Cycle lanes

Ellis456 said:

Hi all,

I'm new here🙂, I must say most of the cycle lanes in London are useless, most don't go on for very long and end, there very thin to and some have drains etc in the way😠, I try and cycle on the road as much as possible but sometimes I can't if theres car's parked either side of the road and the road is tiny I have no choice, it's dangerous.

Cycle lanes are worse than useless most of the time. They seem to be designed to keep bikes out of the way of cars for the convenience of drivers rather than for the safety of cyclists. Usually it is best to ignore them and ride on the part of the road that you would be using if none of it was painted green.

Any cycle lane that contains all the strorm drains is absolutely useless, unless it's especially wide, like at least a half car-width. Also, any cycle lane that goes right against a bunch of car doors is useless, as you need about 3 feet of space from the side of a car so as not to get suddenly doored. I've never had this happen to me, but drivers are notorious for not looking out their rearview mirror before exiting their cars.