Local knowledge – how good (or bad) is your nearby provision for cycling? There’s no substitute for lived experience when writing about cycling infrastructure, writes simonmacmichael cycling
It's a feature of writing about active travel that often, you’ll be talking about infrastructure where you are relying on second-hand knowledge – concerns raised by local campaigners, for example, local authority planning documents, or that old fallback, Google Street View – rather than on-the-ground experience.
So when a series of emails about what passes for cycling infrastructure on Acton High Street in West London recently arrived in the road.
First off, there’s a lot of motor traffic – and not much space for it to flow freely in either direction. Several bus routes run along the high street, and it also sees a lot of HGVs – whether delivering to local shops or heading to the dairy depot a little further east. The narrowness of the road means it’s impossible for two large vehicles, such as buses, to pass each other here without the one heading east encroaching on the eastbound cycle lane, and that’s not helped by cars – often owned by people working in some of the independent shops and other venues lining the street – parking there, as Raymond highlighted to the council.
The strange thing is, on King Street – which heads off the High Street towards the South Acton Estate – you’ll find a fine example of kerb-and-bollard-protected cycle lane, which has been there since before I started visiting the area in 2017, but which because it doesn’t lie on a main cycle route is little-used. I scratch my head every time I go past it, and wonder how much it must have cost.
Turning to neighbouring boroughs, while I sometimes use Acton High Street when heading into town, I’m more likely to head south towards Cycleway 9 along Chiswick High Road and King Street in Hammersmith, perhaps then heading along the river if time isn’t pressing so I can avoid Kensington High Street.
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