LONDON: My Ride from Olympic Park to King's Cross Station (Not for the Faint of Heart)

Join me as I ride "across town" from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Community to the King's Cross Station to pick up my ticket to Edinburgh. Warning: Although there are a few comfortable, protected, and separated bike lanes during this ride, much of it was a harrowing experience to watch on video. I felt fine enough on the bike, but that is not good enough for all ages and abilities.
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/3rFLErD
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- Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: bit.ly/35DBDDU
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2024

[@markcramer14]

Recommend this route for people suffering from low blood pressure.

[@ActiveTowns]

😂

[@egelmuis]

London has yet to learn that "Paint is not infrastructure". Or probably all the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation have yet to learn that.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yep, good people are trying to make it happen, but the car-brain status quo is fighting to hold onto every inch of the road

[@johnnevada46]

As a Londoner who now lives in Spain, I thought that route looked lots of fun - relaxing even. 😊

[@ActiveTowns]

I suppose it's all a matter of perspective. hehe 🤣 Thanks so much for tuning in. Cheers!

[@user-xi6nk4xs4s]

Surprised by how chaotic the cycling infrastructure is. Especially the part being on a cycling highway. Isn't there at least something of a standard? I remember when these were introduced and were in the news. If you heard the London politicians talk, they had created the best thing ever. I had seen parts of it before, and wasn't impressed, but this looks really bad. How is anyone, not used to cycling in busy traffic, ever going to use these? Glad you made it in one piece, despite not being familiar with the route.

[@ActiveTowns]

There are certainly well-used routes that are seeing impressive daily commuting numbers because they are protected and separated... I clearly chose a complicated cross-town destination that was at odds with these routes at times... my point is that all destinations within a world-class city deserve safe and inviting infrastructure for all ages and abilities using a standard route creation app... we (all cities) have a lot of work to do, and London is clearly no exception.

[@aj71998]

With how good the public transit is in London I'd never even think about getting on a bike. Definitely better views than the tube though!

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, and I'm the opposite. If it seems at all possible to do it by bike, I'll try that first and fall back on transit as my "last" resort.

[@aj71998]

@@ActiveTowns maybe I’m just lazy haha. But here in Austin, I agree with you. If I’m choosing not to drive somewhere I prefer to hop on my bike because our transit is so hard to rely on.

[@sefbauwens5764]

I'm a bike rider from The Netherlands, but I'd be scared sh*tless crossing those London intersections. Plus, it's all on the left side. Guess I'm spoiled.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, I've spent the past two weeks in Utrecht, so editing this shocked me even more than riding it. Thanks so much for watching!

[@kailahmann1823]

For some reason I'd prefer some painted bike lane on a six lane road in Hamburg over this. Maybe it's the wrong side, maybe it's the gaps, maybe it's the nothing around intersections.. not sure.

[@zachz96]

7:40 Roundabouts shouldn't have traffic lights in them.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yep

[@ado543]

Very common in the UK!

[@cargo_roam]

Watching left hand drive European traffic confuses my brain 😅

[@ActiveTowns]

Me too...😅

[@lws7394]

Call it what it is : left hand drive British traffic. ok? 😬

[@zachz96]

@@lws7394 What about the left hand traffic in India, Australia, Thailand, Japan, etc?

[@lws7394]

@@zachz96 We're looking at London footage, not Tokyo, right? In 'europe' are only 2 left driving countries, so it is hardly 'european' ...

[@eddybulk1992]

@@lws7394 only 2 England Scotland Wales Northen Ireland and Ireland though i could be wrong about Ireland greetings from The Netherlands

[@colleenharrison2942]

Not an enjoyable ride!

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, most of it was not that enjoyable... although there were sections that were delightful