Good news for cyclists: London has recently become pleasant and safe to explore by bike – at least in parts. The star is testing cycle lanes across the British capital, from Buckingham Palace to Walthamstow. Part 1: The Wandle Trail and its architect Robert Nichols.
Sunny days like today are rather the exception in London, so we use the day for a bike ride. It starts at Embankment tube station in the heart of the city, right on the Thames. One of the oldest “Cycle Superhighways” runs here, the C3 cycle path, which connects the west of the city with the east. When it was set up in 2010, it was still light blue, and in some places it still is today. Luckily, the traffic planners quickly realized that paint on the street had never prevented a careless driver from parking illegally, and they now separated the two-lane cycle path from the roadway with curbs wherever possible.
Along with commuters in suits, rickshaws, tourists on rental bikes and the inevitable MAMILS (middle-aged men in lycra), women cycle along the Thames towards Parliament. Things get short at Big Ben, because the beautiful cycle path, where it winds around the famous Parliament building, briefly disappears into thin air in the heaviest traffic. But if you bravely keep to the left, you will find the cycle path at the end of the building complex, at Victoria Tower Park. Here, make a brief stop at the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, the famous “suffragette” who fought for women’s suffrage in the UK over a hundred years ago.