We were asked by the Royal Parks to comment on a proposal by Transport for London (TfL), as part of the Quietways Programme of the Central London Cycle Grid, to create a cycle path between Lancaster House and Picadilly. One of the possible routes would be on the much-used Queen’s Walk, along the eastern boundary of The Green Park. They also asked us to comment on their proposal to alter the ‘alignment of the paths in the south east corner of The Green Park, between the Canada Memorial and Queen’s Walk, in order to address the problem of informal desire lines / paths that are created by pedestrians using this area of the Park’.
We are in favour of improving the Quietway cycle network, but we are anxious that the use of bicycles on the Queen’s Walk, which is heavily used, especially by tourists walking from Green Park tube station to Buckingham Palace, is hazardous. The existing path is not very wide and the mix of pedestrians, whose course is not always predictable, and fast moving bicycles could lead to injuries. We are in favour of creating paths where there are existing desire lines. While we regret the loss of grass, when this grass is turned into mud by excessive wear a hard-surfaced path is preferable.
Here is The Royal Parks response to the latest consultation from Transport for London on the cycle superhighway :
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/park-management/consultations/transport-for-londons-cycling-routes-consultation