Alternatives to the Surrey Canal Walk

We love this path, don't we? Pleasant, free from motor traffic, green, smooth (except for the bits under the bridges!). What more could a cyclist want? Well, at quiet times it probably does fit that description, but use it in rush hour, especially the morning peak, and it's quite different. It's shared use and is as attractive to people who walk to work and school as it it is to those who ride. The problem is, there are loads of both groups at these peak times, and the people who designed the path, I don't believe, had any idea as to just how popular it would become.

Consequently, it just isn't wide enough for people, young (sometimes the very young, just walking) toddlers, dogs, older people, people on mobility scooters and slower cyclists to share it with those cyclists who want, or need to really push the pace on their daily commute.  If that sounds like you (and very occasionally that sounds like me!) there is an alternative.  Trouble is the council haven't signed it very well at all and I'm pretty sure most non locals won't know it's there.  Basically, it follows Sumner Rd, which can be accessed via the fire gate on your left as you start on the Surrey Canal Walk from the South.  Go through  that gate on to Jocelyn Street, follow it round and it takes  you into Sumner Rd...from here it's straight up, over the junction at Commercial Way on to Pekham Hill St from where you can get in to Burgess Park, or back on to Glengall Rd via a right turn through some bollards and thence across the OKR to London Bridge.  Happy to ride it with anyone who doesn't know it.   Southwark and Lewisham Cyclists will be trying to get the council to improve this route further in the future....if you have any ideas tell us (lewishamcyclists@gmail.com). https://www.facebook.com/groups/72380106728/

Yeah I usually go the Sumner Road route on my way home, and the path in the morning. It is badly signed but nearly empty, unlike the path.

Do you have any problems with it, Vanneau? Anything that could be improved? We really need to get more people off the path on to this route at very busy times....complaints and conflict on the canal path have been increasing.

I had a pretty spectacular crash on there last thursday night with another cyclist on a blind bend at the burgess park end.Collision of two road bikes, we both went flying. Completely could have been avoided if the path was designed better. (but thats an aside)

No complaints with Sumner Road other than the Peckham end not being very clearly signed, the fact you can access the very end of the Canal Path via Jocelyn Street isn't very clear.

Lots of hilariously aggressive riding on the Canal Path itself - complaints were entirely predictable.

Hanuman, could it not also have been avoided if you had both been riding more slowly? Unfortunately, the path is as it is...as my driving instructor said to me years ago, every time I began to moan about something or someone else on the road, as an excuse for something I had done wrong "You must drive appropriately for the conditions as they are, not as you would like them to be"
If you were going fast enough for a "spectacular" crash, and don't really want to moderate your speed, then try the road alternative.

Vanneau, the aggressive riding and resulting complaints are indeed the reason the local LCC groups are trying to persuade people to consider the alternative if they need to ride fast. Those of us who know it could help by telling others about it too. Meanwhile, we can also work on the council to get the road route better signed.

Hanuman, could it not also have been avoided if you had both been riding more slowly? Unfortunately, the path is as it is...as my driving instructor said to me years ago, every time I began to moan about something or someone else on the road, as an excuse for something I had done wrong "You must drive appropriately for the conditions as they are, not as you would like them to be"
If you were going fast enough for a "spectacular" crash, and don't really want to moderate your speed, then try the road alternative.

Whilst that is entirely reasonable point of view, I think its fine to call out bad infrastructure if you see it no? Otherwise, how would anything ever change? This is a part of the path that could be really easily fixed. At the moment, it has mirrors to enable you to see round a corner which are next to useless in the dark. (my crash was after 11pm)

Its quite easy to have a spectacular crash at any speed, especially in the dark, on a path with blind corners where the ground drops away steeply. Going more slowly might have helped but there were a lot of other factors involved, most of which would have been fixed by a simple redesign...

Yes, infrastructure can often make cycling really difficult...it can also make cycling unacceptably dangerous. The Bow roundabout for example, where people were led into unsafe positions by the cycling infrastructure itself and lost their lives as a result. But I don't think the Surrey canal path is in this category..I know the bit you are talking about...you have to slow right down there, braking if you are coming down the slope from Glengall Rd, if not, the odds are high that you will hit someone at peak times, and still possible at off peak. It's not hard to work out and not hard to deal with. ...yes it could have been built differently...but let's consider the route's purpose: it's a shared path for walkers and cyclists, and as I said in my OP, I think it's pretty apparent the designers didn't plan for the numbers of people that use it. A mistake, maybe. But to spend a lot of money on redesigning and rebuilding it I, personally, don't consider justifiable because there is an alternative that cyclists who wish to travel fast can use, and the potential for harm is easily dealt with by responding to the conditions which are clear to see. We can't expect local councils to tailor every little piece of infrastructure exactly to the specifications of individual cyclists where there are acceptable and easily available alternatives. I would much rather they spent our money on making the routes which really do force cyclists into unsafe positions on the road, safer and more acceptable, those routes, on which we have to ride every day to go about our business and on which far too many cyclists have died precisely because of the infrastructure.

Any chance of some more paragraph breaks, Jane? :)

Stream of consciousness. Good enough for James Joyce, good enough for me.

But, it does read like a bit of a rant...which it wasn't meant to be...apologies.