Hyde Park corner junction question

[TimO]

Do any of the other London commuters out there use Hyde Park corner much?  I was looking at the map, and planing a short journey tomorrow, and decided I wanted to cycle from South Carriage Drive across to Piccadilly.

The most sensible route seems to be to come out of the cycle path crossing (that goes to the centre of HPC) and time it correctly to hammer across onto the middle of the junction bit that feeds onto Piccadilly.

Is there a better way to do this?  I'm always a bit nervous of any route that requires me to jump out in front of masses of cars, on five lanes of gyratory which I don't know that well!

Like this, if it makes it any clearer (better seen in Satellite/Hybrid than Map).

[Jurek]

Unless I am mistaken about the phasing Tim, when the pedestrian / cycle control you'll be using is on green, it'll be stopping everything from Knightsbridge / the west.

During this time, everything coming up from Grosvenor Place will be unleashed into the path you are planning on taking.

The traffic flow from Grosvenor Place doesn't get stemmed until that from Knightsbridge has a green.

It's not very nice, is it?

[Biggsy]

Hyde Park Corner is effectively just a series of large junctions - each one no worse than an average large junction.  Traffic speed on it isn't all that high - making it less scary than the likes of the Hanger Lane GS.

[TimO]

Unless I am mistaken about the phasing Tim, when the pedestrian / cycle control you'll be using is on green, it'll be stopping everything from Knightsbridge / the west.

During this time, everything coming up from Grosvenor Place will be unleashed into the path you are planning on taking.

The traffic flow from Grosvenor Place doesn't get stemmed until that from Knightsbridge has a green.

It's not very nice, is it?

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought, and why I was wondering what others would say.

On reflection, I think it may be easier to just cross over HPC via the cycle path and then go along Constitution Hill and The Mall.  Trying to get onto Piccadilly in the evening doesn't look too fun.

I made the mistake of trying to use the tfl Journey Plan to give me a route.  It did it's normal trick of sending you along illegal routes (no right turns, wrong way down one ways etc) and suicidally busy roads and junctions.

... making it less scary than the likes of the Hanger Lane GS.

I've done Hanger Lane, it's %&#@ing scary.

[Wendy]

The easy and stress free way to do this is to come onto the roundabout from inside the park on the green man/bicycle (i.e. red for cars coming from Knightsbridge).  Then don't go all the way across, but turn left so you're waiting to join the roundabout, but you're ahead of the Knightsbridge stop line.

Now wait for the roundabout lights to go red (i.e. red for northbound cars from Grosvenor Place towards Park Lane), and as they go red set off, waiting for the inevitable motorvehicles going through the red light.

[Wendy]

Nah TimO, don't stress.  It's easy to use the road and the roundabout, and Piccadilly is fun on bikes.

[alexb]

It's nopt too bad Tim, I've done it loads of times. However, it's also very easy to just ride to the Mall and use the pedestrian underpass (on foot) and emerge at Green Park and ride on from there.
No shame in doing that if that would be easier!

[TimO]

When I looked at the map, I realised that going along the Mall actually made a lot more sense further along the route, and avoided a mass of small back roads.

It turns out that I may not need to do this trip anyway now, so thanks for all the comments, and I'll remember them next time I need to go that direction.

[Wendy]

I ended up riding this way today, funnily enough.  So satisfying filtering past the big queues to piccadilly.

[alexb]

It's not too bad Tim, I've done it loads of times. However, it's also very easy to just ride to the Mall and use the pedestrian underpass (on foot) and emerge at Green Park and ride on from there.
No shame in doing that if that would be easier!

I just realised that I totally stuffed up this reply.
So for future reference:
Follow Constitution Hill down, then along the Mall, take a left somewhere and work your way onto Picadilly from there. Much easier ride!