Aldgate

I am going to confine my thoughts here to the very singular point of 'networks'.

Mark Treasure has recently written: "Encouragingly there will be a cycle route running north-south across this area [...]. Without this link, anyone coming from the south on a bike would have to travel around three sides of a large, busy rectangle, so it is pleasing that it has been included."

Image from aseasyasriding.

A close-up of the north-south route is shown below:

Image from aseasyasriding

The problem is that the road heading 'south' doesn't really go south at all: it goes west.

Jewry Street, the 'north-south' route south of Aldgate, is marked in yellow.

Anyone coming from the south, from Tower Bridge, say, would probably want to use Minories. (The parallel route, Vine Street, is a relatively poor alternative at the moment.)

Vine Street

Looking back at the images from aseasyasriding, it is far from certain that any serious consideration has been given to a north-south route which joins up to Tower Bridge (even if this route would only be available to existing cyclists for the time being).

Minories (as it is currently configured).

Currently Minories is one-way southbound. Under the new plans, it is to be returned to its original state. Now, never mind that any serious pro-cycling policy is also about taking away from the car, and not just about cycle networks and cycle infrastructure, and so forth. Never mind that for the moment.

Image from aseasyasriding

Minories is that road coming up from the south, in the bottom left of the image above.

Mark writes: "The only useful function of an ASL is to allow you to position yourself ahead of stationary traffic to make a right turn, but the City plans to install three of these ASLs in locations where you can’t even turn right."

However, in the two places where you would need to make a right turn (into Minories heading south, and onto the new cycle path heading north), there is nothing.

Actually I am not suggesting that we should be thinking in terms of ASLs here. I think a similar sort of layout to the one proposed for Jewry Street is the least that would be acceptable.

But it has to be said that, even if all we set out to do was to develop a cycling environment which, in the early years, could only be used by The Enthused and Confident, say, the reason things like this are happening is because we are not thinking in terms of a network. You can't explain it any other way.