London Cycle Strategy: review of what’s good and bad in Lewisham

I did the below Tweet after a bad experience at Lewisham Gateway. Then I read its 2017 Cycle Strategy and cycled more of the ‘Network’ cycle routes. My conclusions are set out in this video.

Here is a video review of Lewisham’s cycling strategy with comments on the network as it exists in 2018

Summary

• The strategy itself and some of the cycle paths are better than one could ever expect from the benighted ‘Lewisham Gateway’
• the outstanding feature of the 2017 Cycle Strategy is the plan to redesign Lewisham High Street) the A21 to make it a Healthy Street with a superhighway-standard cycleway. Alas, the plan is ‘unfunded’
• most existing Lewisham cycle routes are just signposting through suburban streets (which is not far removed from being a waste of time, money and paint)
• too much of the Lewisham Cycle Strategy is too similar to the largely-fraudulent London Cycle Network and its LCN+ successor
• the Waterlink Way is often very good and can be seen as a landscape urbanism approach to cycleway planning
• as throughout London the greatest problems for Lewisham cycling are shortages of funds and of political will

All who ride bikes through Lewisham should send their views to its councillors