How 80 forgotten 1930s cycleways could transform UK cycling
by Carlton Reid from on (#2NV34)
Between 1934 and 1940 the UK built 280 miles of cycle paths with Dutch guidance. A Kickstarter campaign to rescue these lost cycle paths needs support
In September 2012 the Google Street View car drove slowly along a road in Twickenham, London. It had to reverse when the driver found three wooden bollards blocking its way. The road was not a road at all, it was a cycleway. A cycleway built in - wait for it - 1937.
Originally surfaced with red concrete, the cycleway has faded to light pink but the granite kerbs are still in situ and, fooling the Street View navigation algorithms, it looks like a narrow road instead of the normal kind of "crap cycle lane" we are so unhappily used to in the UK.
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