#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!
