🚲 A brilliant new way to cycle from Waterloo to Liverpool Street
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
- You can cycle from Waterloo in south central London to Liverpool Street in east central London, entirely on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes.
The route is 3.8km long (2.3 miles) and makes use of the newly traffic-filtered Bank junction, as well as protected lanes on Cycleway 3 and LTNs around Waterloo.
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You can see a digital map of the route and download a GPS/GPX file to use on whatever device or app you want here:
www.komoot.com...
And you can find a viewer-created and maintained map of all the London Cycle Routes videos here:
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I also highly recommend the Safe Cycle London map for route planning, which is compiled by @SafeCycleLDN on twitter:
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Great video!! Love the new Bank Junction scheme (although I don't think taxis should be allowed through as they do create congestion). Hope the City (and London as a whole) does more stuff like this! I also agree that the City could have reclaimed more space for pedestrians, and I think there are a lot of streets in Central London with very little traffic that still have 80% of their space dedicated to cars. It would be a game-changer if there could be some sort of scheme to pedestrianise all of these streets
Yes I agree about the taxis issue, I think it’s only certain turns they can do. I’m hoping the plan to let more use it next year doesn’t water it down so much. I’d have gone into that in the commentary if I had more time!
The general transformation of the city to support pedestrians/cyclists is amazing. So much more pleasant to work and travel in
Though that bit next to Blackfriars is a bit strange in rush hour. The lights need to adjust to account for the lack of traffic rather than having hoards of pedestrians/cycle commuters running reds
Yes totally agree, it needs a retime
Awesome route, never knew you could do that!
You couldn’t really until recently!
*Wow, had no idea they've completely re-done Bank* 😮
I used to look at route plannin and think that junction could be a bit tense 😂
Thanks for the update and route!
It should make a big difference getting around this area of town!
So glad they sorted Bank junction out :)
It’s a huge improvement!
I just happen to cycle Threadneedle Street today, same day as this video was posted. City of London is so easy to get around these days on a bike.
Yeah even though they haven’t built too many lanes there aren’t many bits that are truly scary or whatever. Still a way to go but Bank is such a good project
Planning a trip with friends to the city so this is very timely!
Enjoy!
"..it's curvy due to it being a former country road.." 🤯 "..and it was laid down in the Norman period.." 🤯🤯
It’s old haha!
Are there any cycle path on Roman roads?
@@einsam_aber_frei almost certainly in the Square Mile! It would be nice to have one on the A5 too, which I think is Roman...
I live far out in the Wild West and have been using your videos, Kamoot and more recently ‘we are cycling UK’ to plan my rides in/around where I live and more recently cycling into the city. Videos like this are super useful as it’s been ages since I have been brave enough to travel around the big smoke by bike. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and I'm glad they are coming in handy and have been able to get out on the bike a bit!
These changes at Bank and around the City of London more generally have made active travel a lot safer and much more enjoyable! I am noticing more of my colleagues having the confidence to participate in active travel, which is wonderful.
RE. the last comment on the pavements, I think the planners have done well to widen some of the pavements at Bank (I work on QVS now, and they have re-claimed a lot of space for pedestrians on that corner (which is visible on street view)) . I remember pedestrians used to spill out onto the road from the narrow pavements, and feeling very crowded when walking around here. I agree this could have been more ambitious. Nevertheless, overall they've done a great job; this busy junction feels a lot safer now.
oh yes it's a huge improvement don't get me wrong
This route's so handy just for connecting Liverpool St. to the embankment cycle path, since I love using it whenever I can. Cycled a few times to change trains from Paddington and ended up horribly lost on busy roads for the last few hundred meters. Glad I won't have to walk from a safer santander dock anymore!
Yeah it’s finally a good way through the area!
I use Southwark bridge. Some nice quiet roads there too. Finish the same way as you. I have been riding that Thread needle section a lot, with a variety of restrictions. When it opened it gave me a little buzz of liberation as my tyres smoothly rolled through unhindered.
Haha yes a new cycle path often does feel like that!
Great video, and an excellent sunny day for cycling through the City. I don't remember all those tents on Castle Baynard Street in your previous videos, though. 😪
Yes sad to see!
Castle Baynard Street has excellent sound reverberation!
The low light isn’t great for my camera image stabilisation unfortunately!
I pass through Bank from east to west on my commute, usually on Cornhill or Lombard Street. I wasn't aware of the changes to Old Broad Street and Threadneedle, I will tweak my usual route to give that approach a try.
Also very helpful to see how Old Broad Street spits you out at Liverpool Street when travelling south to north. More than once when navigating by eye I've got a bit muddled about where to go to get to the station from London Wall or Commercial Street. Won't have that problem again - ta! Great to see how how your learnings can apply to my own journeys even if not doing strictly the same A-to-B route.
Yes I know exactly what you mean about it being a bit confusing - I always feel like I need to take the right fork for some reason but left up threadneedle is actually better
I use Queen Victoria Street after Blackfriars Bridge - it's often quiet especially at weekends.
Yeah the City is basically a free run at weekends haha
I often take a similar route on foot to go to Eataly near Liverpool Street Station, stopping at the Royal Exchange to buy Countess Grey (tea from Fortnum & Mason) en route 😋
I ate at eataly once before, some great food there! I’m sort of glad I don’t live or work near it or I’d be in there every day haha
@@Londoncycleroutes Great but not cheap! I only buy what I can't buy elsewhere lol
I'm starting to think that this channel is being secretly funded by Khan to get back Londoners that have left over the years due to the massive road congestion problems prior. I love all of the episodes, but this one especially epitomizes the radical change for the better for cycling in London's core.
Wow....got to watch this one again.
Haha you’re welcome back any time!
Another nice route! Aren't there plans to build a cycle lane up Queen Victoria Street between Blackfriars and Bank? I seem to recall you raised it in a previous video -- is there any update?
There are! When they’re done that’ll be more direct and move the dog leg at Blackfriars on this route. They haven’t been announced yet but I got the designs off the City via FOI. I wouldn’t expect them to happen for some time but they’ll be welcome I think
"Counter-terrorism barriers." Had often encountered them, but had no idea what they were, until now.
Yeah they’re to stop vehicle attacks on bridges… personally think they’re stupid as anyone could simply do a vehicle attack not on a bridge. Box ticking exercise
thanks for sharing! love your watching your routes. could you not have turned right instead of left at 02:50 and then left onto Southwark St. and then left onto Southwark Bridge Rd bringing you to the intersection at 05:26
ah, southwark st doesn't have a protected cycle lane and it's not entirely a quiet street although I'm on it every day and I find it to be a surprisingly low traffic in the mornings but yeah, sometimes large trucks and buses on it can get intimidating without a protected lane.
Yeah it’s not awful, it’s just the sort of street I’d usually avoid in a video - but might be a minute quicker if you’re fine with it. It’s a good candidate for protected cycle lanes I reckon
Nice to see London improving since I was last there (which was before the pandemic).
Which makes me wonder: which route would you say has changed the most since you started making these videos?
Regarding the intersection you mentioned at the end, at Bank station, that could have more space taken from cars: That's a fairly easy thing to do in a few years, at least from a technical point of view. Getting the political support is, as always, the big obstruction.
good question! compared to pre-pandemic I think it must be Chiswick High Road/Hammersmith - the new cycleway there has been totally revolutionary, there was nothing there before really
@@GustavSvard that is true!
Hey, been following for a while now ! Amazing video quality, do you have a chest mount or a handlebar mount? Is that gopro or DJI Osmo?
Hey, I use a GoPro hero 11 and I mount it on the handlebars!
Fab. Is there a good route from Kings Cross St Pancras Euston to Liverpool St yet? I'm imagining people on cycles from up north heading that way for the ferry to the Netherlands. (Obviously you could simply use the cycle route down to Blackfriars and then this one, but that's difficult currently as there's massive gas or water works blocking the route southbound.)
C27 and change to C11 all the way down to the City, then approach the bank junction through Cheapside might work
Sort of… there is a route past Smithfield Market but it’s a big construction site at the moment with lots of roads closed. I’ve been waiting for the Barbican and Bunhill LTN that City and Islington are jointly working on - at the moment there’s a bit of a blind spot for getting from Cycleway 6 over to the City (except via C3). Briefly during the pandemic when Beech Street was filtered that was a good way and hopefully it will be again when the LTN comes in
@@Londoncycleroutes Will that LTN improve the Skinner-Percival-Lever route as well? It's a shame that there is some cycle infrastructure there, but a lot of parked cars and rat running that otherwise ruins what would be a nice link between Margery and Bunhill.
@@Londoncycleroutes I shall look forward to that new LTN.
@@Londoncycleroutes It would be good if they could also resurface Beech Street while they're about it. If you think Upper Ground leaves a bit to be desired ...
The City of London started to be anti-car well before the rest of Greater London. But originally it was just a "make it harder for terrorists" thing. It's nice to see them turning anti-car into pro-bike.
There do need to be some options for shops based in every road to have deliveries brought in, so I wouldn't want to see all of Greater London made to be vehicle free. As you said, you just get illegal parking and loading. But the City of London specifically designed road junctions to throw traffic out of the City of London and that has probably increased the health of the people who live in the City.
I think that the "Ring of Steel" attitude that the City of London created is kind of more of a "Low Traffic Borough" policy than a "Low Traffic Neigbourhood" policy. With the earlier big roadbuilding schemes, that have brought lots of big A roads and motorways towards the heart of London, we kind of ended up with the people running the City pushing cars into the neighboring boroughs. So rather than work to reduce total traffic into Greater London, the City of London was looking after it's own interest here. (Just look at the A roads that go straight towards the City and then suddenly bend around it.)
Now the City have changed from keeping away confused motorists to altering the public realm to make things better for cyclists and pedestrians, I think this is a bit more of an adult way to move forward with that part of London. With some caution I would like to see this approach pushed out to other Central London boroughs. The City of Westminster has far more tourism than the City of London, and yet important place, like Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus are still relatively busy road junctions, where you have thousands of pedestrians getting into potential conflict with cars.
I think one thing we need to do is downgrade some of the Central London bridges from A roads to B roads. We can not downgrade them all the B roads, but we can certainly move away from the assumption that bridges that are hundreds of years old have to take HGVs or that big public squares that are next to a bridge automatically need to be traffic roundabouts.
However, I do think that the Congestion Charge Zone added to what the Ring of Steel was already doing and shifted the problem outward. The ULEZ is now tackling that greater problem (and will extend the lives of Londoners) but ultimately, charge or no charge, I think our problems come from A roads bringing vehicles into London and then putting them onto streets where they compete with pedestrians and cyclists. The City of London removed A roads and we need to remove a number of A roads from Greater London.
We will always need to have delivery vehicles. And we will always need to make it possible for big construction vehicles to come into London and there are going to have to be some circumstances where vehicles are brought into pedestrianised areas. But just as Tower Bridge went from opening to ships on demand to a booking service, I think we could slowly move to a system where traffic police motorcycles escort the especially dangerous vehicles into Central London and vehicles that are not going to Central London are not allowed to drive through Central London.
Interesting idea about police motorcycles! I guess we’re pretty far from that point where we stand but hopefully moving in the right direction!
Out of curiosity, may I ask why you favour going over Blackfriars Bridge rather than Southwark Bridge? Especially with that hairpin turn.
Yes a fair question! It’s because the southern approach to Southwark bridge is a bit substandard imv- the CS7 lanes give up and there are weird build outs as well and parking. Probably fine for a lot of people but I try to stick to the most comfortable bits for videos and I think the hairpin is worth it usually
@@Londoncycleroutes Not to mention there's no advanced green light heading north and have vehicles up your rear end crossing the junction, having to dice with HGVs and other big units on the Southwark climb when the lane gives up is far from ideal for many cyclists too.
If I'm avoiding BHS at weekends, I'll often take Southwark going southbound because the timing of the lights means you get a clear run all the way, but they really need to take another look at northbound. Not fun when coaches are parked outside Riverside House and you're having to navigate traffic to get into the segregated lane.
Can't help but think with a bit more thought, ambition (and money) they could two-way track the CS7 all the way down to Gaunt Street.
@@mgbrewhard yeah northbound is definitely worse. it doesn't help that CS7 isn't brilliant either - I wish southwark and TfL would fix it up, it's nearly there but there are a couple of bits where the lane just suddenly runs into a parking space that makes me avoid using it in videos
What a great channel. Does this route work in the opposite direction, Liverpool Street to Waterloo?
Yes it does -- all the one way streets allow contraflow cycling.
Yep! It’s symmetrical but the only thing to watch out for is the turn from Old Broad Street into Threadneedle from the opposite direction is still a bit messy with the construction works layout, so take care
Does anyone know if there are plans for further improvements along Bishopsgate? It really has the feel of a half-completed scheme.
That’s a very good question - I agree it’s a bit half finished. It sort of makes the street better for confident cyclists but doesn’t quite bring it to LTN level as there are so many buses etc. I haven’t seen any further plans myself - I know it was stuck in taxi legal challenge limbo for a while so it’s possible they’re working on something now. Moorgate is similar I think - it’s not quite there yet
I bet Rishi's police protected covoys can use it. We have Zil lanes in our capital city.
They’d have a hard time getting through the bollards on Threadneedle!
The pavements were extended on Bank junction, I think they went as far as they could without impacting road space required for the Lord Mayors Show.
Ah the Lord mayor’s show, I think I heard something along those lines too. I know they extended them it just still feels rather open!
ahh liverpool street station, the friday evening nose bag for londons stockbrokers.
It certainly has a vibe!
You are right about the cycle lane traffic lights on North side of Black friars bridge - very frustrating and confusing
There are so many of them in such quick succession
The Bank junction would be a lot better if cyclists obeyed the traffic lights etc
I wonder if something could be done with the timings - one thing I didn’t mention is that it can be a long wait staring at an empty road (which tend to encourage, if not excuse, light jumping on a bike)
Great video 🎉
Do you know if there’s a way to report illegally parked cars on cycle lanes?
In Walthamstow on hoe st there’s a stretch with so many cars still doing this and it’s very annoying. What’s the best way to report and maybe get them To move?!
I wish there was a better way - most boroughs will let you report a parking offence on their website but ive never know them to actually do anything in response (this presumably varies by borough but in general it takes so long to send someone out that the offender is usually gone anyway). It might be worth repeat reporting if there’s a particular black spot or writing to your councillor about it if it’s in your ward
@@Londoncycleroutes thanks mate!
Someone asked me if I wanted an unopened pack of cheese for free on Wednesday outside Liverpool St.
A tempting offer
Nice homeless shelter on Castle Baynard Street.
It’s sad to see!
It's just a shame that this is basically the exception rather than the rule. Just give cyclists a couple of segregated/car-free routes east to west and north-south
There’s definitely more to do! But check out the other videos on the channel, there’s some decent routes emerging
3:35 dunno about that. Have you witnessed cyclist behaviour at pedestrian crossings these days in LDN? Not uncommon to see cyclists completely ignoring them and screaming through them, even while pedestrians are walking across them.
I know what you mean but those people do it for signal crossings too so i reckon this set up just penalises people following the rules at an empty junction while people breaking them steam through whatever
How quaint - a cyclist stopping at a red light ..a rarity whilst driving in London these days ..
Not sure that’s true!
@@Londoncycleroutes trust me, I wouldn’t comment so if it wasn’t my experience- much the same as the delivery cyclist/scooters who seem to think that traffic lights are for decoration purpose only (and motorists who think that indicators have no function…)