Are you finding your way around London then? Are you a master of the Tube, a prophet of the buses? Even though you might have fallen in love with the public transport, this post might be of some interest to you.

In many cases, in fact, you could be better off trying other routes and means of transport.

Courtesy of Giac Palmieri on Flickr

Cycling around

One thing you’ll sure notice when in London is the number of people cycling in the traffic. Sure, there are better cities to cycle, with more dedicated routes, better maintained streets, and less traffic overall. But cycling is still, probably, the best way to commute and generally go from a to b.

Take my journey to work: 20 minutes on foot to get to Liverpool Street station, 7 minutes on the Central Line to Holborn, and then 4 minutes to get to the office. 31 minutes, and some £1.60 tube fare (off peak). On the bus, it’s about 25 minutes (according to the TFL, but it’s more close to 40-45), plus some 5 minutes on foot to get to the bus stop and then to the office, for £1 on an Oyster Card.

I usually cycle to work, unless it’s really rainy, and it takes me 20 to 25 minutes, and no money. And if I’m not, I take the bus.As for the route, I tend to take the shortest possible. Some people prefer less busy streets or their journey, but I don’t really mind. I do Finsbury Square, Barbican, Smithfields Market and then Holborn. Not exactly pedestrian-only areas, but it’s the shortest way.

You can find information about cycling in London, again, on the TFL website. For a map of cycling routes all over the world (and particularly detailed for London) check OpenCycleMap, which is based on the excellent OpenStreetMap.

Put on your walking shoes

In January I walked to work almost every day, sort of an experiment. Google Maps says it’s a 55 minutes walk, and  agree with that. The fastest it took me was 45 minutes on a non-running pace. All in all, I think it’s worth walking if the distance you need to cover is less than 1 or 2 tube stations (in central London at least), or if you need to change too many times. You can walk the 200 metres that separate Bank Station and Mansion House Station, rather than take the Central Line eastbounds, change at Liverpool Street, and then Circle Line through Aldgate, Tower Hill, Monument and Cannon Street. See the advantages here?

Do you have any tips for cyclists and/or walkers? Do you cycle or usually walk yourself? Would you mind sharing them?

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• Going around London – Part 1: Public transport