Kingston and the C29

London has added more cycle lanes to keep up with the increasing demand to reduce emissions as part of its more grand plan to be Net Zero by 2030.

One of these is located within the royal borough of Kingston-Upon-Thames.

This cycle lane spans the borough, dubbed the Cycle highway c29 and goes from Kingston to Tolworth, a range of 3.5 miles, as part of the Go cycle project.

These cycle lanes reflect the increasing amount of cyclists on London’s roads.

Many students within the university have opinions on the cycle lane.

Accounting and finance student, D’Andre Greyson said: “I find the bike lanes almost invasive at times.”

“When I come down from the other campus, I get annoyed by them; why do they have more space than people who walk on the pavement.”

“I see the use, but the space they take up is crazy.”

Transport for London reported last year that cycling journeys within the capital had seen a steady increase of 5%; taking it from 1.26 million journeys to 1.33 million.

One cyclist named Sharon, on the c29 cycle highway said: “I think it’s great really, more people should be using more environmentally friendly ways of commuting and these cycle lanes really invite that.”

“It’s good to have this separate lane for cyclists, which speeds up travel and makes it more safe, especially with all the buses on the road.

In a survey conducted, about 55% of respondents found the cycle lanes to benefit their commute.

Among the more common reasons for this, was that it provided a safer environment to travel in.

However, the c29 cycleway is not without its faults; many cyclists have complained of high curbs and areas where the lane stops, unsafely merging cyclists and pedestrians.

Despite all this, Kingston has been noted to provide a more cyclist friendly environment, than other boroughs within the capital, partially due to help from the ‘mini-Holland’ initiative, bringing Dutch-inspired cycling hardware over to the uk.

However only 40% of participants said they used a bike to commute.

This could be linked to the reputation of lime bikes, and them being sometimes linked to negative activity.

In the survey, 45% of participants were found to believe that lime bikes were used inappropriately, including parking them incorrectly, or storing them at the inconvenience and disruption of other road users.

Greyson continued: ‘Lime bikes are always being used terribly, you even see them parked in the middle of these bikes lanes, or tipped over somewhere near their docks.”

“I think that stigma is why people aren’t cycling more; they don’t want to be associated with that reputation.”

 Sharon added: “I don’t think people should let their dislike of lime biles stop them from cycling and benefiting from these cycle lanes.”

“It seems a bit silly to me that people would rather not use these lanes.”

“I understand Lime bike users are a bit stupid at times, but it shouldn’t put somebody off riding.”

“It’s nice to see the council not only listening but also acting on the environmental issues plaguing today’s London.”