift. I remember how hard that knowledge was won. There weren’t many regular cyclists to compare trip notes with then. I kept studying the A-Z; I kept taking wrong turnings on purpose; I kept on nosing down the dead ends.

    The knowledge did come, though. And through it, through seeing every common and cemetery, every allotment and every sweeping cityscape, I came to love a place I’d always expected to hate. I’m a country boy, really. And now I’m back in the country. I moved to the Black Mountains, in south-east Wales, eight years ago.

    Now, I return to London regularly, on the train, with my bicycle in the guard’s van on the Great Western service from Swansea. Each time, I set off blindly from Paddington to Kentish Town or Dalston, Southwark or Soho. And each time, I seem to come unstuck. I arrive at a junction I know well… only to realise I’m lost. The knowledge is fading. Holes are appearing in my subconscious street map of the city – partly because I’m getting old, and partly because I don’t ink over the routes often enough anymore.

    This is why I believe the London Cycle Map is such a good idea. Clear, well-signed routes would be easy to follow. It would be a huge boon not just for me, but for anyone bringing a bike to London. Who knows, it might even encourage a few more people onto two wheels as well.

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

    Robert Penn is the author of It’s All About the Bike: the Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels: www.robpenn.net / www.bikecation.co.uk

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