Access: mountain bikers riding on the Olympic Park, but will cyclists be able to get there? (Photo: AFP)
Spectators planning to cycle to the London 2012 Olympic Games might be in for a rude shock at the tail end of their journey: a major dedicated cycle lane stops about a mile from Stratford leaving cyclists exposed to cross four busy lanes of traffic to get to the Olympic stadium.
Ongoing negotiations with the local Newham Council – which believes the cycle lanes will create a significant safety hazard, Transport for London and the Mayor’s office, which wants thousands of people to cycle to the Games, are still at a stalemate.
I rode my bike to the official Olympic basketball test event at Olympic Park last month and found the experience more topsy turvy than what the flattish road conditions warranted for most of the way.
Clearly the £11.5 million of bike lane improvements for cycling to the Olympic Park have made a big difference, but I don’t think families or inexperienced cyclists will find the journey pleasant.
I took the CS2 route from Aldgate, which took me fairly direct down Whitechapel High Street, Whitechapel Road, Mile End Road and Bow Road. It is dotted with traffic lights, I lost count after a while, but the widened lanes and clear directions made the route appear straightforward and feel relatively safe.
That is until I came to the Bow Road interchange. There is a large flyover above the Blackwall tunnel. Do I go over the flyover where the cars zoom past at accelerated speeds, or negotiate the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill? I took the safer, longer option but bizarrely the bike lane simply vanished. Visitors might be excused to think they took the wrong turn. Where to from here?
Still I proceeded through to High Street to Stratford, dodging trucks, cars, buses, taxis. Naively I thought this final section was a work in progress to be completed by the end of September deadline for the cycle improvements.
Sadly I was wrong. Newham Council has decided that this final part of the route will be finished after the Olympics.
They are worried that the road is too busy for cyclists and the implementation of the Olympic Route Network lane (for accredited VIP’s, athletes, media) will squeeze the space beyond making a bike lane available.
Yet this very congested nightmare section is one of the official cycle routes for the Olympics – as described by Transport for London executive Leon Daniels.
He says in a blog: “Head south on A11 through Stratford town centre gyratory, onto Stratford High Street, left onto Cam Road and onto Channelsea Path to Abbey Lane. Onto Rick Roberts Way and into the southern spectator transport mall.”
This southern mall will have space for 1,000 bikes. But the route as described means cyclists will have to negotiate across four lanes of traffic. This crossing is without any dedicated lane space or crossing points.
Apparently from the way I was going I will be able to get to the Olympics by the following route: Heading north-east along Cycle Super Highway 2 and turning right at Tomlins Grove (just south of Bow Church DLR) and following the route crossing the A12 via an underpass, going past through 3 Mills and heading north under the Greenway onto Abbey Road, Rick Roberts Way and into the southern spectator transport mall.
Olympic officials say cyclists can get to other cycling storage points, Victoria Park with its 4,000 spots for bikes, and the northern transport mall with about 2000 spots, in a far safer manner. They say there will be lots of information going out to spectators about how to get to the cycle parking areas.
Around 7,000 bike parking places will be made available altogether for the Games, with officials hoping two per cent of spectators every day will commute by bike. But don’t expect any luxuries at the arrival points, as no changing facilities are planned for the parking areas.
Clearly there is still a lot of work to be done if these Games are to encourage and promote cycling in the city.
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