On Mon, 3 Apr 2006, Jack Taylor wrote:

I often take my bike into town and cycle between KX and the Baker
Street/Marylebone area. The best way that I've found is out of the
suburban station at KX, up past St, P and under the Midland main line,
then up to Mornington Crescent, across and through the estate to join
Parkway at the west end and then down and around Regent's Park, either
to Great Portland Street or into Baker Street itself, then down the
marked cycle route through Marylebone.

Wow. That's an incredibly indirect route - two, three times the direct
distance from KX to Great Portland Street?

What i'd do in that situation is head south from KX onto the Seven
Stations route, which at that point is Tavistock Place, using the sort of
manoeuvres we've been discussing, then just ride that west - i think it's
Howland Street west of Tottenham Court Road.

It's not a bad ride and the roads are quite well maintained and you can
achieve a good speed - certainly much better than tackling Euston Road
and Marylebone Road and all the stop-start for lights, buses etc. It
depends where you want to go, though.

My route's traffic is far better than Euston/Marylebone Rd, although it
does still have plenty of lights. The route goes through the middle of the
Marylebone and Baker Street areas, rather than the northern edge as the
big road does, so it's pretty good for getting to places.

tom

--
The revolution is here. Get against the wall, sunshine. -- Mike Froggatt

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Mon, 3 Apr 2006, Jack Taylor wrote:

I often take my bike into town and cycle between KX and the Baker
Street/Marylebone area. The best way that I've found is out of the
suburban station at KX, up past St, P and under the Midland main
line, then up to Mornington Crescent, across and through the estate
to join Parkway at the west end and then down and around Regent's
Park, either to Great Portland Street or into Baker Street itself,
then down the marked cycle route through Marylebone.

Wow. That's an incredibly indirect route - two, three times the direct
distance from KX to Great Portland Street?

It's probably about twice the distance but takes much the same time as
negotiating Euston Road and Marylebone Road and the traffic flows well
(there's also a hell of a lot less of it and very few traffic lights) so you
can move at a much higher speed than using the direct route. In terms of
time (I used to do Marylebone Road/Euston Road) it doesn't take much longer
at all for a much more enjoyable ride. As I'm usually heading to/from
Marylebone station then tanking around the Outer Circle of Regent's Park
from Parkway and cutting across Baker Street/Park Road into Boston Place is
convenient for me. If I was heading down towards Marylebone High Street area
then I *would* probably take the Fitzrovia route that you suggested.