Potholes and pavements

Here is a unique journey around the UK’s National Cycle Network and one journalist’s quest to investigate the state of our country’s cycling. At 42, the National Cycle Network (NCN) is just a few years older than cycling journalist Laura Laker. Half of the UK population live within a mile of the nearly 13,000 mile-long network but many of us don’t even know it exists. Despite the profound impact on our health and planet, our roads are still geared to driving and it remains a challenge to navigate the UK on two wheels. Post-lockdown Laura sets off on a journey through the looking glass, to explore the state of the UK’s unifying cycling network. What has gone right – and wrong – with this piece of national infrastructure? Laura lifts the lid on this maddening, patchy, and at times dangerous cycle infrastructure, and the similarly precarious politics and financing that make it what it is.