London's hidden motorway...

... according to Robert Crampton is the Regent's Canal. In a feature on cycling in The Times last Saturday, and on the website, he writes:

The Regent’s Canal is the hidden motorway of cycling London. Well, not so much the canal, as the towpath alongside it. The towpath is quick, convenient, safe and surprisingly rustic. In large parts of the stretch I know best — the four miles or so running from Islington through Hackney and the East End down to the river at Limehouse — you could be in the countryside. Well, countryside with the occasional gasometer, anyway. But I like gasometers.

Cycling is the most efficient way to get around London. Study after study proves it. But many potential cyclists are put off by fear of negotiating traffic. For such people, and the already committed who fancy a break, the canal system is the answer.

He goes on to list a few destinations and routes, and praises the British Waterways Board (sic) for being one of the unsung heroes of urban regeneration throughout the land.

The paper version of the article is accompanied by a picture of a cyclist pedalling through a bridgehole. I wish I could read the sign on the bridge: I wonder if it requests cyclists to dismount!