Thursday 25 November 2010

TfL's Journey Planner and the London Cycle Network

I've got to get from Old Street to Lewisham this afternoon. TfL's Journey Planner proposes a back street route which I'm sure will be one of the London Cycle Network (LCN) routes. It's got more twists and turns than Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. I'd be happy to give it a go if I knew it was an identifiable, signed route.

The trouble is that most of the LCN is a convoluted mess for reasons I won't go into now. However there must be a couple of routes that are pretty well thought through and signed, such as LCN 3 in Lambeth from Clapham to Waterloo.

So, how bloody stupid are TfL that neither their Journey Planner nor their Local Cycling Guides (aka maps) flag this handful of useful, signed routes up.

The consequence is that I'll be taking the Old Kent Road instead of TfL's suggested route. I know I can follow that without stopping every couple of hundred yards to peer at a map at dusk.