Cycle Lifestyle

#38. TRAILS OF LIGHT. When Percy Shaw invented cats-eyes in 1934, no-one could have anticipated how prolific his design would be. Its usefulness became especially evident during the blackouts in World World Two, when at night British towns and cities tried to minimise light emissions to confuse the Luftwaffe, and cars were equipped with shuttered headlights to keep their beams low and less visible. During this time, it was not only cats-eyes which appeared on roads but white lines painted down their middles, to aid driver orientation. The world’s streets soon became safer thanks to these inventions wrought out of necessity.

Today, promoting and facilitating cycling in towns and cities is a necessity, for environmental, health and mental health reasons. In a labyrinthine metropolis such as London, the biggest impediments to cycling are the twin fears of safety and navigation – people worry that getting lost on a bike will make them more vulnerable, through stumbling onto intimidating main roads.

Parker’s London Cycle Map offers an ingenious solution to these problems. By waymarking the 2000 kilometre-long London Cycle Network – which is generally made up of quieter cycle routes – with road signs and markings corresponding to Parker’s Tube-style diagram, we could enable cyclists to get from anywhere to anywhere in the capital, safely and simply, by following just a few coloured routes.

Thankfully we don’t have to worry about bombs raining down on London these days, but we could still make cycling at night on Parker’s routes easier. Street-side lampposts would usually be sufficient to highlight the painted trails of breadcrumbs on the road surfaces of those routes, but illuminated dots would be particularly helpful – especially in areas where there are no streetlights.

Something similar can be found when you exit Cambridge along Ditton Lane. As you progress, the environment becomes more rural – and in the dark, rural can mean ‘scary’. Thankfully, Cambridgeshire County Council has sensibly studded the cycle tracks beside the main road with little lights which keep cyclists safely oriented. The lights are solar-powered, so they charge during the day then lay out a glorious, gently-glowing trail at night-time. It looks like an airport runway, but more subtle: think LEDs rather than powerful uplights.

One day, I believe, the London Cycle Network will be studded throughout with solar-powered lights like these, corresponding to the routes on Simon Parker’s London Cycle Map. If drivers get cats-eyes and white lines, then cyclists deserve a little help too.

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

Action for Children is calling for cycling enthusiasts from Kent to get on their bikes to help raise vital funds for vulnerable children, young people and families in the area.

The challenge will take place at the world famous Indy Circuit on the 16th July – and Action for Children wants cyclists of all ages and abilities to sign up. Participants will have two hours to complete as many circuits as possible of the racing track, which is heavily involved in London 2012 as part of the Olympic torch route and is hosting the Paralympic Road Cycling events this September.

The cycling fundraiser takes place on Monday 16th July, between 6pm-8pm, and costs just £10 to enter. Children under 16 can take part for free on the condition they are accompanied by a participating adult. Individuals are encouraged to raise a minimum of £50 in sponsorship and families are encouraged to raise a minimum of £100 in sponsorship, with all proceeds going to support Action for Children’s work across Kent and the UK.

To enter the challenge or for further information please contact Selena Goldsmith on 01622 230764 or email selena.goldsmith@actionforchildren.org.uk

I once exasperatedly described understanding Parker’s proposal as an ‘unofficial IQ test’, but there’s some truth in this rather pompous assertion. Although his London Cycle Map would be wonderfully simple to use – enabling cyclists to get from anywhere to anywhere in the capital on the safer, quieter streets of the London Cycle Network, by following just a few coloured routes – the idea behind this result is extremely clever.

To understand it, you have to realise that

(i) Parker’s system of parallel coloured routes renders the map of the London Cycle Network (see image on left) as simple as it can be (no other alternative, including node-based systems, would be as effective);

(ii) with corresponding signs and markings on the streets, all areas of the capital – any two areas – would be connected by a single, direct, safe cycle route;

(iii) this network would solve the problems of safety and navigation immediately: new cyclists would never need to be worried about getting lost on a bike and stumbling onto the most dangerous roads;

(iv) in contrast, a policy of incremental cycle route development on main roads will never solve the latter problems;

(v) in a metropolis such as London the longer distances involved in travelling will necessitate a level of motor congestion higher than in smaller cities, so in order for cyclists to avoid the worst of that traffic, a Tube-style network of backstreet cycle routes is needed;

(vi) the routes on a London Cycle Map would not be mandatory but merely optional - albeit especially useful to beginners - meaning that regular cyclists could still cycle wherever they wanted to: indeed, by persuading some car users to swap to bikes, the London Cycle Map would make life easier for cyclists who prefer to use major roads.

(vii) to use the London Cycle Map, which is stylised like the Tube map, a supporting map would be needed that shows where the routes are in reality – showing, in other words, how to get on and off the network at the points nearest to your start location and destination, respectively.

Understanding these points is not easy - yet using a London Cycle Map would be! If you can get your head around how ingenious Parker’s proposal is, then please help us get the message across. Maybe we’re not putting it right – so show us how it’s done!

Betrand Russell once wrote that 'the whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are so sure of themselves but wiser men so full of doubts'. In this time of sensationalism, fear, ignorance and ideology, intelligent ideas like Parker's London Cycle Map are all the more valuable.

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

#43. THE LCC WAS ADVOCATING A SIMILAR PLAN JUST TWO YEARS AGO. This article on the LCC’s website shows that, amazingly, just two years ago they were advocating a plan similar to the London Cycle Map.

Their ‘BikeGrid’ was designed to provide ‘a series of east-west and north-south traffic-calmed or cycle-lane-equipped routes that provide a cost-effective and complete Zone 1 cycle network’.

The article complains about the ‘lack of any complete east-west or north-south cycle routes in London’, and the ‘scrapping of the London Cycle Network while only 60% complete’.

In the article’s comments section, Mike Cavenett, the LCC’s communications officer (now manager), explained that ‘The BikeGrid is formed largely around calming existing roads in central London, rather than building new segregated facilities’.

Since 2010, the LCC has completely changed direction and is now advocating ‘segregated bike tracks where motor traffic is heaviest’ as part of three flagship Go Dutch schemes. The LCC, in other words, now wants to see expensive new cycle routes on main roads (because ‘main roads are fast, direct, easily navigable routes that many Londoners want to use’) rather than a completed network of backstreets (which are ‘frequently indirect and disconnected’).

What happened? Did the LCC discover how difficult it is to market the idea of a properly mapped and signed London Cycle Network? Admittedly, the idea doesn’t sound very glamorous! Was the LCC not getting enough donations and members based on the BikeGrid proposal? I’d love to know the answers to these questions.

Parker’s London Cycle Map offers an ingenious way to sign and mark the streets of the otherwise bewilderingly complex London Cycle Network. His plan, which was clearly the inspiration behind the LCC’s BikeGrid, offers not just east-west or north-south routes, but a comprehensive set of routes spread right around the compass face, thereby connecting just about any two places in London with a single straight cycle route. There is nothing ‘indirect’ or ‘disconnected’ about the routes on Parker’s London Cycle Map, save for a handful of extra segments that would be required to complete its implementation.

Parker’s extremely cost-effective proposal would be exactly what non-cyclists in London need – safe passage from anywhere to anywhere in the capital – yet the LCC have turned their backs just two years after championing a similar scheme. Never mind going Dutch, that’s going AWOL.

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

The LCC's 'BikeGrid'...

Looks familiar..? (An early version of Simon Parker's London Cycle Map)