Welcome to the ‘Cycle Tracks - The Camden Experience’ website. In the 1990s I became involved in campaigning for better cycle facilities in London, as a member of the Camden Cycling Campaign (part of the London Cycling Campaign). We made some significant gains, especially with the opening of the immensely successful cycle tracks in Camden and Bloomsbury in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

We persuaded Camden Council to share our vision that high-quality cycle networks were essential to providing attractive cycling conditions in London. The Camden and Bloomsbury tracks are now among the capital’s most heavily used cycle routes and generate great support from cyclists. Unfortunately, at the time neither the London Cycling Campaign nor other London boroughs shared our vision and little was done to spread the network both within and beyond Camden.

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Opening of the cycle track on Royal College St., Camden, April 2000

Since then much has changed. There are many more cyclists in London nowadays (although the overall numbers remain pretty low in comparison with many continental European cities). The London Cycling Campaign has now adopted a ‘Go Dutch’ vision for London after consulting its members for their views. Other newer cycling groups are being set up, organising demonstrations and demanding changes in conditions. We are also seeing the emergence of on-line sites campaigning for high-quality cycle networks for the UK generally (see the ‘links’ page). Newspapers such as the Times and Evening Standard have taken up the cause.

But, the London boroughs and the Mayor’s London-wide authority TfL (Transport for London) still don’t taking cycling seriously in London. At the time of writing TfL is unwilling to undertake a serious re-structuring of the notorious Bow roundabout in east London - despite two recent cyclist deaths. Similarly TfL’s re-design of a notorious junction at Kings Cross ignores cyclists and poses great dangers for them. The case for cycling still needs to be made - and to be made effectively.

This website is intended to contribute to making that case and aims to illustrate how we argued for the Camden cycle tracks and how we won support from cyclists, councillors and the public. The site is developed from a slide show presentation I made to Camden council and many other organisations from 1998 to the early years of the new century. The passage of time and the different technologies now in use, make it impossible to recreate exactly the presentation (which was in any case adapted for different audiences). I have also updated some sections to explain what happened after the initial implementations.

Paul Gannon, May 2012


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Tavistock Place cycle track - Google Earth