So glad you made a video of this. I find this infuriating and want to get involved in whatever needs done to end this madness 😡

Great work! I appreciate tone, language and approach towards this issue. Video was very interesting and informing. I also praise your reply to comments :D

I use the greenway early in the morning heading to the high street to pickup the C2. I don’t bother on the way home! At the bottom of the slope on to Manor road into Pond road isn’t good either! I imagine the signage is not great if you’re not familiar with thd area. Good work hope this gets the right outcome 👍🏻

Not safe for pedestrians with Illegal electric bikes doing 30MPH is it.

Thames Water have been up on the Greenway for absolutely ages! Must be two years, already... Another 18 months is intolerable! 🚲

A better, safer but slightly longer route is to walk or cycle along the DLR line to the Abbey Road station. From there you'd still have to cross the road, but it would be a straight crossing (with traffic lights) and not a right turn.

Blame Newham for closing the roads for car drivers as well, that's why side roads are getting busier. These safer streets scheme have made things worse for all road users.

100% you are 100% right I drive lorries cars and ride motorcycles and bikes this is totally unacceptable they should close the road immediately before someone gets hurt it’s mainly used as a short cut .All these councils and organisations say they want the promote green travel and safety Nows the time to prove it

Great work by Newham Cyclists to expose further the failings of Thames Water.

The greenway no longer connects to the lea canal/ victoria park after the olympic development. There is a diversion but it's very roundabout confusing and hilly, so generally inconvenient. I think the route loses a lot without that connection.

Hey! As a very keen cyclist (and driver) who actually lives and has lived in the area for over 25 years we can’t just keep on moaning each time a road is closed for maintenance works. Infrastructure development, repairs and maintenance have to take place and we have to/ need to adapt and accommodate to temporary changes matter of fact even permanent ones. Just imagine what delivery drivers, the lorry, bus and heavy goods vehicle drivers have to go through too, oh and parents that have to drive to work and take their children to school. Point I’m making is… if one feels unsafe using a particular route, take another oh, and remember the infrastructure we are complaining is taking 2 years to fix, took a hell lot longer to construct. Inconvenience is a part of life. - being a resident of the area I actually appreciate the work being undertaken, it was lllllong overdue. *Keep Calm and have a cuppa.*

They closed a major cycle route from central to North Swindon over a year ago with a not-very-suitable diversion, though nowhere near as bad as in this video. Still, at least they're pumping shit into our rivers.

Put wands up the middle to make overtaking impossible, or make the road one way so one lane can become a protected cycle track.

Make the bridge one way vehicle traffic?

thanks for your work about this, I would not expect any good outcome from Newham, absolutely hostile to cycling.

I'd just fly across it and fuck the cars, they can beep and wait.

you can pick up free babies on this route

Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, whenever I have had to deal with Thames Water, it is always a negative experience.

4:39 by the way this route isn’t currently an option for drivers because the right hand turn onto tramway avenue (behind the Stratford centre) is bus and taxi only.

Outrageous. Thanks for the update.

18 months is absolutely unacceptable

It is a common problem. It is seen as OK to close cycling infrastructure for long periods to reduce inconvenience to works being carried out nearby. The greenway looks pretty wide. Did they need to fully close it?

Well that’s it then, I’m not using the Greenway for the next 18 months. I’m a confident cyclist (been cycling in London since 2007) bur no way I’d want to use that awful diversion.

It's not just the Greenway. Thames Water has been closing streets and roads left and right to carry works, somehow they never seem to end.

our councils just constantly fail us across the uk.

thames water is an exceptionally corrupt company. i feel like the solution you’re looking for is probably to organise a few hundred people to forcibly reopen the greenway? can’t be worse than people dying on the diversion

This is common. IN Leeds a segregated contra flow cycle lane has been out of use because of cladding replacement for 2 years now.

Wasn't the Greenway a hotspot for mugging?

Half the comments I've read (2/4) have clearly not watched the video. As someone who has watched the video, I'm appalled at how Thames Water didn't bother to make sure the diversion would be safe before closing the greenway. Especially when they've been informed ahead of time about the dangerous they are now indirectly causing! (Not a brit myself though, so I can't do much more than to help push this video up the algorithm.)

Incredible lack of coordination and consideration. It's down to the Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, to act. Her silence and indifference is telling @rokshanafiaz

*Shockin that they closed it for That long!* 😯😲 Unacceptable of Thames Water, thank you for informin us.

Another example of cyclists needing education on how to use roads.

Great video. Walked this a lot during lockdown.

Hiya. What kind of bike you using or used on the Greenway? We recently moved to Plaistiw and we wanted to start getting fit by biking.

Hiya. What kind of bike you using or used on the Greenway? We recently moved to Plaistiw and we wanted to start getting fit by biking.

✌

Nice way, mostly with dedicated cycling lane, thank you! As a side note as I'm cyclist and driver, the Mercedes at 1:20:05 didn't do anything wrong, they had a zebra crossing just in front of them so they had to wait on the cycling path.

Fantastic video and great camera quality. I used to take the Greenway from Upper Road all the way to Victoria Park then onto the Grand Union to uni. Not many cyclists back then as compared to now.

So imagine sitting in on the planning making process and they started on the West side and gave up at passed Tower Bridge. I have ridden this a few times and I can tell you its a complete disaster of planning, poorly executed and non-maintained. Whoever was on it needs to be forced to ride it, in the winter after dusk to really get the idea of how bad it is - trust me some sections have zero lighting and has so so many dangers. I even took this up with the Mayors office, to be passed back to the local council, Newham, its like talking to wind. Nice Video well thought out and great for reference, dare you to ride it West to East in Jan at around 4pm, when its cold and raining, I will ride it with you for safety ~Trooper

“The visibility when crossing this slip road is quite good” - it is not, usually cars parked on the double yellows and when coming from the other direction it’s awful as you come down steep hill with tight 90 degree angle, no run off - even with good disc breaks it’s dodgy a.f in the wet.

Do this route often, though I go to pontoon dock rather than city hall, so get an even faster road where all the infrastructure is ripped up for development. Couple of things - tower bridge, can’t believe how empty your side was, I’ve always seen that que of traffic in both ways, as a cyclist it’s awful - you get squished what ever you do, so I avoid. After that it’s all ok up to poplar high street (though the cycle path from Tower Hill area to lime house are two narrow at rush hour which leads to dodgy cycling and then people just using the road). The next big issue I have, the lower Lea crossing - constant debris in this, I came down the hill and round the bend to find the constructors had put a traffic cone in the middle.. I hit it and nearly flew over the barriers into the road. Then there’s that round about - it’s awful, the way you cross I find impossible, as cars shoot down that hill. What I find easier is to actually use the old dock road entrance to the round about and go round. Then to city hall it’s ok, but I actually have to go up the unprotected hill on to silvertown road and cars go very fast there (whilst I’m going slow up hill. - not nice) most of that was avoided with the dock road, but with that closed for probably a decade if not ever… it’s quite a dangerous area now, which is putting off those in the large dock land developments from cycling in.

All the non Netherlands +1-2 are raising my anxiety levels just watching

05:26 The covers on the drains have the grid run alongside the travel direction of bicycles, just another detail that shows that the people who designed and approved this, didn't have a clue on what they were doing.

Really cool video

I love this little game, though it does be a bit generous to negative points as you only take 2 no matter what. -2 for a pot hole in the bike lane is fair... -2 because you got side swiped by a car and spent 6 months in the hospital is perhaps worth at least -3.

love your stuff so detailed and very useful

Objectively, this does not look good. But at least when you share the road you have a decent chance of surviving any collisions due to the low speed of most cars. If I rode with cars like this in Minneapolis I'd be marinara sauce in a few months at best.

Interesting - having seen some of the promotional videos for the London Superhighways, I thought that London has improved since I last visited, and maybe I should use a bike to get around next time I visit. Watching this has made me realise the promotional material has selectively shown the good parts, and the infrastructure as a whole has a long way to go - I don't think I'll be comfortable cycling some of this.

That's such a valuable resource - just the right amount of detail and all in real time. Thanks for all the effort and planning that must have gone into this - it's going to make a real difference to people wanting to cycle in London and if preserved will be a little bit of history, too.

28:20 onwards is a joke for a supposed "cycle super highway"