Andrew Dubber     

I tried a new route to work yesterday. I was trying to maximise the proportion of the journey that I could spend along the canal, and minimise the amount of time spent dicing with death along Stratford Road.

So I took Rusty to the bike shop for a bit of new kit, and some advice about directions.

I picked up front and rear lights, so I could cycle home after 3pm and be detected by the human eye – thereby making Rusty as completely safe as it’s possible to be and still be a bicycle on Birmingham roads.

As far as the route was concerned – after much deliberation and a couple of phone calls – the trick, it seemed, was to cut across Stratford from Highfield, go out to Acocks Green, and get on at Yardley Road. It added another mile or two to the journey, but a much nicer ride. Or so I thought.

Fox Hollies Road was comparatively delightful. But when I got down to the canal tow path… unpleasantness ensued.

The path was a boggy, lumpy, mud-ridden obstacle course. It was virtually impassable – and that was just the flat bits. There were unnecessary ramps, hills, stairs, concrete blocks and other bicycling challenges. Most of which seemed designed to ensure you either fell in the canal, or threw yourself in.

And then you reach Golden Hillock Bridge.

Suddenly it’s a joyride in the countryside. The journey is a complete delight from that point onwards. It’s a half-hour trudge of misery to get there, but it’s delightful from that point onwards.

So… new plan: I brave Stratford Road until Baker Street. I head down Baker Street to get to Golden Hillock Road. And then I go on the canals.

Here’s the revised map (if it’s not showing you the route – refresh the page and it should behave):

View Larger Map

Click on bits of the route map to get detail – and for extra fun, make sure you have a look at the satellite view.

Because interestingly, for most of the canal journey, Google Maps thinks I’m cycling through the middle of streets and buildings. It doesn’t know that canals are there.

The satellite version can see them in very high resolution, and it’s quite fun to zoom right in and take my journey to work from above (okay – if you were really bored, perhaps) – but according to just the map bit, the canal stops, and I keep going.

But I’m delighted with this version of the plan. Again, there’s a bit of extra journey that results, and it takes me a good hour each way (so, same amount of time as two buses, then) – but even though I go along most of Stratford Road – I don’t have to go along the worst of Stratford Road. So I take that as a win.

I haven’t tried mapping out the canal route that takes me through the city via that “other” university – but since it takes me all the way out to Kings Norton Junction before I can turn towards the city, I suspect that will be even prettier – and about half an hour longer each way. We’ll see.

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Tagged: Bicycle, Birmingham, Cycling, Google Map, Personal