218 mile cycle lane planned- St Pauls to Notre Dame

[spindrift]

Cycle lane from St Pauls to Notre Dame:

Le grand cycle lane: 218 miles from Paris to London | News

[spindrift]

Oooh, and Chris Boardman volunteers to make London safer for cyclists:

Olympic great Boardman: We must rethink roads so that riders feel safe
Mark Prigg
06.01.09

THE mastermind of Britain's cycling gold medal haul today called for a complete overhaul of London's roads.

Chris Boardman told the Evening Standard he wants to see roads transformed to make them safe for cyclists.

And the Olympic star said he would be happy to advise Mayor Boris Johnson.

Boardman, 40, said: "In order to make cycling in London viable Boris Johnson really needs to make some ballsy decisions, and now is the time to do it.

"At the moment cars have priority and that has to change." Boardman has proposed re-painting road markings to give cyclists more room and giving them two-way access on one-way roads.

Kensington and Chelsea council is already testing a scheme for cyclists to be exempt from one-way road restrictions after hundreds of cyclists were found to be flouting the rules. Boardman wants to see an expansion of this kind of scheme across London.

He said: "People just do not feel safe on the roads. We need to completely rethink the allocation of road space, and it is more than making cycle lanes wider.

"I would absolutely love to speak to Boris Johnson about this. I think he has to make his move now." A spokesperson for Mr Johnson said: "The Mayor shares Chris Boardman's passion for cycling [and] has committed £55million to be spent on cycling commitments."

Campaigners backed Boardman's plan. "There is an awful lot more the Mayor could to do improve cycling," said Tom Bogdanowicz, of the London Cycling Campaign.

The calls come after the launch last year of the Standard's Safer Cycling campaign.

Boardman is considered one of Britain's greatest cyclists, having won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics and broken the world hour record three times. He has since retired from competition and is a technical adviser to the British Olympics cycling team, which won 14 medals, including eight gold, in Beijing.



Olympic great Boardman: We must rethink roads so that riders feel safe | News

[andygates]

Nice.  And nice. 

[Dave]

He said: "People just do not feel safe on the roads. We need to completely rethink the allocation of road space, and it is more than making cycle lanes wider.

 

[nuttycyclist]

For once I agree with a cycling sports person.  Usually I get fed up with what they say, which is often calls for cycle farcilities, but in this case I am fully behind Chris Boardman and hope he does get to advise the mayor.

[chris]

For once I agree with a cycling sports person.  Usually I get fed up with what they say, which is often calls for cycle farcilities, but in this case I am fully behind Chris Boardman and hope he does get to advise become the mayor.

Fettled That For You 

[woollypigs]

Good words there Mr. Boardman

[nicknack]

Ah, I see it doesn't make the mistake of trying to come through Kent. 

[nuttycyclist]

Cycle lane from St Pauls to Notre Dame:

Le grand cycle lane: 218 miles from Paris to London | News

You only have to look at the map to see how the UK f*cks up cycle facilities.

In France it's an almost straight line, in the UK it's nearly double the distance it needs to be.

 

[Mr Larrington]

You only have to look at the map to see how the UK f*cks up cycle facilities.

In France it's an almost straight line, in the UK it's nearly double the distance it needs to be.

It doesn't look too bad - my route from Larrington Towers to Paris in 2007 was about 180 miles including a detour to find a campsite en route.

[saturn]

In France it's an almost straight line, in the UK it's nearly double the distance it needs to be.

I wouldn't have thought that it's proposed for commuting purposes though. Personally I wouldn't wish to visit London or Paris by bike but there might be some decent places in between that are worth a visit. A wibbly wobbly route maximises the leisure pleasure.

[vorsprung]

The clue on why the UK end is so wibblely is here in the article

"Using existing National Cycle Network routes they will pass through...."

Why use the crazy meandering NCN routes for a fast efficient cyclepath?  It's demented

[nuttycyclist]

In France it's an almost straight line, in the UK it's nearly double the distance it needs to be.

I wouldn't have thought that it's proposed for commuting purposes though. Personally I wouldn't wish to visit London or Paris by bike but there might be some decent places in between that are worth a visit. A wibbly wobbly route maximises the leisure pleasure.

The route is named as a London-Paris route, so should therefore be as direct as practical.  Any decent places worth a visit near the route should be linked in via spurs.

This enables the use of a cycle route as a decent transport link which is enjoyable to use as it's away from traffic etc, whilst also allowing people who only want to do a shorter distance and also visit leisure locations to do so.

[andygates]

I learned to love cycle routes like this (and Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) when I realised that they're simply not for people getting from A to B.  That's not what they're for: we'll take the roads, thankyou.  These routes are for a type-B journey, with pretty bits and wibbles, and so it doesn't bloomin' matter if they're not arrow-straight. 

[Martin]

Cycle lane from St Pauls to Notre Dame:

Le grand cycle lane: 218 miles from Paris to London | News

You only have to look at the map to see how the UK f*cks up cycle facilities.

In France it's an almost straight line, in the UK it's nearly double the distance it needs to be.

that's because much of the UK route is along disused cycle tracks; as is the French bit from Dieppe to Forge les Eaux (and the latter is very well surfaced and maintained). Darth Ian is going to do a bomb in spare inner tubes at Forest Row.

simple solution, shut the railway line from London to Newhaven and use that 

[nuttycyclist]

Fantastic idea!

[ScumOfTheRoad]

YACF ride?

[TimO]

I think they wanted as much cycle route on the UK side as on the French side, so they had to concertina it to fit the distance in.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the 75 miles cycle tunnel they'll need to dig between Newhaven and Dieppe!

[pcolbeck]

No silly you cross the channel on a pedalo that you clip your bike into.

[rower40]

When will we be able to use the Channel Tunnel service tunnel?  Tarmac/concrete floor, smooth, flat(ish), continually lit, pressure-ventilated.

I bet it's deserted most of the time, and only used 'in anger' when there's an incident, and they need to evacuate another burning lorry-carrying train.  (or should that be "burning-lorry-carrying train"?)

Might be a bit boring though.

[Sergeant Pluck]

YACF ride?

Most definitely 

[David Martin]

burning lorry-carrying train.  (or should that be "burning-lorry-carrying train"?)

It should be train carrying a burning lorry

[Martin]

burning lorry-carrying train.  (or should that be "burning-lorry-carrying train"?)

It should be train carrying a burning lorry

speaking of which what ever happened to the idea to tack a road tunnel onto it (read this ina Sunday paper many years ago) no idea how they would ventilate it; how are Alpine road tunnels vented?

[mattc]

You only have to look at the map to see how the UK f*cks up cycle facilities.

that's because much of the UK route is along disused cycle tracks;

snigger.

[TimO]

...speaking of which what ever happened to the idea to tack a road tunnel onto it (read this ina Sunday paper many years ago) no idea how they would ventilate it; how are Alpine road tunnels vented?

The ones in Switzerland I was going through a few weeks ago seemed to have lots of emergency exits along them, presumably leading to tunnels and/or stairs either upwards or sideways.  At a guess the same shafts could be used for ventilation, although that would probably be a bad thing in the case of a fire, so possibly parallel shafts.

This probably wouldn't work well with a underwater tunnel.