Best cycle route to the city?!

[matryx]

I can very strongly recommend bikehub - both the website ( http://routes.bikehub.co.uk/ ) and the app. Excellent cycle routing with options for speed versus traffic density, user maintained by a strong community of cyclists via the openstreetmap data, and if you use the app you can use your phone GPS for voice based satnav (so you don't need to take your eyes off the road while you go).

Incidentally, this is my route : http://routes.bikehub.co.uk/journey/40629861/#fastest (I go the fastest out of the three options provided here)

Which I have slowly revised over time to give me a route largely devoid of traffic.

Several roads which are closed to cards, and through a park or two here and there.

Here's my route from this morning : http://www.strava.com/activities/138759957

Takes me 20-25 mins, so would just be another 5 over to holborn at the end.

Edit: I leave at 7am every morning from Friern Road and am more than happy to show you the route I take if you like. You should arrive before 8 even with the extra up to Holborn (I like time to shower and change at the office, get a coffee etc before my own 8:45am start). Feel free to drop me a message if you want to tag along.

[worldwiser]

And there was me thinking I was a lone genius with my routing. Turns out you're all doing it, probably a few hours before me. I'll be imagining the lightning trails you fine folk have laid down when I trundle in later :-)

[jimbo1964]

I can recommend Matryx's route. Pretty much exactly what I do.

[Debster1982]

Thanks everyone, now safely routed to the city sans double decker buses or a crazy amount of cars. Cheers!

[henryb]

A cyclist died at Elephant and Castle yesterday. Collision with a HGV. So sad. The sooner that junction is redesigned better. Best to avoid it completely if you can.

http://www.london24.com/news/cyclist_dies_after_lorry_crash_at_elephant_and_castle_1_3598805

[katanita]

Such a tragic waste. I know lots of people prefer to cycle through the roundabout because it's faster, but would really recommend adding a few minutes to a journey and using the bypass, marked on this map http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/location/12986/.

[nunhead_man]

cyclist down - RIP

Driver arrested, still being reported on bbc as "cyclist hits lorry" - usual b-----lks

http://www.lfgss.com/thread127049.html

This IS the redesigned junction - the so called South Roundabout.

Read about the dangerous proposals to redesgn the North roundabout here.....

http://southwarkcyclists.org.uk/elephant-and-castle-response-to-tfl-consultation/

[jimbo1964]

I can echo what Katanita says. There are safe® routes in place that let you avoid The Elephant completely. It's worth taking an extra few minutes.

[nunhead_man]

Agree Jimbo - but take your wellies for the puddle that blocks access to the ped crossing button that works the cycle lights as you go from Rockingham over Newington Causway to Southwark Bridge Road

[miga]

.

[jimbo1964]

That is a big puddle. I tend to go a bit further up through Trinity Square and onto Great Suffolk St.

[grabot]

I second Trinity Church Square and Great Suffolk Street. Trinity Church Square is particularly nice and there's sometimes something interesting going on there to break up the norm; a couple of days ago filming was going on for what I was told is the sequal to 28 days later.