19 August 2008

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Cycle Paths

Royal Parks

There are cycle paths in or alongside all four central London Royal Parks: Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St James's Park. They allow you to travel traffic free (except where there are road crossings) from Notting Hill to Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square. Use the London Cycle Guides to find a route around these parks.

Richmond, Bushy and Greenwich Parks are also excellent places to cycle and can be reached from the Thames paths.

Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens has a cycle path running through it with entrance points at Kensington High Street, Notting Hill Gate and near the Serpentine Gallery. You are not allowed to cycle on the pedestrian paths.

There are plenty of museums, galleries and other attractions in these gardens, as well as being within easy reach of the Victoria and Albert, Science and Natural History museums, and the Royal Albert Hall.

Hyde Park

Hyde Park has a cycle path running around most of the perimeter with many entrance points and a path running alongside the Serpentine. There is a cycle crossing over Hyde Park Corner.

Hyde Park is a great place for picnics and Speakers Corner can make an interesting diversion.

Green Park

Green Park has a path that runs along its South side and you can cycle along side the Mall from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square. Further east, the area around Green Park and St James's is where you can find the seats of royal and parliamentary power.

Buckingham Palace is next to the cycle path where you cross between the two parks, but you do often need to walk the short stretch where the tickets to the palace are sold.

However this ride is best done on a Sunday, when Constitution Hill and the Mall are both closed to traffic leaving this path to cyclists and pedestrians.

Saint James's Park

There are many interesting places to visit beyond St James's, these include:

• Horse Guards Parade.
• The Cabinet War Rooms.
• Westminster Abbey.
• The Houses of Parliament.

You are not allow to park bikes outside these buildings (your bike may be removed if you do), there are places to park on nearby streets.

Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace

Between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Park you can ride along the Parkland Walk, a disused railway line that has become the countryside in the city. There is a gap between two sections of the walk, where you can either ride through Queen's Wood or along the road. Highgate Wood is closed to bikes. The whole journey takes under an hour.

You can also take a diversion south from the Parkland Walk to pass Highgate Cemetery and visit Hampstead Heath, which has two cycle paths running through it.

Streatham to Clapham Junction and more

It is easy to plan routes around many parks of South London.

Possible routes include:

• Riding from Streatham to Clapham Junction alongside Tooting Bec and Wandsworth Commons using London Cycle Network Routes 5 and 26
• Routes through Clapham Common, Brookwell Park and Battersea park - If you visit either Battersea Park or Dulwich Park, you can hire specialist bikes such as tandems, tricycles, recumbents and bicycles designed for people with disabilities. Make your own route that includes your favourite park, restaurant, museum or bar.

Wandle Trail

The Wandle Trail is a Sustrans route reaching from Croyden to the Thames. Cycling along this trail makes a good day out and it mostly off road.

You cycle through up to 12 parks including:

• Ravensbury Park
• Morden Hall Park
• Wandle Meadow Nature Park
• Beddington Park

Cycling Training

The Bike It campaign

This has quadrupled the number of children cycling to school in just 3 years. The organisation provides information to schools, parents and parent associations about finding local training and gives tips and advice.

Bikeability

In September 2006 Cycling England launched Bikeability, (the new cycling proficiency for the 21st Century) as the Award Scheme for cyclists trained to the National Cycle Training Standard. The Bikeability badge will be a worthy successor to the old cycling proficiency scheme, updated for today's world.

The launch marked the start of the gearing-up phase involving more than 5,000 children across eight regions; Merseyside, Exeter, Essex, Cornwall, Isle of Wight, London Borough of Kingston, Manchester and Hertfordshire. During this period nearly 10,000 badges were awarded.

From April 2007, Cycling England will also be making available to local authorities a £1 million fund for child cycle training.

Grants will be made to those authorities who deliver national standard cycle training (and in particular to those authorities wishing to participate in the Bikeability award scheme) and demonstrate that the grant will pay for cycle training in addition to that which they already undertake. Collaborative and / or large-scale bids will receive priority.