That said it wasn't just laziness. I also had a new toy to play with: www.cyclestreets.net. This is great because it's a journey planner but for bikes; so rather than coming up with routes that take in all the main roads it tries a bit harder and looks for some quiet backways that suit two-wheels. Actually it's even better than that as you get a choice of three tracks: fast, slow and something inbetween. Inevitably I spent some time fiddling with it to see what it would offer to get me home and, quite impressively, it matched the itinerary that I've finessed over a number of years in many places:
So very well done to the team who put such a great tool together. It is, however, still a beta project and what this meant became clear when I followed the directions home. In one place I had to turn right onto the Camden Road despite it being a left-turn only junction and in about three places the backstreets turned out to be cobbled mews. Great if you're doing Paris-Roubaix but less enjoyable when it's dark and all you want to do is get home. Overall though I quite enjoyed trying something different on a commute that I've followed almost every day for more years than I care to count.
BTW if you pair CycleStreets with Google StreetView then you end up with a truly exceptional tool. I used the available road-level scans to preview all of the route sections that were new to me before I set off this evening and it made a huge difference - I didn't even need to carry a copy of the turns and road names as it felt like I'd been through it all before. In a way I had.
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