Coomble Lane, Merton - Cycling facility

Another cycling facility in merton, this one is part segregated part shared with pedestrians. It has potential but i'm not a fan of how the segregated one is laid out, the gutter in the middle makes it difficult to cycle there, which would be the nice place to cycle when no one else is around. It later goes onto a narrow pavement with parked cars to the left and vehicles in drives to the right, it didn't feel very safe!
As it approaches Raynes Park the cycle lane disappears and no clues are left as to where you should go and you are meant to dismount and walk across the part next to the station. Note how a large section of the cycle path was also blocked by some roadworks.
Later on down the cycle path it goes under a bridge and you get spat out onto a normal london cycle network painted cycle lane. Not the best.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Contourhd
• video
• camera
• helmet
• cyclist
• cycling
• london
• merton
• cycle
• lane
• facility
• off-road
• segregated

[westcountrytim]

The first bit is ok, although a bit narrow. The parts where you have to go around the bus stop, and the shared use bit by the station is very poor.

I always avoid shared use paths as pedestrians often don't realised you can cycle on them and get annoyed.

I went past this (on the road coming the other way) on saturday and the closure of the cycle path seems to be for storing supplies rather than actually digging it up. But the cycle path always is used as the deafult option to close first.

[gaz545]

@westcountrytim I filmed this back in april, and they are still storing stuff there? That isn't good!

[rosickyize]

@gaz545 no, they haven't been storing stuff there since then,only in the last week has the supplies appeared.

[gaz545]

@rosickyize There was stuff being stored there when i went past 2 months ago.

[Testedecazzo]

the cycle lane nearer the station is all clear now

[rosickyize]

@gaz545 yeah i get you, i'm pretty sure they took the stuff away and it came back again just recently - they've been redoing the whole of raynes park in terms of new bike stands and pedestrian/cycle crossings recently so it's kinda livable with.

[SkrzypczykBass]

If your in that area again there is a better example of a cycle lane heading towards Richmond Park on the side of the A3 on the northbound side - it's not in the best condition but it sure as hell beats mixing it with the 50+ mph traffic on that racetrack road!

[xchopp]

Just awful.

[corsair53]

It is very unnatural to be going against the traffic and having to watch for all the other hazards at the same time. In bumper to bumper moving traffic, motorists may not see you soon enough as you approach each other more rapidly. I've got to agree with RobBottin about the headlight confusion. It's like the bike lane is only half as wide as it needs to be as you go past parked cars. Like many such paths, they are no good if you need to commute to work on a schedule.

[KrunchyJD]

The Dutch have it right, when they build cycle paths they build propper cycle paths. It annoys me, that outside of cycling friendly countries they dont have a clue. They build crap cycling facitlites like that then people say, dont build cycle facilities nobody uses them. NOBODY USES THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE DESIGNED BY SOME MOTORIST WHO HAS NEVER RIDDEN A BIKE.