Hackney High Street

A couple of weeks ago, the police were out on Hackney High Street (properly, the top end of Mare Street), warning cyclists that if they were caught cycling the 'wrong way' up the street again (i.e. the following week), they would either be fined or have to attend safety training.

Hackney High Street

The police are pointing people to a parallel route, which adds an extra quarter mile, just under, to your journey (nearly sixty miles a year). Click here for the details. Cyclists who, not unreasonably, are disinclined to go out of their way just in order to stay on the right side of the law are, said the police, 'just being lazy'. Cyclists! Lazy! Whatever next!

Of all the one-way streets in London that form part of a revitalised London Cycling Network, this one is probably the toughest nut to crack. Complaints about cyclists going the wrong way up Hackney High Street come from three groups: bus drivers, shop-keepers and pedestrians.

As a 'London cyclist', I routinely ignore the 'No entry' signs on one-way streets. What I will not do, however, is ride on the pavement.

In order to go up Hackney High Street, then, I use the parking bays, like stepping-stones. Sometimes I have to wait for a break in the traffic - it's buses, mostly - but I prefer to do this than go a quarter-of-a-mile out of my way.