Shout out to Andrew Gilligan who played a key role in the development of cycling infrastructure in London during his time as the Cycling Commissioner for London under former Mayor Boris Johnson. Sod Boris! Great channel; I just discovered it recently. Bravo!
I'm pretty sure that your videos have had a positive impact on my cycling behaviour. The effort you go to to adhere to the rules strictly is absolutely worth it
Today I road one of your routes (Woolwich to Eltham) whilst listening to respective video of yours at 0.5 speed and it was soo good! Also quite funny as slower audio, but very helpful as was in real time and helped with direction ! Thanks a lot The water link way down the ravensbourne river it’s great for a future video. I use it to get to Bromley, Crystal Palace
That sounds great fun and haha I bet I sounded a bit drunk in parts! Definitely want to do more on Waterlink Way, I don’t get down there anywhere near enough. I think there are some improvements coming soon so will head down there when they’re implemented to check them out
I am in South Korea and preparing for a two-week cycling trip to London in May. Although I lived in London 10 years ago, your videos are still a great help in confirming whether my memories are still valid! Thank you. And congratulations on 10,000!!
22:32 Says so much how we think about road capacity, as a society, that we constantly have the same argument about how much space cycling infrastructure takes up, when you’re cycling along countless roads were 30%+ of the space is already taken up with cars just parked in storage not going anywhere
Good points/questions! Gonna look at proposed routes in West via Ealing Council. Congrats on 10K Subs + always found your videos useful and informative 🎉
Congratulations on the 10K subscribers. Did you know that your format is so groovy others are doing the same thing with other cities already? The chap doing Brum is very good and handy for those of us in the Midlands.
Thanks for the answers and congrats on 10k subs!! I am also extremely frustrated by RBKC council and Kensington High Street; if they put in some decent cycle lanes, it would be so useful for so many people and would be a game-changer for me!
What is the meaning of the "Royal" in RKBC? Doesn't it mean His Majesty the King has some influence on their policy? If they are not willing to play ball the King should exercise his royal authority and strip it of its Royal credentials.
Amazing achievement for 10k 🎉 You're videos are great and really show good ways of getting around London! Ive used a couple of the routes when Ive travelled down and you've inspired me to rip off your format and do the same in Birmingham!
Thanks for answering my question and congrats on the 10k!. I found the channel when it was on around 900 or so subs and its great to see things improve both in video quality and cycling infrastructure throughout the city. Long may it all continue!
Thank you for mentioning Edgware Road. I frequently cycle through Staples Corner and absolute hate it, Barnet and Brent councils have had decades of pressure to make this area accessible but they simply don't care.
A5 is only TfL for a bit then it is managed by Councils and is the borough between Camden and Brent. The latter, of course, hate cycling so it would be difficult. Finchley Road could have a cycle track and this was consulted but it didn't pass that stage. All the wankpanzer drivers from Highgate probably obliterated any chance of that happening for the foreseeable future.
Recently discover your channel excellent work. I used to travel through London in the 70 and 80 the transformation in traffic is quite striking you disserve all the credit you can get thanks for your good work.
I rode my bike around London on the inner ring road starting at Marble Arch and it took an hour, Edgware Road to Marylebone, Euston Road to Kings Cross, Pentonville Road to Islington, City Road to Shoreditch, Commercial Street to Whitechapel, around to Tower Bridge, then Bricklayers junction, to Elephant and Castle, and through Vauxhall, up to Victoria station and Hyde Park corner.
I do agree with pricing of our roads. Thinking about the purpose of your journey can only come about through make unnecessary journeys by car more expensive.
Congratulations on hitting your milestone! I didn't get notified by TH-cam about your video. Instead I had my sister ask me: "Did you ask the London cycle routes two questions on his Q&A?" 😛 Thanks for all the answers. I do find the Royal London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea very irritating. 100 years ago they were blocking London's tram network and eventually led to trams being cancelled. And they totally failed to ensure the safety of people living in Grenfell Tower, where £1,000 UKP per flat would have funded a sprinkler system that would have slowed down or stopped the initial fire. They have a long history of working against the public good. I think that every council should have a responsibility to do things that reduce deaths in their borough and that Kensington & Chelsea should be in special measures, because they are putting lives at risk, when they have enough money to be doing more. As for political campaigning, I think that the Parliamentary Petition website system should be rolled out to cover every regional and local authority in the UK. That would allow members of the public in individual London Boroughs, who are road safety campaigners, to put in requests for joined up cycle routes or LTNs directly to Local Boroughs. And then other people who want the same thing, could sign the petition with some sort of threshold being reached to force the issue to be brought up in a council meeting. This would force councils to acknowledge the desires of people who commute through their borough by cycle, or walk it's pavements. Where the council is ignoring people, they would be forced to hear people's concerns. And where a council is working against the interest of health and safety, it would be a lot more obvious, as they would be making multiple statements about not wanting to do what was right. Yes this would also allow NIMBYs to campaign against LTNs, but that's fine. I believe that a lot of the backlash against the ULEZ expansion was by fake (55 Tufton Street) "pressure groups" rather than by real people. If real local people genuinely dislike aspects of a LTN, then those concerns should be heard and councils should try to address them. We still have a genuine need to reduce car usage, but if there are multiple ways to do an LTN and one way works better for locals, we should probably do the thing that changes the LTN from an experiment to a long term solution. At the level of the Mayor of London, from what I understand the Mayor takes money from each borough and then gives some back to fund certain things being done locally. So I thing the councils should always be the first point of call, but where campaigners have spent time demanding solutions from the council and the council appears to be obstructive, rather than just slow, that is when people should be able to escalate existing issues up to the Mayor's level. If there has not been sufficient local campaigning, the Assembly should bump the issue back to the local council, but if their has been enough local campaigning or if the concerns are about something not controlled by Local authorities, like main roads, then the Assembly should allow the petition. And if the petition gets enough votes, the Mayor should provide an answer to the Assembly. And likewise, the same should happen outside London. It is particularly important for people living close to the edge of Greater London to be able to cycle over the border to the surrounding counties, without suddenly being put at risk. So we need a democratic system where any road that crosses between two authorities requires some level of co-operation on this sort of thing.
Very interesting thoughts! Also great to hear your sister watches too haha. I think I actually had 3 questions from you but the third didn’t make it in due to time constraints!
+1 on the 'don't do anything to endanger / annoy pedestrians' rule. Anything that causes someone crossing the road even to alter their stride intuitively feels like it's bad behaviour to me. Thanks for the vids!!!
Congrats! These videos have been great for learning new routes and for pointing nervous new riders at. "If you could build one cycle route what would it be?" - I'd definitely vote for a safe north-south route through Harringay. It's frustrating to reach the northern edges of Camden/Islington/Hackney on good lanes and then not have much to connect up to the good lanes in Enfield!
I think England is an incredible country, I also record in the same way here in Brazil, I started making videos recently. I'll follow you from now on, I subscribed to your channel, a big hug straight from Barbacena-MG !!
I think it would be very interesting if you occasionally made commentary videos looking into future cycling projects in London or reviewed/suggested improvements for existing ones or highlighted issues with the network. When I watch your videos you always seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of London infrastructure and I'm sure you could provide a lot of insight in reviewing plans or suggesting future ones. Wouldn't even need to be strictly cycling could just be a general London urbanism type thing. Of course I understand you're likely already very busy as is and might not be interested in making that type of content, just an idea. Thanks for all the videos and congrats on 10k
Thanks and yeah this is something I’ve thought about doing- I wonder if I should do a sort of ‘news’ episode sometimes collating what’s happening. I do try and slip these facts into the regular videos though
Congrats on hitting 10K subs! Your videos have inspired me to do something similar for the city where I live in. It's not as big as London, not even half the size :) but it does have some cycle paths. It's also an idea for some new content for my YT channel. Keep up the good work and remember about the cycle route alongside Great West Road LOL :)
@@Londoncycleroutes it's not in the UK. A mid sized city in Poland (Katowice). I've even recorded some stuff today, covering maybe 2 or 3 routes. But I need to review the videos to see if they're any good. On top of that I may have done the routes a bit chaotic, and possibly ran a red light once at crossing xD
I cycle around London and am still getting to know it since I've only been here for three years. I'm never in a hurry just pottering about on my Strida and Brompton. I do try to keep the traffic rules except..... I've noticed that usually, at a crossroads junction, all four pedestrian crossings go green at the same time, so I cross the junction knowing that there's no traffic to avoid or be a danger to me. I know I'm running a red light but feel I'm not a danger to others as long as I allow pedestrians to go first.😊
Agree about a route in NW London. My usual commute is Harrow - Wembley and then I sometimes extend to Paddington. The best is a painted line here or there and a cycle box. Really disappointed with all the work done around Northwick Park hospital there was zero cycling infrastructure put in place.
A very interesting video 👍 Thanks, I learnt a lot! 🙂. I'm going to put it down expert editing skills at approx' 20 mins..."Do I never break any rules?...No", just as you pass the two PC's walking in the park. 😁 Here's to many more Sunday evening videos 🍻
I'm really chuffed about your milestone - congratulations! I think all the questions I might have asked were answered by you already (which camera / other cities etc.) Except one: I spent time in London 25 / 30 years ago and (to 'escape' at the weekends) often cycled the canal towpaths of north London back then. Are they still open to cyclists? Have they been surpassed by the infrastructure? Have societal changes meant they're generally reserved for walking? Thanks. BTW, I really appreciate your firm but fair opinions on this channel. More power to your elbow! (On another BTW, with all the pedestrians in your way, I can see why you didn't use this video for its original purpose! It felt good to see a hot summer day at this time of year, though.)
Yes good point about the pedestrians around Hyde Park Corner I think that was another reason I didn’t go for the footage. Re the towpaths: you can still ride on them but they’re quite a bit busier with people walking. Also it used to be that they were the best pleasant way to cycle places but there are better alternatives. Personally I tend to avoid on a bike as they are frustrating but some bits are better than others eg I’d use Primrose Hill to Lisson Grove etc
Thank you for this. Re getting change: Vital everyone gets out to vote and uses votes tactically to support pro-cycling councillors of all parties (especially in Kensington and Chelsea and Tower Hamlets). On the specifics at a local level, objecting to planning applications unless cycle routes are provided can be pretty powerful. The key homework is to read LTN 1/20 the UK Government rules on cycling infrastructure design which came out in June 2020. Lots of objections you can make if developers fail to do cycling properly. Objecting to say not compliant with policy is much more powerful than "we don't like this" and say you will withdraw your objection if a good solution which you describe is provided. And be realistic. Gold plating will fail when Bronze standard would be fantastic.
Cheers for the vid as always. I wish I'd got a question in beforehand - it would have been something like: almost every not-London town and city in this country is light years behind London and that distance is only increasing... how can we address this and get other places up to a similar standard? I'd say the average town or city is closer to the K&C end of the spectrum than the Waltham Forest one in terms of wanting to enable cycling. Or apathetic at best if not actively hostile. Maybe a few things got done here and there through the Active Travel Fund, but that's dried up as the political weather has changed, and the vision generally doesn't seem to be there for councils to go for things on their own.
Great question - I honestly don’t know! It requires political leadership at the national and local level. Local campaign groups can put pressure and show there is demand. But it’s hard and they’re starting from a very low base. Yet the potential is enormous - really if you live in a medium sized town you can cycle from one end to the other in 10 minutes. Better than London!
Mayor of London question: There is no cycle-able river crossing east of Tower Bridge so I would convert one bore of the Silvertown Tunnel for use by cyclists and keep the other just for buses. Yes, I know about Rotherhithe and have cycled through it, but it’s not really cycle-able.
They would be cool - agree there’s a big need for a crossing there. There was a plan for a cycle and walking bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf which would have been amazing but it was canned due to lack of funds. Hope it comes back
I saw a proposal of a cycling/walking bridge next to the Thames Barrier a while ago and have been intrigued by the idea ever since. Hope something like it can come to be
You can take bikes on the Woolwich Ferry, which is nice.. but can be very slow if you just missed one and the Ferry is very unreliable last couple years. I of course would never ever suggest cycling through the Woolwich or Greenwich tunnels 😇
Might be a good idea to put these in playlists according to locations. What you can do is divide them into N, NE, E, SE, S, etc., London. My idea is to split up departures and destinations so that its easier to look up for example: Departure: North Departure: East Departure: South. ... and then Destination: North Destination: East ...etc It would then be easier to find the relevant videos according to departure or destination so for example a video for eg., Bank to Stratford would be placed in both: Depature: Central and Destination: East.
The point is that, if I live in Stratford I can find out what routes I can use to get home. Or if I live by Bank (just an example) what routes can I use just to get out of here to somewhere else.
Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport are areas very close together and have excellent infrastructure between them (A 90% off road cycle network between Gosport and Fareham using dedicated cycle and walkways and a shared Cycle/Bus road, and a foot passenger ferry service which accepts bikes between Gosport and Portsmouth). It would definitely be a good experience for you with a few of your great quality videos from it too 😊
I just chanced on your video. Found it interesting but would like a bit of commentary. Where are you? Where are you going? What sights are you passing? What are the surfaces like? Which way is the wind blowing? Are you going uphill or downhill? As a lifelong Londoner I recognise some places but I live in South London and much of North London is a foreign country to me. Also, you seem to be travelling very fast - have you got an ebike? What speed are you doing?
I've got to add my comment to this. He introduced it as footage from the Summer of 21, and used it as background for his dialogue. My immediate thought after watching it is that up until @20:00 would be a wonderful episode in itself, it was so incredibly green and agreeable in terms of nature of the people and traffic. After @20.xx was also interesting, but nowhere near as peaceful and safe. (I was raised a Londoner, but emigrated in my youth to North Am, have spent a few work sojourns back in London more recently) Up until @20:xx, I could handle all eventualities as presented even being used to other side of road driving. After that, too many incidents happened with other cyclists, pedestrians, vehicles that he reacted to well, but I would have been flustered by. I just love cycling along with many of his episodes, and this one was especially that.
Cheers! I do usually do that stuff in the videos on this channel but this was a special edition where I just talked over some random footage…. First one is St Paul’s to Kensington, second is Acton Central to Hammersmith Bridge!
@@Londoncycleroutes Thanks for that. I have a Ribble ebike (love it) and would like to do a circular route from Waterloo, London Bridge or Victoria perhaps. Does such a thing exist? Say about 15 miles?
What I've learned to do is have a map up in an adjacent tab in my browser to click back and forth to reference. There might be a better way, perhaps by running an app in an adjacent tab that moves in sync. That might be an excellent question for my nephew, who runs an animation studio and is an avid cyclist. I'll forward the question to him and get back to this string.
@@Londoncycleroutes I don't know if the ability is in the TH-cam scripting, but on some news media, like the NYTimes and other well supported websites, they have a feature where the user can use the cursor to sweep across the screen to show 'before and after' features or other features like 'internal construction vs topical appearance'. I'll investigate.
Cheers! Cars I don’t really have an issue with in themselves, I know some people find them interesting etc and of course they can be useful in a lot of situations. I think they can be an issue in inner cities especially if overused and if we build cities the right way with good public transport and safe streets etc you can eliminate a lot of the need to use them for most journeys and end up with a nicer city too. Haven’t got one myself but got nothing against people necessarily having one
[At 22 mins] An obvious way to reduce traffic is to encourage more people to cycle. So refusing LTNs is often counterproductive, despite politicians’ claims.
Hello. I am a recent subscriber, so catching up with older videos. All amazing so far! May I ask what mode you shoot your videos on GoPro please? TimeWarp or normal video at 4K 60fps? When I try on my Hero 12, mine heats up so unable to record very long.
Welcome! I use 40K 60fps basic yeah - that’s annoying about the overheat, it’s not an issue I’ve run into myself though I’ve seen a few people mention it online as well. Time warp looks cool but I need the longer battery life basically!
@@Londoncycleroutes New to GoPro also. The Hero 12 is my very first action camera haha. I will definitely give that a try (turning off GPS). Cheers! Safe cycling!
Can you do some South East london suburb routes please? Sidcup to North Greenwich (O2 Arena, Jubilee Line Station), or Sidcup to Orpington routes? This part of London is a bit of a mish mash and it would be great if you are able to find some viable routes. Thank you!
@@Londoncycleroutes totally understand it is pretty poor. Trying to find a route that is feasible from Sidcup to North Greenwich or just any South East London location to North Greenwich (for the tube connection, very popular destination in the morning) or to other major hubs that get you in to London would be much appreciated from this part of town. But there is a hell of a lot of work to be done, just simple No Cycling signs on important bridges and footpaths (that are wide enough for both pedestrians and cycles) need to be changed to shared spaces. Would do wonders without even having to go full hog on full infrastructure.. yet.. just minor adjustments and a few traffic order requests. Anyway! Look forward to more South East London videos. Thank you for the great work!
@@iamjosef3d yeah completely agree about no cycling - there's a half OK route out of Bromley that's ruined by a no cycling sign on a key path. I will continue to look, I know it's an area people want more in!
Hi there John, how do you edit your videos, you've inspired me to make videos about the safest/best routes for health workers to commute to NHS sites and i'm wondering how to get started.
Cool idea! I use Final Cut Pro, but iMovie works fine too and is free. If you’ve got any ideas for big NHS employment centres it makes sense to do routes to you’d like to see on here then do let me know as well!
I’d be interested to hear more about what kind of requirements you think would be valuable for a map/graphic overlay showing routes as you ride them, e.g. not obscuring the footage too much, displaying readable street names, is there anything else? I’m sure that with the right tools you could achieve something workable
I think it’s mostly just that, though there is the additional dilemma of whether it’s to show the whole route at once and your progress through it or a local bit of the route and the context there. I’m also concerned that any map would make the videos less enjoyable for people who mostly watch them for the visuals. Ideally it would be a toggleable layer but that’s not an option in video.
The Netherlands have great road design guidelines. Anywhere with pretensions to decent traffic management REALLY needs to take those on board. Hows about a poll of channel users to find the best and worst places for cycling in England, Scotland and Wales?
Your ideas about a wider congestion charge are interesting but I do wonder if it’s necessary the most just. Any deterrent that is financially based will disproportionately affect the poorest. You see that in central London how many flashy cars are driven around. I wonder if there is some other system involving need and potentially parking. Perhaps we could assign local parking to people who most need cars, the disabled, large families, those who need a car to travel to difficult to reach places (outside of London) for work. At the moment I live in a car free development and pay to privately park my car because due to the nature of my job it is unfortunately required. I cycle and catch the train to do everything else.
While there should always be exceptions for those with limited mobility, the Majority of Londoners don’t own a car, and the poorest Londoners will be in that group.
Yes, I want to do this! I’ve actually started working out what my ranking is, then I need to work out what sort of format the video will be… and do it. Might aim to do it as an end of year thing so a way off
Something I haven't seen touched on in this channel is what your approach is to safety from crime? Sometimes this channel will suggest routes through sketchy estates and isolated alleyways which, while they *might* feel fine if you already know the area well, will probably feel unsafe to someone who is following your routes for the first time. Do you ever worry about this kind of thing and adjust your routes accordingly?
Yes fair question- personally I’ve never felt unsafe cycling in London (unless you count road danger etc) but when I go through say a park, off road pathetic or whatever in a video I do flag whether it has lighting, that sort of thing as I know some people don’t always feel the same ways. There are also a couple of places where there’s a history of reported bike muggings - the C10 path by Millwall stadium and apparently I’ve recently learned the bridge over Lea Bridge rd, so I try and mention those when they come up (the latter I haven’t mentioned in a vid yet as it wasn’t something I was familiar with)
Can i ask a general question to the comment section: if I was to move anywhere in London so as too maximise the amount of places I could travel too only via bike, where would you suggest?
Kensington and Chelsea is the worst! they block infrastructure TfL wants to build and don’t build any of their own, councillors campaign against nearby improvements etc
Basically never these days actually, I’ve used Durano plus tyres for about a decade and they’re amazing. Can’t remember the last time I had one, would have been years ago. I did used to get them before when I first started out so you need something reasonably tough
I’d probably go to Westminster, over Westminster bridge, then C3 west until Kensington high street… then brave Kensington high street (which isn’t good)
Paris is no exception to the borough system! The richer and right-wing arrondissements suffer from the RBKC syndrome too. AltisPlay did a comparison video with 2015 recently and you can see where things have changed and where things have not. th-cam.com/video/FyovmJV8mFU/w-d-xo.html
I don't think the toffs in Kensington are known for progressive thought. I am not sure the word goes far enough, actually, and I am pretty sure they don't even care that business would improve with more bikes and less cars. Stats from other places support this.
15:58 Yeah, because everyone who lives in K&C are rich people who love their SUVs a bit too much, and don’t want as they would say “those woke cyclists” (especially considering a couple of these people probably work in think tanks and happily spread and influence the idea (well, a lie) that LTNs (that cyclists love and appreciate) and 15 minute cities i.e. making places walkable and cyclable, are international socialist conspiracy theories 😂😂) causing accidents in the roads that they’d say are the cyclist’s fault.
paris ahead of london? really? i know they're moving fast but that's honestly hard to imagine. police response to your stolen bike found is infuriating. i know they don't have infinite resources but if they can't help they shouldn't say yes.
oh it's just an impression@@Londoncycleroutes but it's based on very-very dated experience. 2021 london, 2018 paris. I know the parisians did a ton of things in 2021 but based on reporting from Mikael Colville Andersen these were pretty much slapped together and often poorly thought out. I suppose the difference between 2021 and 2024 can be light and day. Long inactivity but then a storm of sweeping change is very French.
You’re right that a lot of it was slapped together I think, in my experience (2021 most recent) a lot of the lanes just sort of give up and they often didn’t bother with junctions. But there are very good bits and so many it’s genuinely impressive!
Shout out to Andrew Gilligan who played a key role in the development of cycling infrastructure in London during his time as the Cycling Commissioner for London under former Mayor Boris Johnson. Sod Boris! Great channel; I just discovered it recently. Bravo!
Yep it was when Gilligan took over as cycling commissioner that the real good stuff started to happen
He’s also spread numerous lies about trans people and Palestinians, so not the nicest of fellows either way.
19:49 “do I ever break rules? No”. Great timing, just as you cycle carefully past 2 policemen 😅
Haha I did notice them there!
Congrats on 10k, from a fellow London cyclist and (even smaller) TH-camr. You're doing the lord's work and will only grow from here.
Thanks so much Alex! all the best
I'm pretty sure that your videos have had a positive impact on my cycling behaviour. The effort you go to to adhere to the rules strictly is absolutely worth it
That’s super interesting, I didn’t expect that!
Today I road one of your routes (Woolwich to Eltham) whilst listening to respective video of yours at 0.5 speed and it was soo good! Also quite funny as slower audio, but very helpful as was in real time and helped with direction ! Thanks a lot
The water link way down the ravensbourne river it’s great for a future video. I use it to get to Bromley, Crystal Palace
That sounds great fun and haha I bet I sounded a bit drunk in parts! Definitely want to do more on Waterlink Way, I don’t get down there anywhere near enough. I think there are some improvements coming soon so will head down there when they’re implemented to check them out
I am in South Korea and preparing for a two-week cycling trip to London in May.
Although I lived in London 10 years ago, your videos are still a great help in confirming whether my memories are still valid! Thank you.
And congratulations on 10,000!!
So glad it’s handy, enjoy your trip!
22:32 Says so much how we think about road capacity, as a society, that we constantly have the same argument about how much space cycling infrastructure takes up, when you’re cycling along countless roads were 30%+ of the space is already taken up with cars just parked in storage not going anywhere
Totally yep! good point
Good points/questions!
Gonna look at proposed routes in West via Ealing Council.
Congrats on 10K Subs + always found your videos useful and informative 🎉
Thanks very much and all the best to you! Ealing apparently have some stuff coming but I don’t know details yet…
Actually they are doing Uxbridge Road bit around iron bridge
Great video. Thanks for uploading 👍🏾. Looks like a great cycle route. I’ll have to give it a try. 😎
Thanks for watching!
Congratulations on the 10K subscribers. Did you know that your format is so groovy others are doing the same thing with other cities already? The chap doing Brum is very good and handy for those of us in the Midlands.
Nice, I’ve seen Liverpool! what’s the link/username for the brum one? I’ll check it out
@@Londoncycleroutes It's Bike Routes of Brum
@Bikeroutesofbrum
Ah, forgot to ask my own question. No worries, I'll save it for 100K 😉
Congrats on the milestone!
Haha hopefully that won’t be too long! Thanks for watching
*Congrats on 10k, well deserved!*
🤙🏽🤟🏽🤟🏽🤙🏽
Was a great Q&A!
Enjoyed the footage too.
Thank you and thanks for watching and commenting over the years!
Great video! Me and my partner sat down and watched the whole thing and found it very interesting
Great to hear it and thanks for the interesting question!
Thanks for the answers and congrats on 10k subs!! I am also extremely frustrated by RBKC council and Kensington High Street; if they put in some decent cycle lanes, it would be so useful for so many people and would be a game-changer for me!
What is the meaning of the "Royal" in RKBC? Doesn't it mean His Majesty the King has some influence on their policy?
If they are not willing to play ball the King should exercise his royal authority and strip it of its Royal credentials.
Yeah they’re are so frustrating!
It’s only ceremonial I think but the king could threaten in theory!
@@vfclistsyeah I'm not too sure, same with for Greenwich
Amazing achievement for 10k 🎉 You're videos are great and really show good ways of getting around London! Ive used a couple of the routes when Ive travelled down and you've inspired me to rip off your format and do the same in Birmingham!
Amazing I’ll check out your channel!
10k? Wowsers I remember when you had less then a hundred! Great milestone buddy and well done!
Thanks for sticking along for the ride!
Thanks for answering my question and congrats on the 10k!. I found the channel when it was on around 900 or so subs and its great to see things improve both in video quality and cycling infrastructure throughout the city. Long may it all continue!
Thanks for sticking with it - sometimes I find the earlier videos a bit painful to watch, I might have to redo some of the first ones soon
Really informative video, thank you. Thanks also for answering my question!
Thanks for asking it!
Oh... and I've not found a better city to cycle in than Perth Australia. It has stunning cycleways on all major routes. Simply amazing
Maybe one day I’ll make it there!
Congratulations on 10K! As for catching a train with your bike to reach your starting point - that is integrated transport so nothing wrong with that!
Yep that’s what it’s all about!
Very informative video, congratulations on 10k subs. London is lucky to have you
Thanks so much! And cheers for tuning in
Thank you for mentioning Edgware Road. I frequently cycle through Staples Corner and absolute hate it, Barnet and Brent councils have had decades of pressure to make this area accessible but they simply don't care.
Yeah it needs to be done. TfL is just as to blame around there (in parts) I think. Finchley Road is another
A5 is only TfL for a bit then it is managed by Councils and is the borough between Camden and Brent. The latter, of course, hate cycling so it would be difficult. Finchley Road could have a cycle track and this was consulted but it didn't pass that stage. All the wankpanzer drivers from Highgate probably obliterated any chance of that happening for the foreseeable future.
Cool Q&A! Congratulations on 10k 🎉
Cheers Merlin!
Recently discover your channel excellent work. I used to travel through London in the 70 and 80 the transformation in traffic is quite striking you disserve all the credit you can get thanks for your good work.
Thank you v much! It’s amazing how much it’s changed even in the 10-15 years I’ve been cycling here I can’t imagine the difference with the 70s!
I rode my bike around London on the inner ring road starting at Marble Arch and it took an hour, Edgware Road to Marylebone, Euston Road to Kings Cross, Pentonville Road to Islington, City Road to Shoreditch, Commercial Street to Whitechapel, around to Tower Bridge, then Bricklayers junction, to Elephant and Castle, and through Vauxhall, up to Victoria station and Hyde Park corner.
That’s a pretty epic ride!
I do agree with pricing of our roads. Thinking about the purpose of your journey can only come about through make unnecessary journeys by car more expensive.
Yep!
Congratulations on hitting your milestone!
I didn't get notified by TH-cam about your video. Instead I had my sister ask me: "Did you ask the London cycle routes two questions on his Q&A?" 😛
Thanks for all the answers.
I do find the Royal London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea very irritating. 100 years ago they were blocking London's tram network and eventually led to trams being cancelled. And they totally failed to ensure the safety of people living in Grenfell Tower, where £1,000 UKP per flat would have funded a sprinkler system that would have slowed down or stopped the initial fire. They have a long history of working against the public good. I think that every council should have a responsibility to do things that reduce deaths in their borough and that Kensington & Chelsea should be in special measures, because they are putting lives at risk, when they have enough money to be doing more.
As for political campaigning, I think that the Parliamentary Petition website system should be rolled out to cover every regional and local authority in the UK. That would allow members of the public in individual London Boroughs, who are road safety campaigners, to put in requests for joined up cycle routes or LTNs directly to Local Boroughs. And then other people who want the same thing, could sign the petition with some sort of threshold being reached to force the issue to be brought up in a council meeting. This would force councils to acknowledge the desires of people who commute through their borough by cycle, or walk it's pavements. Where the council is ignoring people, they would be forced to hear people's concerns. And where a council is working against the interest of health and safety, it would be a lot more obvious, as they would be making multiple statements about not wanting to do what was right. Yes this would also allow NIMBYs to campaign against LTNs, but that's fine. I believe that a lot of the backlash against the ULEZ expansion was by fake (55 Tufton Street) "pressure groups" rather than by real people. If real local people genuinely dislike aspects of a LTN, then those concerns should be heard and councils should try to address them. We still have a genuine need to reduce car usage, but if there are multiple ways to do an LTN and one way works better for locals, we should probably do the thing that changes the LTN from an experiment to a long term solution.
At the level of the Mayor of London, from what I understand the Mayor takes money from each borough and then gives some back to fund certain things being done locally. So I thing the councils should always be the first point of call, but where campaigners have spent time demanding solutions from the council and the council appears to be obstructive, rather than just slow, that is when people should be able to escalate existing issues up to the Mayor's level. If there has not been sufficient local campaigning, the Assembly should bump the issue back to the local council, but if their has been enough local campaigning or if the concerns are about something not controlled by Local authorities, like main roads, then the Assembly should allow the petition. And if the petition gets enough votes, the Mayor should provide an answer to the Assembly.
And likewise, the same should happen outside London. It is particularly important for people living close to the edge of Greater London to be able to cycle over the border to the surrounding counties, without suddenly being put at risk. So we need a democratic system where any road that crosses between two authorities requires some level of co-operation on this sort of thing.
Very interesting thoughts! Also great to hear your sister watches too haha. I think I actually had 3 questions from you but the third didn’t make it in due to time constraints!
+1 on the 'don't do anything to endanger / annoy pedestrians' rule. Anything that causes someone crossing the road even to alter their stride intuitively feels like it's bad behaviour to me. Thanks for the vids!!!
Yep!
Congrats! These videos have been great for learning new routes and for pointing nervous new riders at.
"If you could build one cycle route what would it be?" - I'd definitely vote for a safe north-south route through Harringay. It's frustrating to reach the northern edges of Camden/Islington/Hackney on good lanes and then not have much to connect up to the good lanes in Enfield!
Haringey would be great - I think there are medium term plans for something on Green lanes but nothing published yet. After the mayoral probably
I think England is an incredible country, I also record in the same way here in Brazil, I started making videos recently. I'll follow you from now on, I subscribed to your channel, a big hug straight from Barbacena-MG !!
Thanks so much, I’ll check out your videos! I would love to try cycling in Brazil sometime
Some great questions and answers. And compelling video too.... I lost count of the number of pedestrians walking out in front of you. 😂
It was a busy one haha and probably one reason I didn’t use the footage!
I think it would be very interesting if you occasionally made commentary videos looking into future cycling projects in London or reviewed/suggested improvements for existing ones or highlighted issues with the network. When I watch your videos you always seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of London infrastructure and I'm sure you could provide a lot of insight in reviewing plans or suggesting future ones. Wouldn't even need to be strictly cycling could just be a general London urbanism type thing.
Of course I understand you're likely already very busy as is and might not be interested in making that type of content, just an idea. Thanks for all the videos and congrats on 10k
Thanks and yeah this is something I’ve thought about doing- I wonder if I should do a sort of ‘news’ episode sometimes collating what’s happening. I do try and slip these facts into the regular videos though
@@Londoncycleroutes yeah I think some news style vids would be a great idea 👍
Congrats on hitting 10K subs!
Your videos have inspired me to do something similar for the city where I live in. It's not as big as London, not even half the size :) but it does have some cycle paths. It's also an idea for some new content for my YT channel. Keep up the good work and remember about the cycle route alongside Great West Road LOL :)
Nice, which city?
@@Londoncycleroutes it's not in the UK. A mid sized city in Poland (Katowice). I've even recorded some stuff today, covering maybe 2 or 3 routes. But I need to review the videos to see if they're any good. On top of that I may have done the routes a bit chaotic, and possibly ran a red light once at crossing xD
Great video, your best yet. You don't need a map overlay.
Thanks mate, I always appreciate your comments!
I cycle around London and am still getting to know it since I've only been here for three years. I'm never in a hurry just pottering about on my Strida and Brompton. I do try to keep the traffic rules except..... I've noticed that usually, at a crossroads junction, all four pedestrian crossings go green at the same time, so I cross the junction knowing that there's no traffic to avoid or be a danger to me. I know I'm running a red light but feel I'm not a danger to others as long as I allow pedestrians to go first.😊
Yeah a lot of people do this I think
Nice video. The A5 is a sketchy place for cycling but it has to be done sometimes 🚲🚲
Yeah often no other option!
Agree about a route in NW London. My usual commute is Harrow - Wembley and then I sometimes extend to Paddington. The best is a painted line here or there and a cycle box. Really disappointed with all the work done around Northwick Park hospital there was zero cycling infrastructure put in place.
They really need more up there for sure- there were a couple of consultations recently but no spades on the ground yet
A very interesting video 👍 Thanks, I learnt a lot! 🙂.
I'm going to put it down expert editing skills at approx' 20 mins..."Do I never break any rules?...No", just as you pass the two PC's walking in the park. 😁
Here's to many more Sunday evening videos 🍻
Haha it was pure chance but didn’t go unnoticed! Cheers 🍻
I'm really chuffed about your milestone - congratulations! I think all the questions I might have asked were answered by you already (which camera / other cities etc.)
Except one: I spent time in London 25 / 30 years ago and (to 'escape' at the weekends) often cycled the canal towpaths of north London back then. Are they still open to cyclists? Have they been surpassed by the infrastructure? Have societal changes meant they're generally reserved for walking? Thanks.
BTW, I really appreciate your firm but fair opinions on this channel. More power to your elbow!
(On another BTW, with all the pedestrians in your way, I can see why you didn't use this video for its original purpose! It felt good to see a hot summer day at this time of year, though.)
Yes good point about the pedestrians around Hyde Park Corner I think that was another reason I didn’t go for the footage. Re the towpaths: you can still ride on them but they’re quite a bit busier with people walking. Also it used to be that they were the best pleasant way to cycle places but there are better alternatives. Personally I tend to avoid on a bike as they are frustrating but some bits are better than others eg I’d use Primrose Hill to Lisson Grove etc
Thank you for this. Re getting change: Vital everyone gets out to vote and uses votes tactically to support pro-cycling councillors of all parties (especially in Kensington and Chelsea and Tower Hamlets). On the specifics at a local level, objecting to planning applications unless cycle routes are provided can be pretty powerful. The key homework is to read LTN 1/20 the UK Government rules on cycling infrastructure design which came out in June 2020. Lots of objections you can make if developers fail to do cycling properly. Objecting to say not compliant with policy is much more powerful than "we don't like this" and say you will withdraw your objection if a good solution which you describe is provided. And be realistic. Gold plating will fail when Bronze standard would be fantastic.
Great advice - and LTN1/20 is fantastic!
Cheers for the vid as always. I wish I'd got a question in beforehand - it would have been something like: almost every not-London town and city in this country is light years behind London and that distance is only increasing... how can we address this and get other places up to a similar standard? I'd say the average town or city is closer to the K&C end of the spectrum than the Waltham Forest one in terms of wanting to enable cycling. Or apathetic at best if not actively hostile. Maybe a few things got done here and there through the Active Travel Fund, but that's dried up as the political weather has changed, and the vision generally doesn't seem to be there for councils to go for things on their own.
Great question - I honestly don’t know! It requires political leadership at the national and local level. Local campaign groups can put pressure and show there is demand. But it’s hard and they’re starting from a very low base. Yet the potential is enormous - really if you live in a medium sized town you can cycle from one end to the other in 10 minutes. Better than London!
Mayor of London question: There is no cycle-able river crossing east of Tower Bridge so I would convert one bore of the Silvertown Tunnel for use by cyclists and keep the other just for buses. Yes, I know about Rotherhithe and have cycled through it, but it’s not really cycle-able.
They would be cool - agree there’s a big need for a crossing there. There was a plan for a cycle and walking bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf which would have been amazing but it was canned due to lack of funds. Hope it comes back
I saw a proposal of a cycling/walking bridge next to the Thames Barrier a while ago and have been intrigued by the idea ever since. Hope something like it can come to be
You can take bikes on the Woolwich Ferry, which is nice.. but can be very slow if you just missed one and the Ferry is very unreliable last couple years. I of course would never ever suggest cycling through the Woolwich or Greenwich tunnels 😇
Might be a good idea to put these in playlists according to locations. What you can do is divide them into N, NE, E, SE, S, etc., London.
My idea is to split up departures and destinations so that its easier to look up for example:
Departure: North
Departure: East
Departure: South.
...
and then
Destination: North
Destination: East
...etc
It would then be easier to find the relevant videos according to departure or destination so for example a video for eg., Bank to Stratford would be placed in both:
Depature: Central and
Destination: East.
The point is that, if I live in Stratford I can find out what routes I can use to get home. Or if I live by Bank (just an example) what routes can I use just to get out of here to somewhere else.
Check out the map of routes linked in description! it does the same thing if I understand you correctly
Excellent work! Thank you for the videos! What camera setup is it?
Thanks! I go into more detail in the q&a but it’s a GoPro hero 11 mounted on my handlebars usually
The City of Paris has 16 Boroughs. The 16 district is similar to Kensington. So local government in Paris can also stop things.
They do have elected councils but the powers are very limited compared to London boroughs
Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport are areas very close together and have excellent infrastructure between them (A 90% off road cycle network between Gosport and Fareham using dedicated cycle and walkways and a shared Cycle/Bus road, and a foot passenger ferry service which accepts bikes between Gosport and Portsmouth). It would definitely be a good experience for you with a few of your great quality videos from it too 😊
Nice, I have some friends down there I’ve been meaning to visit, maybe I should bring my bike!
High st Ken had plastic wands for 6 weeks back in 2020..... Shame they got rid of them
Yeah absolute fiasco!
I just chanced on your video. Found it interesting but would like a bit of commentary. Where are you? Where are you going? What sights are you passing? What are the surfaces like? Which way is the wind blowing? Are you going uphill or downhill? As a lifelong Londoner I recognise some places but I live in South London and much of North London is a foreign country to me. Also, you seem to be travelling very fast - have you got an ebike? What speed are you doing?
I've got to add my comment to this. He introduced it as footage from the Summer of 21, and used it as background for his dialogue. My immediate thought after watching it is that up until @20:00 would be a wonderful episode in itself, it was so incredibly green and agreeable in terms of nature of the people and traffic. After @20.xx was also interesting, but nowhere near as peaceful and safe. (I was raised a Londoner, but emigrated in my youth to North Am, have spent a few work sojourns back in London more recently) Up until @20:xx, I could handle all eventualities as presented even being used to other side of road driving. After that, too many incidents happened with other cyclists, pedestrians, vehicles that he reacted to well, but I would have been flustered by.
I just love cycling along with many of his episodes, and this one was especially that.
Cheers! I do usually do that stuff in the videos on this channel but this was a special edition where I just talked over some random footage…. First one is St Paul’s to Kensington, second is Acton Central to Hammersmith Bridge!
Oh and the video is speeded up to I think 130% so am just cycling quite normally on a regular bike
Spot on and thanks so much for the kind comment!
@@Londoncycleroutes Thanks for that. I have a Ribble ebike (love it) and would like to do a circular route from Waterloo, London Bridge or Victoria perhaps. Does such a thing exist? Say about 15 miles?
14:05 Would a map with a lower opacity work? like one you can somewhat see through? idk, just an idea
What I've learned to do is have a map up in an adjacent tab in my browser to click back and forth to reference. There might be a better way, perhaps by running an app in an adjacent tab that moves in sync.
That might be an excellent question for my nephew, who runs an animation studio and is an avid cyclist. I'll forward the question to him and get back to this string.
This is a good solution! V smart
Possibly… I do wonder whether it would make the videos less enjoyable for some people still? but I will continue to play around with the idea!
@@Londoncycleroutes I don't know if the ability is in the TH-cam scripting, but on some news media, like the NYTimes and other well supported websites, they have a feature where the user can use the cursor to sweep across the screen to show 'before and after' features or other features like 'internal construction vs topical appearance'.
I'll investigate.
There's a slew of 'how to' vids on-line for split screen composing of vids.
Well done mate 🎉
What are your views on cars in general may I ask?
Cheers! Cars I don’t really have an issue with in themselves, I know some people find them interesting etc and of course they can be useful in a lot of situations. I think they can be an issue in inner cities especially if overused and if we build cities the right way with good public transport and safe streets etc you can eliminate a lot of the need to use them for most journeys and end up with a nicer city too. Haven’t got one myself but got nothing against people necessarily having one
[At 22 mins]
An obvious way to reduce traffic is to encourage more people to cycle. So refusing LTNs is often counterproductive, despite politicians’ claims.
Yep! Spot on
Hello. I am a recent subscriber, so catching up with older videos. All amazing so far! May I ask what mode you shoot your videos on GoPro please? TimeWarp or normal video at 4K 60fps? When I try on my Hero 12, mine heats up so unable to record very long.
Welcome! I use 40K 60fps basic yeah - that’s annoying about the overheat, it’s not an issue I’ve run into myself though I’ve seen a few people mention it online as well. Time warp looks cool but I need the longer battery life basically!
There may be other settings to fiddle with - eg I don’t use GPS as it drains the battery, but that could cause overheating maybe?
@@Londoncycleroutes New to GoPro also. The Hero 12 is my very first action camera haha. I will definitely give that a try (turning off GPS). Cheers! Safe cycling!
Can you do some South East london suburb routes please? Sidcup to North Greenwich (O2 Arena, Jubilee Line Station), or Sidcup to Orpington routes? This part of London is a bit of a mish mash and it would be great if you are able to find some viable routes. Thank you!
I would like to do more around here but it’s tricky as the infrastructure isn’t really there… but I’ll take a note of these ideas and have a look!
@@Londoncycleroutes totally understand it is pretty poor. Trying to find a route that is feasible from Sidcup to North Greenwich or just any South East London location to North Greenwich (for the tube connection, very popular destination in the morning) or to other major hubs that get you in to London would be much appreciated from this part of town. But there is a hell of a lot of work to be done, just simple No Cycling signs on important bridges and footpaths (that are wide enough for both pedestrians and cycles) need to be changed to shared spaces. Would do wonders without even having to go full hog on full infrastructure.. yet.. just minor adjustments and a few traffic order requests. Anyway! Look forward to more South East London videos. Thank you for the great work!
@@iamjosef3d yeah completely agree about no cycling - there's a half OK route out of Bromley that's ruined by a no cycling sign on a key path. I will continue to look, I know it's an area people want more in!
The London's cycling network is now four times the length than that it was in 2016
Yep counting by cycleways! It’s come on a lot
Go on do Manchester and Salford please. 🙏
I really want to check out the infra in Manchester
Hi, could you do a most beautiful cycle routes in London which go by places of interest and/or royal parks (on cycle lanes/quiet streets!)?
That’s a decent idea I will have a think about the way to do it
Hi there John, how do you edit your videos, you've inspired me to make videos about the safest/best routes for health workers to commute to NHS sites and i'm wondering how to get started.
Cool idea! I use Final Cut Pro, but iMovie works fine too and is free. If you’ve got any ideas for big NHS employment centres it makes sense to do routes to you’d like to see on here then do let me know as well!
I’d be interested to hear more about what kind of requirements you think would be valuable for a map/graphic overlay showing routes as you ride them, e.g. not obscuring the footage too much, displaying readable street names, is there anything else? I’m sure that with the right tools you could achieve something workable
I think it’s mostly just that, though there is the additional dilemma of whether it’s to show the whole route at once and your progress through it or a local bit of the route and the context there. I’m also concerned that any map would make the videos less enjoyable for people who mostly watch them for the visuals. Ideally it would be a toggleable layer but that’s not an option in video.
Understand if you don’t want to answer, but what borough do you live in? Thanks for the videos!
I’m in Lambeth these days, have previously been in Camden and very briefly Westminster
The Netherlands have great road design guidelines. Anywhere with pretensions to decent traffic management REALLY needs to take those on board.
Hows about a poll of channel users to find the best and worst places for cycling in England, Scotland and Wales?
I’m always interested in hearing people’s stories about the infrastructure where they live!
Your ideas about a wider congestion charge are interesting but I do wonder if it’s necessary the most just. Any deterrent that is financially based will disproportionately affect the poorest. You see that in central London how many flashy cars are driven around. I wonder if there is some other system involving need and potentially parking. Perhaps we could assign local parking to people who most need cars, the disabled, large families, those who need a car to travel to difficult to reach places (outside of London) for work. At the moment I live in a car free development and pay to privately park my car because due to the nature of my job it is unfortunately required. I cycle and catch the train to do everything else.
Yes equity is a fair point re road charging! Definitely something that should be taken into account
While there should always be exceptions for those with limited mobility, the Majority of Londoners don’t own a car, and the poorest Londoners will be in that group.
Could you rank all the London boroughs from worst to best for cycling?
Yes, I want to do this! I’ve actually started working out what my ranking is, then I need to work out what sort of format the video will be… and do it. Might aim to do it as an end of year thing so a way off
Something I haven't seen touched on in this channel is what your approach is to safety from crime? Sometimes this channel will suggest routes through sketchy estates and isolated alleyways which, while they *might* feel fine if you already know the area well, will probably feel unsafe to someone who is following your routes for the first time. Do you ever worry about this kind of thing and adjust your routes accordingly?
Yes fair question- personally I’ve never felt unsafe cycling in London (unless you count road danger etc) but when I go through say a park, off road pathetic or whatever in a video I do flag whether it has lighting, that sort of thing as I know some people don’t always feel the same ways. There are also a couple of places where there’s a history of reported bike muggings - the C10 path by Millwall stadium and apparently I’ve recently learned the bridge over Lea Bridge rd, so I try and mention those when they come up (the latter I haven’t mentioned in a vid yet as it wasn’t something I was familiar with)
Can i ask a general question to the comment section: if I was to move anywhere in London so as too maximise the amount of places I could travel too only via bike, where would you suggest?
Depends how much you can pay and where you need to go really. Hackney is a pretty good bet tho!
@@Londoncycleroutes thankyou!
I can’t find the map of the videod routes
I don’t think I did a map for this one sorry! They were just meant as background footage
Please expand on what you mean when some boroughs are bad and actively hostile! & Which boroughs specifically ?
Kensington and Chelsea is the worst! they block infrastructure TfL wants to build and don’t build any of their own, councillors campaign against nearby improvements etc
16:32 imagine cycling the SL7 thats like 38km
Yeah it would be tricky! A long way and a long way in outer London as well
Way over an hour cycling it in whole 😊😊
Are you prone to getting tire punctures in London?
Basically never these days actually, I’ve used Durano plus tyres for about a decade and they’re amazing. Can’t remember the last time I had one, would have been years ago. I did used to get them before when I first started out so you need something reasonably tough
@@Londoncycleroutes what about something like the gp 4 seasons
There doesn't seem to be a great route for my commute E&C to Hammersmith. It appears to be best to just hug the river
I’d probably go to Westminster, over Westminster bridge, then C3 west until Kensington high street… then brave Kensington high street (which isn’t good)
@@Londoncycleroutes So... I did this on Friday. The whole E&C to Kensington High St was lovely... but OMG Kensington High St was horrific.. lol
@@duncanstewart9289 lol yeah it's awful, such a big gap for so many routes! glad the rest of it was alright...
Paris is no exception to the borough system! The richer and right-wing arrondissements suffer from the RBKC syndrome too.
AltisPlay did a comparison video with 2015 recently and you can see where things have changed and where things have not.
th-cam.com/video/FyovmJV8mFU/w-d-xo.html
Interesting, I didn’t know this!
I don't think the toffs in Kensington are known for progressive thought. I am not sure the word goes far enough, actually, and I am pretty sure they don't even care that business would improve with more bikes and less cars. Stats from other places support this.
The politics of the council is awful
15:58
Yeah, because everyone who lives in K&C are rich people who love their SUVs a bit too much, and don’t want as they would say “those woke cyclists” (especially considering a couple of these people probably work in think tanks and happily spread and influence the idea (well, a lie) that LTNs (that cyclists love and appreciate) and 15 minute cities i.e. making places walkable and cyclable, are international socialist conspiracy theories 😂😂) causing accidents in the roads that they’d say are the cyclist’s fault.
The northern wards of RBKC are a lot more normal! But they don’t really get represented
first
That was quick haha
paris ahead of london? really? i know they're moving fast but that's honestly hard to imagine. police response to your stolen bike found is infuriating. i know they don't have infinite resources but if they can't help they shouldn't say yes.
Interesting about Paris, to me it seemed unarguable but interested in the reasoning if you have a different view!
oh it's just an impression@@Londoncycleroutes but it's based on very-very dated experience. 2021 london, 2018 paris. I know the parisians did a ton of things in 2021 but based on reporting from Mikael Colville Andersen these were pretty much slapped together and often poorly thought out. I suppose the difference between 2021 and 2024 can be light and day. Long inactivity but then a storm of sweeping change is very French.
You’re right that a lot of it was slapped together I think, in my experience (2021 most recent) a lot of the lanes just sort of give up and they often didn’t bother with junctions. But there are very good bits and so many it’s genuinely impressive!
Visiting in May. Is there a bike share system tourists can access?
Yep, several. The municipal one is Santander cycles but there are also dockless ones