Potholes and Pavements

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 16,000+ mile-long network but many of us don't even know it exists. Post-lockdown Laura sets off around the NCN on her pink e-bike to determine the state of the nation of the country's unifying cycling network. Despite the threat of carbon emissions, our roads are still geared to drivers and it remains a challenge to navigate the UK on two wheels. What has gone right - and wrong - with this piece of national infrastructure? Why is it run by a charity whose CEO once admitted it's 'a bit crap'? Could it be because it is dependent on the mercy of landowners, councils and, in one case, a caravan park proprietor outside of Oban? 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. Along the way she includes visits to the Lakes, heads down to Cornwall via her hometown of Wiveliscombe in Somerset, travels from Bristol to Bath and along the Thames Path, and makes trips to Scotland and Wales. On her mission to pin down what the NCN is and what it means to those she meets en route, she also speaks to high-profile travelling companions, including Chris Boardman and Ned Boulting. The NCN could be our salvation, but right now it can't even save itself. Join Laura as she experiences the NCN first-hand to understand how it came to be and explores the future of our nation's cycling.

Laura Laker is one of the most respected cycling journalists in the UK, with decades of experience and unparalleled connections across politics and campaign organisations. She co-hosts the Streets Ahead podcast with Adam Tranter and Ned Boulting, is the co-founder of Active Travel Media Awards, and has written for the Guardian, Sunday Times, road.cc, Cyclist, Cycling Plus and many others. She writes the Guardian's highly popular bike blog. @laura_laker

Introduction: Flight 1. Falling out 2. Founding a network 3. Friendship and wayfinding on the Thames Path and Beyond 4. Back to the beginning on the Bristol and Bath Railway Path 5. Maps, a murderer and mud on the Kent and Sussex coasts 6. Millennium miles, moss and an omerta 7. Crime and accidental punishment on the Isle of Wight 8. Cycling across Cornwall with a shrub 9. Camel walk 10. Laker Close, and a reunion of sorts, in Somerset 11. Progress and flipping Boris the bird 12. Chris Boardman, Chester and the 'least shit option' 13. Gung-ho hand-cycling 14. The mystery of the Coalash Triangle 15. Thank goodness for Wales 16. Laker in the Lakes 17. Caledonian people power 18. The dream team 19. Ned Boulting on helmets and a helter-skelter of history 20. This path goes all the way to Liverpool 21. Going full circle 22. They take us because we need to go Coda Appendix: The founders of a network References Acknowledgements