Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Cycling around London

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Cycling around London

After seeing pictures of dear old Madonna cycling around London on her mountain bike, I am wondering if this way of getting around could be an alternative to taking the bus or the Tube. Are there established cycle routes around the city and what about safety etc. Look forward to some feedback!

Have a look at http://www.lcc.org.uk/ You'll find a link to cycling in parks and along canals. Lots of people cycle in London but I'd start in the parks first, much safer!

A lot of people ride in London. But for most tyourists it would be a death sentence. I am exaggerating but only slightly. The traffic has to be seen to be believed and all of your normal riding instincts will be 180 degrees out of sync. American pedestrians have enough trouble just remembering to look right first. With the shorter reaction times on a bike it is even harder. Riding fro pleasure in the parks or out in the countryside is one thing - but using a bike for transit in London is not a good idea.

make that "tourists"

Reluctantly, I agree. I cycle some four days a week in central London: I was cycling on the Strand six hours ago. The traffic is tight, and all road users use every inch they can find, just to keep moving at all. Recreational cycling in the parks and beside canals is indeed a good idea, and cycling in the City (meaning the area of the Roman ands medieval cities) is pleasant and uncrowded after seven pm and at weekends. If you are raised to it, cycling here is good. I began when I was ten, just after the war. But I have to agree, not for visitors. I do hope somebody will contradict me. Ben Haines

The three most dangerous things in the world to do" Have group sex in an AIDS ward. Sky dive without a parachute over shark infested waters of the Pacific. Ride a bicycle in London. You decide.

I think cycling in Paris must be at least as dicey. Almost as much as being a pedestrian in London when a cyclist decides the pavement (=sidewalk) belongs to him. (Native Londoner's pet peeve there, sorry).

Thank you all for your replies. I have cycled in the UK before, in Cambridge, and I found the drivers there to be considerate and aware of cyclists. I therefore may, tenatively, try it in London;)

You have cycled in Cambridge. My goodness, that throws a whole new light on your question. You have all the right habits as to which side to cycle, where to stop at lights, and which shoulder to look over. London rush hour traffic is little worse than that of Cambridge: you are well practiced for London. Before I leapt into this correspondence and pedalled sorrowfully in the wrong direction your questions were about established cycle routes around the city and about safety. There are established cycle routes around London, and any bike shop will sell you the map to see those routes and plan your trip. Some of the distance is on marked cycle paths, but idiot drivers still park on them. People who walk along them will budge if belled politely: I then speak my thanks. Some distance is simply recommendations for back streets less full than others of busses and cars. In plenty of places a ten-yard walk over a pavement takes us from one traffic lane to another, and avoids great diversions that cars must take. We can use any bus lane that is not a counterflow (and in fact nobody stops us using bus counter-flows either), but clearly it is polite to stop when we can to let buses run along their lane past us, or (more advanced because more dangerous and more polite) to pull out with hand signals into the traffic lane, to give a bus a clear run. A bus is fifty people, a bike is one. Brush up your hand signals. First, you need a bike on which you sit up and beg, and survey the cars around you, not a machine that has you bent double (anyway, after a pub lunch your tum needs space to work). Next, you make huge signals. Left and right you know: are you good at ?I am going straight ahead? and ?I am stopping? ? Also, I think road manners are improving, and nowadays both we and drivers spend some effort to wave often to thank people. Your bike shop will reveal all. It is well worth checking the bell you get on your bike, and replacing it if it is quiet. There is a good and shiny monster called a chalice bell. More, if you have two bells, one each side, you can ring either while signalling with the opposite hand. You will of course test and adjust the brakes: hub brakes deal better than outside brakes with rain or drizzle. You can think about exceeding the legal minimum of lighting. The bike you buy will have reflectors on wheels, and reflectors front and rear. By law you fit a front and rear lamp, but nothing stops you piling on one or two extra rear lamps, on the bike frame or on your cycle helmet (you will have a helmet, of course, both to only to encourage children to wear them and to eschew life as a vegetable). You need a couple of spare batteries in your bag: these days they are tiny. Some folk wear those reflective Sam Browns, but I think they look ugly. Your gloves should be light coloured or have reflector strips. But you can ask the bike shop to glue reflector strips to any pair of gloves you have. You do need leather gloves, and a stout woollen scarf, but not a coat. Well, you know that from Cambridge, and London is warmer. Continued

Continued Most people have those huge and heavy D bolt locks, but I have used a cable and lock for decades, without theft. The locks used by the happy cyclists of Amsterdam are too light to protect a bike from our canny lads in London. We chain up to cycle racks where they exist and lamp posts and railings otherwise: unlike motorists we do not park where we will narrow the path for pedestrians. You can take your bike between ten and four and after seven weekdays, and any hour weekends, on the District, Circle, Metropolitan, East London, and Hammersmith and City lines. Also on any above ground train except the Stansted Express and Eurostar. Above ground too the rules ban us at rush hours, but I have found that courtesy and a smile gets me on board any time. We do not cycle in stations. You need a mental map or a real map (from the cycle shop) of bike shops that fit new inners after punctures. No shop puts on patches any more. Not that punctures are at all common, but it is nice to know where to go if need be. So how is it ? Alarming at first, but soon a habit, and I am afraid not at all good for the psyche, as we feel immensely superior to motorists in sense, height, courtesy to pedestrians, and obedience to the law. The splendid London Cycling Campaign (do read their web pages) annually races cyclists car drivers and pedestrians on trains for journeys of six miles or so from home to work. We win. And the sense of a city at our feet (literally) is a joy, as it is in Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Paris (bit trafficky that) and other cities. I am sure I have missed something: please write. Welcome to gyratory London. Ben Haines

> I think cycling in Paris must be at least as dicey. I hope you are wrong. I am planing on taking the evening tour with Mike's Bike Tours. Keith