Campaigners put wheels in motion for improved cycle routes

Cyclists near the A12 and Ruckholt Road. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

One of the joys of living in this corner of the capital is the pleasant cycle ride into town, in my case from Hackney Wick, through Victoria Park, along the Regent’s Canal towpath to Angel, and then down through the quieter streets of Finsbury and Clerkenwell. From Lewisham, where I used to live, it was a long slog through the busy streets of New Cross, Bermondsey and Southwark.

The attractions of the towpath to cyclists are obvious: a nice straight line with no traffic, but also no traffic lights, no junctions to negotiate, no petrol fumes, and no suddenly-opened doors on stationary cars. And there’s the opportunity to enjoy a bit of wildlife along the way.

And yet, at some point over the last few months I found myself shifting to the road route on my way to work. I finally admitted to myself that the morning ride along the towpath was not the placid, relaxing, meditative journey I had been telling myself it was.

Instead, it could sometimes be fifteen stressful minutes fraught with anxious decisions and judgements: has that jogger heard my bell above his ipod? Should I pass to his right or left? What happens if he moves sideways just as I’m passing? When I ring my bell to warn this elderly couple of my presence as I approach from behind, will they think I’m rudely telling them to get out of the way? What’s around that blind corner on the other side of the bridge? And when two cyclists pass, in opposite directions, with a pedestrian between them, whose responsibility is it to give way?

Dick Vincent, towpath ranger for the newly created Canal and River Trust, makes a convincing argument that, with the welcome increase in cycling in London, more cyclists are using the canals – up to 500 an hour at peak times – and the towpaths simply do not have the capacity to meet the demand. There are understandable calls from pedestrians for cycles to be banned from the towpath. The Canal and River Trust does aim to preserve access to the canal network for courteous and considerate ‘leisure cycling’. But, says Dick, commuters in a hurry (such as myself) need to be “swallowed up by the road network”. I find myself reluctantly agreeing.

The problem is that the cycle routes running parallel to the canal across North London are poorly signposted, dangerous in places, and generally not very inviting. The Canal and River Trust is launching a project, talking to local councils and concerned groups such as the London Cycling Campaign about how the situation could be improved. The aim is not to have one single alternative route, but a variety of individual improvements: better signage, suitable junctions, reprioritised traffic, and, in the jargon, ‘improved permeability’.

We at Hackney and Tower Hamlets Friends of the Earth will be lending our support, and I hope we can look forward eventually to an easy-to-find, efficient and pleasant way of getting into central London.