Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Bike routes?
Hello to all the regular cyclists out there,
Can you recommend a cycling app or website that has good London cycle routes, as Google maps often sends you down main roads which may be quickest but not always the most pleasant?
A really useful app or website would let you factor in train journeys that allow bikes, to 'bridge' part of the journey. For example, from here to East/South London you can't take a bike through Highbury and Islington on either overground or underground, but it seems you could ride down to Canonbury and get on the TfL rail there towards Stratford or southbound, except in peak times.
Has anyone tried this, and is it feasible? It's quite tricky working out all the regulations and no-go areas and times.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by michaelw on
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The main cycle map website is opencyclemap but it is easiest to access it via an app which does the route finding for you; the main one I use at the moment is Cyclemaps but there are others.
Citymapper was also surprisingly good at cycle routes last time I tried it; it can do more complex journeys, but I haven't tried it with cycling & train.
Cycling to Canonbury is pretty straightforward once you get South of the Arena shopping centre on Green Lanes, with quite a good cycle lane on the Hackney parts of Green Lanes, then you turn down Petherton Road, which is very nice (the New River used to flow down the middle).
The Overground is good for bikes as long as you avoid peak times - so from Harringay Green Lanes to Gospel Oak & beyond (e.g. Richmond or Stratford, though you'll need to use the lifts at Gospel Oak for the Richmond trains) or to Barking, or from Canonbury to East Croydon (or Stratford or Richmond)
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Permalink Reply by Straw Cat on
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Trouble with the standard cycle maps is that they don't show one of the most important constraints for cyclists - contours.
You night from the map think that the easiest route from Hornsey to Finsbury Park is crossing Mountview Road. You are in for a surprise.
You might decide to next time go via Wightman Road. Or Green Lanes. Big Mistake.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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I prefer going up the hill! But it's enough to get me on the bus instead sometimes.
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Komoot is decent for giving you cycle routes. You can finetune how fast/quiet you want the route.
I've got to say though that a lot of the main roads, whilst intimidating on the face of it, can be better for cycling. I cycle down to Camden and tried a whole variety of backroads routes that were fine off-peak but in rush hour had a load of rat-running cars trying to squeeze past on narrow roads. I ended up taking the 29 bus route down the main roads as most of that has bus lanes which were better for cycling on.
Saying that, this may now gradually be changing as more LTNs, motor vehicle restrictions, etc are introduced to make smaller roads quieter.
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I suppose that depends what kind of cycling you are looking for: commuting, leisure, road cycling?
For road cycling, I would use Strava. For commuting/leisure, I'd plug it into Komoot set to "Bike Touring" which prioritises quiet cycle paths.
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I mostly use Citymapper set to "quiet" though it does some dumb things like trying to get me to carry my 18kg bike down the steps to the canal towpath. I tend to keep cycling until it gives me another route in situations like that! There's only a short stretch of canal on my Tuesday cycle to work that I will do, most of the time it's not worth the bother!
Komoot is also good. And I double check with Google maps, sometimes it has a better route.
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