Here are some safe shortcuts to avoid heavy road traffic when cycling in the borough:
1) Regent’s Canal
If you want to avoid cars and buses, you can’t do much better than the Regent’s Canal. You can easily join the towpath along its course as it links via ramps and stairs with major (and minor) roads. The only traffic you’re likely to encounter is other bikes during the morning and evening commute or buggies and walkers on a warm weekend. If you’ve got a spare hour or two, it’s worth making the trip from Limehouse in the east to Little Venice in the west.
2) Shoreditch to Hackney Central
For a largely car-free route between Shoreditch and Hackney Central, use Goldsmith’s Row, which runs alongside Haggerston Park (also home to the Hackney City Farm). This stretch has a bike counter to measure the number of cyclists who use it each day – more than 600,000 have since it was installed in August last year. At its northern end it joins with bike-friendly Broadway Market and then a segregated cycle path through London Fields which drops you just short of the town hall. It is a much nicer cycle route than the alternative slogs along Mare Street or Kingsland Road.
3) Victoria Park
Although popular with commuters, Victoria Park also serves those who have nowhere in particular to go but want a traffic-free stretch of track that keeps on going. You can whizz round and round all day or use it to cut between Hackney Wick and Bethnal Green.
4) Dalston to Stoke Newington
Although not strictly segregated, this quiet on-road route takes you between Stoke Newington and Dalston and is well signposted and marked for bikes. It runs parallel to but avoids Kingsland Road and includes a satisfying but short bike-only section past Butterfield Green.
5) Hackney Marshes to Hackney Central
A series of segregated lanes and a pleasant stretch through Millfields Park near Clapton take you from the River Lee to Hackney Central without relying on busy thoroughfares.
Data Visualisations: Sophie Murray-Morris
