How Will Cycle Superhighway Route 1 Affect De Beauvoir Town?
And me in particular?
Transport for London have published their plans for Cycle Superhighway Route 1, The good news is that I’m only a hundred metres away from where it runs between Liverpool Street and White Hart Lane. So at least it won’t have a negative effect on the value of my house.
It will affect my walking routes significantly.
1. My doctor’s Surgery is on the Superhighway and as he is a keen cyclist I think he’ll be pleased too. I might actually get a replacement bike to avoid the walk. Or I could lobby for a Boris Bike station close to my house? I’d actually prefer the latter, as then if the bike got nicked, it’s not my problem.
2. One of the problems walking round here, is that drivers treat the turn out of Southgate Road into Ardleigh Road as a chicane that should be taken at speed. As many don’t bother to signal someone is going to get flattened on that junction in the future. Hopefully, as Ardleigh Road is being blocked at the southern end, fewer drivers will use it as a rat run. So it looks the Superhighway will have a collateral benefit for pedestrians here.
3. The arrangements where the Superhighway crosses the Balls Pond Road will make walking to Dalston High Street easier as a new pedestrian crossing will be in a better place than the current one. At least for me!
4. Some of the other changes to cycle and pedestrian routes just to the north of the Balls Pond Road will also make it easier to walk to and from Dalston Kingsland station, the Rio Cinema and the northern part of the High Street. The route is quieter and you avoid the narow pavements round Dalston Junction.
Other residents of the area, may have different views on how it will affect pedestrians. But hopefully, the large number of cyclists on Southgate Road will swap to the Superhighway, easing the traffic on that road and making it easier to coss.
So you can understand, why I’m pretty much in favour of the scheme.
A few Boris Bike stations along the Superhighway would probably get me cycling again!
De Beauvoir Square In Autumn
I took these pictures today, as I walked past De Beauvoir Square.
Even in autumn, it still has some flowers.
Hackney, which is not the richest of London boroughs, has a few squares like this, including Fassett Square, where if things had turned out differently, might have been where the BBC filmed East Enders. As it was, the set was modelled on that square.
The Anonymous Widower 