One-way gyratories became popular with 1960s and 1970s urban planning, designed to move large volumes of traffic fast. But the inherent speeds of large one-way systems can make for terrifying travel on foot or by bicycle.

Not surprisingly, the London Cycling Campaign believes gyratories are responsible for putting more people in cars, while deterring those who would rather walk or cycle.

To see whether that is true, the past two weeks has taken me on a pilgrimage to London's worst gyratories. It has been an eye-opening, if depressing experience, but here are my top 10 (in decending order):

1: Wandsworth Town centre

There may once have been a high street in Wandsworth but all that remains now is a string of banks and fast food outlets along a depressing four lane motorway-style gyratory. Shops huddle under the protection of a nearby shopping centre. Ducking into a cafe at the High Street's main junction I was told: "All day it is like this; like a motorway." Indeed while I sat there an incessant procession of vans and cars idled loudly at the lights. Nearby St John's Hill, a two-way street with trees, wide pavements and parking is a different world of thriving small business and a feeling of being inhabited by, rather than infested with, humanity.

2: Archway

Despite living for several years near Archway, I've never set wheels on this gyratory. At the top of north London's Holloway Road, a notorious cycling accident black spot, it splits Archway's shopping centre in two. By car it is a bewildering mass of turnings and traffic lights, on foot it is arduous and by bicycle it is all but impassable. According to a local campaign, those visiting the site in 2010 for a proposed Cycle Superhighway dismounted rather than cycled, before the proposed Superhighway was re-routed to avoid it. Every party in recent elections vowed to remove it but no steps have yet been taken to do so.

3: Stratford Town centre

Given it will soon be at the heart of the 2012 Olympics it is disappointing that lack of funding is holding back council ambitions to reverse Stratford's hostile one-way system. Present provision for non-drivers is woefully inadequate, and current improvements will be mainly aesthetic. Outside its major rail station passengers at Stratford's bus depot huddle on a noisy island between three lanes of traffic and the buses. Most shops are large chains inside a shopping centre (soon to be dwarfed by the new Westway) beyond which pedestrians meet the gyratory once more. Bikes are padlocked to every inch of railing, often two deep, around the station's taxi rank, but no one is actually cycling. With plans to remove these railings, replacement racks will be away from the main station entrance amid police security concerns.

4: Hammersmith Broadway

Approaching the traffic lights from Hammersmith Road I was lulled into a false sense of safety. Once the lights changed, however, I found myself permanently on the defensive. I spent most of the lap looking over both shoulders coercing a torrent of cars, coaches and motorbikes not to mow me down as vehicles overtook from both sides and cut in front of me. Cars come in fast waves and drivers don't always wait for pedestrian crossings. While a lot of bicycles were chained to innumerable cycle racks, not surprisingly, hardly anyone was cycling on the roads.

5: Vauxhall Cross

With five lanes for cars, one for buses and cycle lanes squeezed onto narrow pavements around the outside, here the car is king. At crossings, cyclists and pedestrians squeeze onto small islands while traffic rages around a bus depot in the centre of this oversized roundabout. With limited crossing facilities heading north from the bus station a few try to cross it on foot. As with other gyratories, traffic comes in fast, angry waves with aggressive responses to anyone holding up traffic, even to taxis picking up fares from outside a supermarket.

6: Aldgate

It is curious that the eastbound exit from this gyratory begins a Cycle Superhighway. Not for the first time here I navigated three lanes of fast-moving traffic with buses close behind, swerving suddenly toward bus stops. At the traffic lights onto two-way Whitechapel High Street, every inch of four lanes (plus cycle boxes) were occupied by buses, taxis and vans, while cyclists waited helplessly in the fumes, unable to pass. As I pushed my bike onto the pavement in despair I noticed the unmistakable blue Cycle Superhighway markings on the road. I couldn't help thinking that novice cyclists are more likely to get a super flattening between high-sided vehicles rather than a super cycling experience here.

7: Aldwych

Two enormous lanes of traffic describe a great arc alongside Theatre Land between the Strand and Fleet Street, while a straight section completes the semi-circle to the south. Buses, coaches and cars change lanes unexpectedly at speed while a taxi rank in the middle is used as a cut-through. At the midway traffic lights cars divide frantically between two lanes heading north and three continuing on Aldwych. Without lane markings, gyratory drivers then take unpredictable trajectories toward Fleet Street and back along the Strand. Cyclists need to spend as much time here looking over their shoulders as looking forward amid a volley of aggressive driving.

8: Bricklayers Arms (Tower Bridge road junction with New Kent Road)

This is a motorway-style roundabout south of the river with the New Kent Road flyover across its south side. Seemingly as an afterthought, signs permitting cyclists are installed on pavements and crossings. What lets this down is a lack of markings from the road, however. Coming from Tower Bridge, cycle boxes (advanced stop lines) direct cyclists straight onto the roundabout and it took 30 seconds at the junction before I noticed the signs. This only after I tried a "cycle friendly" subway which led back to where I started. Most bike lanes here are poorly thought-out, starting and finishing in odd places and some without drop kerbs. At a school a few hundred yards away, unsurprisingly only 0.5% of pupils cycle to school.

9: Hyde Park Corner

Improvements in 1999 created cycle lanes across the gyratory from Hyde Park towards Constitution Hill and Buckingham Palace. Cyclists are directed via shared pedestrian crossings onto the space within the roundabout, but for a major cycle route the going is slow and dedicated cycle lanes are often filled with unwitting tourists. The alternative is up to six lanes of traffic from four major roads. I witnessed about 30% of cyclists crossing the gyratory between traffic light phases to avoid the crowded crossings, narrowly avoiding collision with oncoming vehicles. Roads lead into the park at this point but I suspect a separate crossing here would delay traffic. For a major cycle thoroughfare more could and should be done.

10: Stoke Newington gyratory

Between two and three lanes cut a large loop north to south through a vibrant north London centre. As with most gyratories traffic feels faster than in surrounding two-way streets and pedestrian crossings create a "starting line" feeling when the lights turn green. With vehicles parked on both sides cars overtake and undertake, often straddling two lanes while doing so. There is a "fast lane" feel to the outside lane, so when you need to turn right, as a cyclist it takes strong nerves and eye contact to hold your ground. Calls to reverse the one-way system were quelled in 1998 amid concerns over congestion and parking.

Do you have strong feelings about or experiences good or bad, of gyratories in your town or city? Please nominate your city or town's worst one-way systems.

• Laura Laker is a cyclist and freelance writer