Video: Currys PC World stages London commuter race - and inadvertently highlights value of Cycle Superhighways

Currys PC World has produced a video that pits a cyclist against a public transport user on a journey from Crystal Palace to King’s Cross – and it inadvertently makes a great case for the capital’s Cycle Superhighways.

That’s because despite the first section of the North-South Cycle Superhighway from Elephant & Castle to King’s Cross via Blackfriars Bridge opening 15 months ago, the cyclist inexplicably takes a detour via London Bridge.

> Video: First look at London's North-South Cycle Superhighway

So instead of heading in what would have been the most direct route once he hits Elephant & Castle – and one that, for much of its length, would be free of motor vehicles – he is shown threading his way through buses and lorries on the approach to London Bridge.

Once across the river, he then heads past St Paul’s Cathedral, presumably joining the North-South Cycle Superhighway at or near Ludgate Circus, before completing his journey by following the section of the route that remains to be built.

Of course, Fin, the cyclist, gets there before public transport user Dan – people on bikes typically win these kinds of challenges, although the distance here, around 15.5km, is getting towards the limit for your average rider to prevail.

> Daily Mail stages race to highlight “cycle lane lunacy” – and proves bikes are quicker than cars in cities

The journey planner on the Transport for London website gives 48 minutes as the average journey time both via public transport and by bicycle using what it terms a ‘fast’ route at an average speed of 20kph.

As with the two slower routes by bike – ‘easy’ (1 hour 19 minutes at 12kph) and ‘moderate’ (59 minutes at 16kph) – the route heads up the North-South Cycle Superhighway once it hits Elephant & Castle.

By public transport, and leaving on a weekday lunchtime, TfL gives a rather convoluted route from Crystal Palace station – train to Streatham Hill, bus to Brixton, then Victoria Line to Kings Cross (the latter estimated at a perhaps optimistic 15 minutes).

Dan takes an entirely different route – the Overground to Whitechapel, then the Hammersmith & City line the rest of the way, which involves much less faffing about.

According to a blog post on the Currys PC World website, Dan’s biggest worries beforehand were “slow walkers on Tube station escalators, delays, and missing connecting transportation.”

Fin’s, meanwhile, were “traffic, crazy drivers, and failing fitness levels” – so taking the Cycle Superhighway would have removed two of those issues, at least for part of the route.

Often, exercises of this type are scripted affairs – how else to explain that despite confidently exclaiming at the start, “I know the route like the back of my hand,” Fin ends up getting a bit lost and has to improvise to set himself back on track?

That, of course, makes for a closer and more exciting ‘race’ – and moreover, who wants to see dozens of cyclists enjoying riding on motor traffic-free infrastructure when instead you can show one having to keep his wits about him on traffic-choked streets?

> 1,200 cyclists PER HOUR using new Cycle Superhighway

Finally, if you’re wondering why Currys PC World went to all this effort, it’s to showcase the Go Pro Hero 5 camera it sells and that both Fin and Dan recorded their journeys on.