Heathrow appoints Cycling Officer to get local staff riding to work

The thing is, there are plenty of wide roads that could have a separated lane added. And because much of the area is flat round there, it'd be feasible to add a separated cycle lane alongside the main roads and yet within the bounadries of the existing infrastructure.

Up till a few months ago part my commute was from Feltham station to the Shoreham road cargo warehouses on the South Perimeter road. I'm glad to be shot of that!

In on the urban roads the infra is much the same as anywhere else. There are some shared facilities which I never used because they're crap.

The chief problem is the perimeter roads, which by their nature carry lots of HGV traffic.  Where they exist the shared facilities are barely useable and discontinious. It's clear that whoever planned them isn't a cyclist (surprise).

As far as I know there is no way to cycle to terminals 1 - 3 in the centre of the airport because the tunnel is closed to bikes.

If they're serious about promoting cycling they need to get someone with the authority to make changes to shift their arse off a car seat and onto a bike saddle, and do what cycle commuters to on a daily basis. That's the only way they will find the obstacles to cycling.

Maybe if they didn't decided to close the cycle access through the tunnel to Heathrow Central that would help?

I used to commute from Hampton Court into Hayes a few years back.  I did it for about three months and I always thought it was pure hell.

My end - Hampton was fine but the closer I got to work it was like cycling through a war zone....  and if it rained the mess you ended up covered in was disgusting, grey road slime!

In the end I was cycling across two big three or four lane round-a-bouts and around the Heathrow obital roads.  The only way for me to feel safe riding to work was to build in a proper training ride and do a wide arc into the countryside more west.  Still beated driving there though

The way I see it the only way to make it safe and efficient time wise would be to remove 2/3rds of the traffic....

1:20 disappointing? Bloody marvellous, I say. Bit suspect, even.

16500 staff, with 1 in 20 cycling? Are there really 800 parked bikes?

When I was a teenager, I remember riding into Heathrow at night and riding around in those tunnels high up above the ground between the terminals. Happy days. When I got a lift though the big tunnel the other day, the cycle lanes were all blocked off, so you couldn't even get in by bike.

There are some good little routes very close though, around Sipson and Harmondsworth, its amazing how rural it can get so close to the nightmare of concrete and aviation fuel just minutes away

Heathrow have pots of money, when they actually want to do something it can work out pretty well

I live in Virginia Water, just the other side of Staines and Egham. whilst it is feasible to ride to Heathrow, i wouldn't be happy doing so. that feeling would be amplified if I were a have-a-go cycle commuter on a fat-wheeled bike averaging less than 10mph. The cycle lanes are narrow and filled with all sorts of junk from the cars, not to mention road debris. It would be a nightmare. They would have to implement cycle paths with dedicated lanes separated by curbs, much like London's cycle super highway to make it feel more safe.

then, add to that hundreds of additional cyclists riding on potentially unsafe bikes through lack of maintenance know-how. They'd have to account for that and really offer a strong community at the site. Free hi-vis', free bike checks, discount parts etc. The reason to want to cycle would have to be more than just personal preference or desire.

I'm pretty dubious about cycling infrastructure, having had huge amounts of money spent on it in south Manchester, only to see the route made more dangerous, slower and more annoying. I tried using it once, and ended up sounding like a Quentin Tarantino film. And that's in summer. In winter, the level of lethality will go through the roof.

If the infrastructure is designed by engineers who ride bikes, it might just be worthwhile. But in my experience, I'd worry about cycling infrastructure designers playing Rollercoaster Tycoon without parental oversight.

So although TfGM want to see me use their shiny new commuter route at 10mph, I'll still prefer to mix it with white vans and HGVs on a dual carriageway. Personally I'm happy if (laughing maniacally) the roads are kept in decent nick, enforcement on vehicles in cycle lanes/ASBs and there's somewhere dry and safe to lock up my bike. Well. One out of three ain't bad.

Edit: delete words "Quentin Tarantino film", replace with "Cycling Front of South Gloustershire blog post". Colour me impressed by the grossly excessive and entirely appropriate use of language.

mmmm.. this might have something to do with it.

http://cyclingfront.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/lhr-missing-fucking-point.html

Brilliant, Sustrans. So 200 yards of "cycle route" surfaced with ground glass with 200 Chicane on it. 

"Workplace Behaviour Change"? Like that's going to work.

Just build high-quality cycleways and nobody will need to be persuaded to ride a bike.

They've correctly identified Heathrow is a massive employer and if they got a fraction of that workforce commuting by bike it would be a great result.

But it's all about infrastructure. No amount of training, showers at work, bike-to-work purchase options, free hi-viz vests, or pretty poster campaigns are going to pursuade people to mix it with HGVs and white vans.

I don't know the environs of LHR very well but I'm living in Zone 4 Perivale at the moment, I suspect cycling provision around LHR is pretty similar ie non-existant.