There's Nowhere to Cycle in London.

OK let me explain. When I'm NYC, I usually stay in the lower east side and ride around downtown for meetings or to go and see friends. I'll do the occasional trip to Brooklyn. Basically distances ridden on a daily basis are somewhat shorter than what I do in London.

BUT

at any time I can go and cycle in a place just to ride:

• either by going up to central park and doing a few loops of the loop (for those who haven't been it's a perfect route, small hills, no cars, cute girls rollerblading, stunning views, and a friendly mix of lycra-clad roadies, horse carriages, tourists and squirrels)
  
• or by going up and down the West Side Highway cycle path (on the edge of the river, all the way up Manhattan, a bit narrower but completely flat and fast.
  
  

Is there anything like this in London? I know Richmond park seems to have something of the sort, but it's far out west, and is it car-free? I see some guys going around regents park sometimes but it's on a shared road, and the surface is bad.

Come on Ken - give us a hyde park cycle highway!

Finsbury Park, only me and an Italian ex-pro use it though.

Hyde park has a 'loop' and you get the added bonus of the 'loons' on speakers corner

Paris has routes along the seine, the marne, the ourq canal plus a cycle track at the hippodrome

I asked a similar question on C+ once looking for a closed-to-traffic loop for high-intensity training (there's no velodrome out west).
All they could come up with was Hillingdon Crit Circuit (which ain't all that bad considering it's for cycle racing and close to me), Regent's Inner and Outer Circles and RP (not closed to traffic).

Thames river path around Isle of dogs or Greenwich. Greenwich park has some road through it 20 mph zone and I think some cycle routes but someone would have to cmfirm this. Bits of Hyde park have cyle route off of the road but I don't know if there is a circular route.

winston Finsbury Park, only me and an Italian ex-pro use it though.

Is this a winner, Winston?

I've passed it on the bus but wasn't sure if it was genuinely bike friendly.

Seems to have more random peds than Oxford St.

There is also some path I have herd of that runs from victoria park towards Stratford and beond toward the river, but it is on top of a sewer pipe and I don't know if it is paved and it is on top of a sewer pipe, so not exactly central park.:)

It's near my home ...and you're straight into training instead of having to ride for one hour to get out of London.....I used it loads last year...just start early to avoid most dog walkers.....it's generally Ok as far as peds go though......2.2k round with a nice climb and an uphilll straight for interval training....half has new smooth tarmac and the other half is pretty rough, but perfectly rideable.....as with all circuits it does get a bit monotonous after about 90mins....take your mp3 player....

been thinking bout this too. You can ride around victoria park but i find it quite a bumpy ride to be honest. And fuckloads of chav dogs running about, they make me nervous. Got chased last autumn, pretty easy to outrun them, but don´t really want to keep an eye out for lunatic dogs while riding

Yup, as tommy says it all east. Loads of river/cycle paths round the O2, always empty. I'd also recommend round Royal Docks, but then I guess that's almost as far east is RP is west.

NYC also has the luxury of being fairly new.

winston It's near my home ...and you're straight into training instead of having to ride for one hour to get out of London.....I used it loads last year...just start early to avoid most dog walkers.....it's generally Ok as far as peds go though......2.2k round with a nice climb and an uphilll straight for interval training....half has new smooth tarmac and the other half is pretty rough, but perfectly rideable.....as with all circuits it does get a bit monotonous after about 90mins....take your mp3 player....

Cheers matey.

I'll be there..

A press release from the Mayors office, 11-2-08 has earmarked somewhere in the region of £500 million blah blah to transform cycling and walking in London. Could be a whole heap of green wash maybe not. But if the Greater London Authority are going to spunk this large of wad of cash, then it is in our interests, regardless of the number of gears/freewheels/lime green rims, that we to insure they spunk it in a responsible manner.

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=15612

Secure cycle parking anyone??

£500 million over 10 years. That's sounds brilliant.

I reckon they could do worse than making some really good cycle lanes, like the long one on Tavistock Place by UCL. I know not everybody likes them, but it will encourage a lot more newcomers to ride. A lot of people are really scared of sharing the road with lorries and buses.

What else. Safe cycle parking, a great idea in principle. Don't see how it would work in practice, though. Manned cycle parks? Not sure..I like his initiaves, they sound good.

I reckon, tho, if the weather in London was just warmer and sunnier, then all would be right and fine.

lpg I reckon, tho, if the weather in London was just warmer and sunnier, then all would be right and fine.

Join the Porsche man and campaign against the charge for CO2 heavy vehicles.

the whole of london (and all our towns, cities and villages) should be 20 mph.

then everyone can travel around their community with less fear of getting killed.

and also less people suffering from noise pollution.

TheBrick(Tommy) There is also some path I have herd of that runs from victoria park towards Stratford and beond toward the river, but it is on top of a sewer pipe and I don't know if it is paved and it is on top of a sewer pipe, so not exactly central park.:)

That's the Greenway - interestingish ride, especially if you go all the way to the end and wind your way to the top of the Beckton Alp (where Full Metal Jacket scenes were filmed). But it's broken up by barriers and roads, so no good for training really.

lpg I reckon they could do worse than making some really good cycle lanes, like the long one on Tavistock Place by UCL. I know not everybody likes them, but it will encourage a lot more newcomers to ride. A lot of people are really scared of sharing the road with lorries and buses.

Are you being sarcastic? That's one of the worst bits of civic planning I've seen in ages. I've seen more cyclists knocked off along there than anywhere else in London, including Oxford St. Zomboid tourists and students NEVER get their heads round it, Bloomsbury cabbies are amongst the most objectionable, and they, like many other 4-wheelers, turn across the cycle lane as if it's not there. And it's too fucking narrow. I prefer to duke it out with the traffic in the now unnecessarily narrowed road, but it tends to move a bit slower than my preferred rate of knots.

I fucking hate cycle lanes, but quite like sharing bus lanes with whatever. Wide, fast, and generally unobstructed - like Holloway Rd.

Don't listen to me though. I'm a complete cunt.

Greenway sucks for cycling unless you like kids on motorbikes and broken glass.

And yeah i'm with BMMF, that tavistock place lane sucks! As do all of them ;)

inner and outer circle regents park. still some cars but good ride.

BringMeMyFix [quote]*
[quote][cite] lpg* I reckon they could do worse than making some really good cycle lanes, like the long one on Tavistock Place by UCL. I know not everybody likes them, but it will encourage a lot more newcomers to ride. A lot of people are really scared of sharing the road with lorries and buses.

Are you being sarcastic? That's one of the worst bits of civic planning I've seen in ages. I've seen more cyclists knocked off along there than anywhere else in London, including Oxford St. Zomboid tourists and students NEVER get their heads round it, Bloomsbury cabbies are amongst the most objectionable, and they, like many other 4-wheelers, turn across the cycle lane as if it's not there. And it's too fucking narrow. I prefer to duke it out with the traffic in the now unnecessarily narrowed road, but it tends to move a bit slower than my preferred rate of knots.

I fucking hate cycle lanes, but quite like sharing bus lanes with whatever. Wide, fast, and generally unobstructed - like Holloway Rd.

[/quote]

Oh yeah, that Gordon square bit is a bit dodgy. But the rest of it is good, no?

I'm not a big fan of cycle lanes either, but i think will get more people on bicycles (think more vulnerable people : women, the elderly, kids). If they help these cyclists feel safer, then i'm all for them.

(not everyone is as fast as you!)

check out the canal towpaths.
i go along the paddington branch of the grand union on my way to uni. it's really nice. very picturesque in parts.

@lpg - I sometimes use them with Tynan in the childseat, but they're usually not worth the bother, and contribute to the sidelining of cyclists and their rights on the highway.

And no, I think the entire length of that cycle lane in Bloomsbury has issues.

I like Central Park NYC

mister k check out the canal towpaths.
i go along the paddington branch of the grand union on my way to uni. it's really nice. very picturesque in parts.

I too am a towpath man - slightly bumpy unless you ride on the smooth concrete right on the edge of the water. Miss not living near one nowadays... but yeah of you want a ride man, they're a good bet.

The Bloomsbury lanes just fill up with glass and gravel; when I started commuting I came up them through them from Covent Garden to Euston and just got endless punctures. Buslanes at least get a good clean from bus tyres and rain draining properly whereas it just pools in the segregated lanes.

Constantly cursing a flat tyre in the rain much more discouraging for me to begin with. Switched to the TCR drag race and no more punctures.

If you go anticlockwise around regents park then there is only one place where you have to worry about traffic turning as all the other junctions are on the other side of the road. There's usually not many cars and you get a bit of gradient change as you go round.