The Coronavirus is changing travel habits – with a steep drop in bus & train use, and a similarly steep increase in journeys by cycle or in cars. And our roads are being adapted to this.

Lavender Hill has always been a popular cycle route – thanks to bus lanes along most of its length that mean cyclists aren’t always dodging cars, and fairly wide lanes that mean it’s fairly safe. But there were several long gaps in the bus lanes, as well several parking bays (that only operated outside of peak travel hours) where cyclists had to steer out to the maion traffic lane.

To makes cycling safer, these issues have now been patched up: a cycle lane has been added along many of the gaps (pictured above), and the parking bays have been removed (pictured below – you can see where the old parking bays have been painted out). Much more of the road now marked with double yellow lines; with single yellows in areas where shops will need to take deliveries.

The bus lanes also now operate at all times – rather than operating part time as normal traffic lanes.

This isn’t exactly a ‘cycle superhighway’, just a bit of paint – but it should hopefully help keep cars away from bikes, and reduce the risk of accidents.

Losing parking places is never popular, and will cause some concern for some traders on the street. That said, these ones were so ‘part time’ that they weren’t used especially heavily. The side streets remain open for parking for shoppers – almost all of it with (unusually for London) modern and fully functional parking meters that take cards & contactless payments.