When the shoe's on the other foot.

[TimO]

I don't know this route, but wouldn't it be quicker to use the road?

Not really.

Click on image for double size

The red lines are pretty much where the cycle path goes, and it goes right through the middle of the common in a North-South direction.

One alternative route would take you along the dark blue line, which involves a rather horrible right turn from Clapham Common South Side into The Avenue, and then you need to get in the right hand lane on Clapham Common West Side to turn right onto Clapham Common North Side, and then another right turn to avoid going down Elspeth Road before merging with traffic joining from there.  You can also go around the East side of the common, but that makes less sense for me, since I would probably cut off some bits to use the dark blue route (because of where I'm going and coming from).  Neither route would be that pleasant, since the traffic can be very fast and busy, and they are both longer.

(On consideration, the East side of the common could make more sense on the way to work, but on the way back would require me to do this, which isn't particularly nice).

[drossall]

I rode over the cycle track in Clapham Common on Saturday and I couldn't find any signage noting the 5mph limit.  I would be grateful if anyone could point me to any location in the park where it is shown.

Don't know the area, but in a park governed by by-laws I'd expect the rules to be in the small print at the entrance, and not on highway-type speed signs.

[drossall]

I do object to the loose dog/extendable lead across the path bit

Which is contrary to rule 56 of the Highway Code, although it's debatable how much that applies in a park/on a common.

[Snugsy]

I don't know this route, but wouldn't it be quicker to use the road?

I take it you're talking about Clapham Common. Refer to map - Streetmap.co.uk- search results
(Sorry, the link thingy doesn't seem to work with Macs)

I only use this path northbound because of the 1-way sytstem near CC tube station. The path runs from Narbonne Ave to the SE of the Common, past Eagle Pond, L+R across Windmill Drive, then due N to Cedars Road. I need to go from Cavendish Rd to Clapham Common Northside, by Trinity Hospice, to get home directly and avoid unnecessary A-roads.

Not using the Common path, i would have to:
1. Carry on along The Avenue - part of the South Circular - and then make a right turn across N lanes of traffic onto the A3
or
2. Turn R at the end of Cavendish Rd onto Southside and then past the tube station, down a hill, then L up a hill to get home.

I can't turn left from Southside anywhere on this map north of Clapham South tube, except to use the cycle path, due to poxy 1-way systems.

Both of these are longer, more dangerous, less pleasant and slower than using the cycle path.

[Greenbank]

I can't turn left from Southside anywhere on this map north of Clapham South tube, except to use the cycle path, due to poxy 1-way systems.

Personally I'd do this:-

Northbound:

Up Clapham Common South Side, left into Rookery Rd and left onto the A3.

Southbound is a bit tricky.

You could go along the A3, turn left up to CC tube, U-turn (this section of Clapham Common South Side is now two-way again). and then go South on CC South Side.

Actually, is it even possible now to turn right at the A3 directly onto Clapham Common South Side? That'd save having to do a U-turn.

[Snugsy]

I can't turn left from Southside anywhere on this map north of Clapham South tube, except to use the cycle path, due to poxy 1-way systems.

Personally I'd do this:-

Northbound:

Up Clapham Common South Side, left into Rookery Rd and left onto the A3.

Southbound is a bit tricky.

You could go along the A3, turn left up to CC tube, U-turn (this section of Clapham Common South Side is now two-way again). and then go South on CC South Side.

Actually, is it even possible now to turn right at the A3 directly onto Clapham Common South Side? That'd save having to do a U-turn.

Actually, I want to turn R onto the A3 and into Northside by the hospice, then down Larkhall Rise.

Isn't Rookery Road one-way?

[Greenbank]

Isn't Rookery Road one-way?

Yes, going North though.

Actually, I want to turn R onto the A3 and into Northside by the hospice, then down Larkhall Rise.

OK, if that's true, and unless I'm missing something obvious, I don't see why you need to use the common at all.

Going North: Google Maps

Going South: Google Maps

All perfectly legal.

[clarion]

They're OK.  Not nice at all, but OK. But it doesn't answer if you want to get to Cedars Rd, and across the river at Chelsea bridge.

[Greenbank]

They're OK.  Not nice at all, but OK. But it doesn't answer if you want to get to Cedars Rd, and across the river at Chelsea bridge.

End of Cavendish Road to Start of Cedars Road as the crow flies: 833m

Going northbound on the road via Rookery Road: 1.3km
Going southbound on the road via A3 -> A24: 1.6km

Maybe it's because it's not my commute but I don't see why an extra 1/2 mile is such a big concern. If the park were a hospital with a 5mph speed limit through it I'd probably avoid it (even though that particular speed limit wouldn't apply to bicycles).

[TimO]

It's not the extra distance that's a big concern, it's the number of right turns you have to make along roads like the South Circular, which are frankly horrible.  I do have to use some junctions like this on the A23 further south, and I'm still trying to work out how to avoid some of them, since an accident is probably unavoidable eventually.

[Greenbank]

It's not the extra distance that's a big concern, it's the number of right turns you have to make along roads like the South Circular, which are frankly horrible.  I do have to use some junctions like this on the A23 further south, and I'm still trying to work out how to avoid some of them, since an accident is probably unavoidable eventually.

Eh? If anything the Northbound Rookery Road route has fewer right turns than going across the common. The trickiest bit would be merging onto Clapham Common North Side at the end of Rookery Road, but that's going to be much nicer than turning right onto that road if you'd gone across the park. Other than that it is either the same route or left turns.

Coming Southbound I've got no idea what the OPs original route was, but the only right turn that would need to be made would be onto the A24 and you've got the benefit of doing this at traffic lights with two lanes for right turning traffic, and an ASL.

[Snugsy]

Isn't Rookery Road one-way?

Yes, going North though.

Actually, I want to turn R onto the A3 and into Northside by the hospice, then down Larkhall Rise.

OK, if that's true, and unless I'm missing something obvious, I don't see why you need to use the common at all.

Going North: Google Maps

Going South: Google Maps

All perfectly legal.

Because I want to avoid motor traffic as much as possible and because, if we don't use the lights at Cedars Road and Narbonne Avenue, some bright spark will suggest doing away with them as a cost-cutting measure.

This is just a small part of a 17km-each-way commute, half of it on A-roads, so I want as much motor-free riding as possible without the trip taking more than 50mins.

Going south, as I said, I don't use the path because I can't get to it without riding along Wandsworth Road, which is truly horrible, with loadsa traffic, unnecessary hills and a particularly narrow and nasty bit full of parked white vans and HGVs by Uncle Tom's Cabin, the greasy spoon under the arches at Wandsworth Road station.

I approach from Larkhall Rise, then along Southside. This involves as few right turns across multiple lanes as possible.

[Snugsy]

It's not the extra distance that's a big concern, it's the number of right turns you have to make along roads like the South Circular, which are frankly horrible.  I do have to use some junctions like this on the A23 further south, and I'm still trying to work out how to avoid some of them, since an accident is probably unavoidable eventually.

Eh? If anything the Northbound Rookery Road route has fewer right turns than going across the common. The trickiest bit would be merging onto Clapham Common North Side at the end of Rookery Road, but that's going to be much nicer than turning right onto that road if you'd gone across the park. Other than that it is either the same route or left turns.

Coming Southbound I've got no idea what the OPs original route was, but the only right turn that would need to be made would be onto the A24 and you've got the benefit of doing this at traffic lights with two lanes for right turning traffic, and an ASL.

If you go across the park, there ar traffic lights at the north end of the path, making getting off the common onto Cedars Road or the A3 easy peasy.

[clarion]

If they are working

[Snugsy]

If they are working

As they are at the moment, after my use of the TfL street fault reporting system.

It works.

[TimO]

If they are working

As they are at the moment, after my use of the TfL street fault reporting system.

I wonder if it was you that succeeded then?  I was about to submit my third go at getting them to deal with it, when I noticed that they were actually working now!

Next trick; getting them to make the Narbonne Avenue set actually detect southward traffic about more than 1 in every 10 occasions...

(I've given in, and just lean my bike against the bollard and go and press the pedestrian button most evenings).

[Snugsy]

If they are working

As they are at the moment, after my use of the TfL street fault reporting system.

I wonder if it was you that succeeded then? 

Probably not - although my message pointing out that the non-functioning lights lead to mass lawbreaking among cyclists trying to stay alive by leaving the common on the pedestrian phase may have helped.

[TimO]

LOL, that was also about to be my next stage, since just describing the actual fault didn't seem to have any noticeable effect.  I first reported it ... probably a couple of months back, not long after they finished it all, since it seems to have been (not) working since installation.

[Snugsy]

LOL, that was also about to be my next stage, since just describing the actual fault didn't seem to have any noticeable effect.  I first reported it ... probably a couple of months back, not long after they finished it all, since it seems to have been (not) working since installation.

Mind you, before they put the push-button in, it used to pack up whenever there was anything like serious rain.

[ChrisO]

Are you talking about the lights at the end of the path going north into Cedars Road ?

They do work - or at least they have been whenever I've been through - but I think they are set to only give cyclists exiting the Common a green light on every second rotation, and there are three separate movemens controlled by the lights, plus the cycle path.

So you have to wait for six changes of the car lights - going across the North Side, turning right and turning out of Cedars Road, all x 2.

Which is why they are the only set of lights I ignore.

[Snugsy]

Are you talking about the lights at the end of the path going north into Cedars Road ?

They do work - or at least they have been whenever I've been through - but I think they are set to only give cyclists exiting the Common a green light on every second rotation, and there are three separate movemens controlled by the lights, plus the cycle path.

So you have to wait for six changes of the car lights - going across the North Side, turning right and turning out of Cedars Road, all x 2.

Which is why they are the only set of lights I ignore.

They seemed to stop working while I was on holiday last month. The first time I cycled to work after the hol was on 23 June, and they weren't working then (I waited for two full cycles before going on the ped phase).

Then when I cycled to work on 22 July (I didn't do 21st due to post-Dynamo weakness), they were working again, but not at any time in between.

I always stop when these lights are red for purposes of self-preservation and PR.

[TimO]

They only seemed to work at peak times in the morning.  I quite often travel to work at around 10-30, and at some point prior to this the bicycle phase stopped operating at all.  You could tell this was the case, since the light which illuminates when you press the button would never go out.  At that time of the day, it would always be on since the last cyclists who had been through had pressed it before getting fed up and jumping the lights.  I found the same was the case whenever I cycled into town near midnight for a FNRttC.  If I cycled into work earlier (say 9-30) they would work fine.

It may well be that it would work eventually, but I've waited through three entire cycles of the whole system and it hasn't gone green for cyclists.  Since pedestrians have had three chances to cross in this period (if the button was pressed) this hardly seems fair, or sensible and safe, since most cyclists give up waiting far before this and jump the lights.

Anyway, this is all a bit of a moot point now, since it's been corrected and now works as intended; you press the button, and when the correct part of the sequence is reached the lights change.  Voila!

[Snugsy]

I can't turn left from Southside anywhere on this map north of Clapham South tube, except to use the cycle path, due to poxy 1-way systems.

Personally I'd do this:-

Northbound:

Up Clapham Common South Side, left into Rookery Rd

Tried the Rookery Road route last week.

Rookery Road becomes twisty after crossing Long Road, past the church,  and just wide enough to allow motors to overtake when they shouldn't - too wide to assume primary position. I commute northwards in the evenings between 6pm and 8pm, so traffic is light and driving too fast. Two passed much too close and much too fast in 100m.

Back on the cycle lane, then.

[TimO]

Personally I'd do this:-

Northbound:

Up Clapham Common South Side, left into Rookery Rd

Tried the Rookery Road route last week.

Rookery Road becomes twisty after crossing Long Road, past the church,  and just wide enough to allow motors to overtake when they shouldn't - too wide to assume primary position. I commute northwards in the evenings between 6pm and 8pm, so traffic is light and driving too fast. Two passed much too close and much too fast in 100m.

Back on the cycle lane, then.

I tried Rookery Road as well (and continued on to Old Town, North Street, Silverthorne Road before meeting up with Queenstown Road), and (i) you have to merge with tracking coming from the left off of Clapham Common North Side, and (ii) the road surface along those roads (especially Rookery Road) is appalling, in some places just a very poor road surface, which hasn't been resurfaced in living memory, and also lots of bad potholes.  It makes cycling along Queenstown Road a delight.  Much as I dislike using the Cycle Path across the Common, it's still by far and away the easiest route.

Another police officer, obviously involved in the enforcement of speeds, safety etc on the Common has been posting in another place.  Some interesting comments there, although it also raises some issues.