Manchester: why not as nice as other cities?

[mjr]

I've visited Manchester a few times (visiting co-ops UK, events in Manchester Central and on Oxford Road and so on) and I've been surprised it seems such a brutal/survival-of-the-fastest place for cycling. It's really puzzled me that it seems quite a lot less fun to cycle around than many other UK cities and seems to be getting left behind and posts on here make me think it's not getting better.

Do people think this is because Manchester City Council is signed up with British Cycling until 2020? someone pointed me at http://madcyclelanesofmanchester.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/bcf-voice-of-cycling-in-manchesterfor.html

Or are there other factors which are more important?

 

[Katherine]

I hate riding through the city centre. I go along as many little side roads as I can.

 

[fossyant]

You can just see the mess they are currently making with the new Oxford Road Bus/Cycle lanes.

Cycle Lanes that run behind the bus stops, and in Fallowfield, travelling north, there is a ruddy big bollard and a curb between the cars and bikes - absolutely no room for more than one bike.

Drivers in the city have no respect for cyclists. There isn't a critical mass, especially in suburbs, where I see just a handful of cyclists in 8 miles before I get on the Fallowfield Loop. The Loop is quite good, just need puncture proof tyres.

The council hasn't got a clue. Cycle facilities/lanes are an absolute joke.

 

[fossyant]

You wouldn't chose to cycle across the city centre, believe you me.

 

[dan_bo]

Most of the main roads are too narrow to accommodate two lanes of traffic and a cycle path, and everyone's in too much of a rush/stoned off their box to give a toss about allowing each other room. The roads surfaces are an absolute state and the roadworks (lots and lots and lots of them at the moment) are an ever present bad joke which serves to wind people up even more.

And that's just for starters.

 

[dan_bo]

Box junction cameras would be a start. As would a tactical nuclear strike from orbit.

 

[Siclo]

I guess I've become fairly inured to most of it but this:

You can just see the mess they are currently making with the new Oxford Road Bus/Cycle lanes.
.

is really boiling my proverbial. It's just an excuse to mis-appropriate cycle funding to build Europe's biggest on street bus depot whilst destroying the trees that are one of the few bits of greenery in the centre.

The floating bus stop outside EBC is an absolute death trap, the lane dumps you out up the inside of the buses queuing / racing to clear the lights, if you want to turn right down Moss Lane - forget it, if you've used the lane and want to live you'll have to do it as a pedestrian. This is hailed as a successful trial - lord knows what the rest will be like.

As to BC being partly responsible, I think its definitely a factor. They don't and never will represent those folk wanting to bimble about. I'm a BC member but they get this so wrong since most are the faster cyclists who can mix it with the traffic when the need arises, cycling as transport for everyone is just not their thing.

The affiliation with BC has blinded the council to using knowledge available to them from the likes of GMCC, although I don't always agree with what everything from them at least its grounded in sense. The council's cycling forum just seems to be a bun fight with the council just trying to convince people we should be grateful for anything.

It's only set to get worse with with velocity 2025 as this little bit of paint https://goo.gl/maps/1ChmjyQ5UEQ2 , all 9 inches of it in places, yes - I've measured it, is part of "existing high quality infrastructure".

Ironically one of the safest places to be at rush hour is on the Parkway splitting lanes at 20 mph drafting motorbikes because moving a metal box is all but impossible.

<rant over>

 

[ColinJ]

Ha ha - I thought that I was just being a wimp, feeling like that!

I had thought about catching the train into Manchester with my bike and then riding out into Cheshire for the day but I couldn't face the ride out and then back in again. Maybe I could cope with riding from Victoria station to Deansgate station and then catching a second train to escape from the city centre ... is there a quiet route to do that? (I suspect that the answer is NO!)

 

[dan_bo]

Ha ha - I thought that I was just being a wimp, feeling like that!

I had thought about catching the train into Manchester with my bike and then riding out into Cheshire for the day but I couldn't face the ride out and then back in again. Maybe I could cope with riding from Victoria station to Deansgate station and then catching a second train to escape from the city centre ... is there a quiet route to do that? (I suspect that the answer is NO!)

Picadilly-Navigation road

 

[ColinJ]

Picadilly-Navigation road

ColinJ consults his maps ...

(This has become less of an issue since local CycleChatter @Littgull has been kind enough to offer me lifts to Cheshire and other places that are slightly beyond where I want to cycle to. BTW We will be repeating our 2015 200 km Cheshire forum ride some time this summer (probably in June), so anybody who might be interested should keep an eye open for further news on that.)

 

[ColinJ]

But ... how do I get from Victoria to Piccadilly? (I could easily find my way there, but there is that question of avoiding the traffic/trams.)

 

[fossyant]

The lane at EBC is one I was thinking about - it's one of the busiest bus stops on the route.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

But ... how do I get from Victoria to Piccadilly? (I could easily find my way there, but there is that question of avoiding the traffic/trams.)

Man up and strap on a pair!

 

[ColinJ]

Man up and strap on a pair!

I'll stick to the 'Choose life' option!

 

[Siclo]

Ha ha - I thought that I was just being a wimp, feeling like that!

I had thought about catching the train into Manchester with my bike and then riding out into Cheshire for the day but I couldn't face the ride out and then back in again. Maybe I could cope with riding from Victoria station to Deansgate station and then catching a second train to escape from the city centre ... is there a quiet route to do that? (I suspect that the answer is NO!)

Ride down the Irwell Path then up the Bridgewater canal path to Deansgate. Train to Irlam (only a couple of stops)and follow this to Tatton Park http://ridewithgps.com/routes/11860249

Or ride down the Irwell and follow this to Irlam (not the whole way to the coast)

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/11735243

this will get you to Irlam without using a road, the bit down the A57 is on a segregated good quality track (if you ignore the bit past Barton Aerodrome where they ran out of ideas and used the dismount signs).

then the route above to Tatton

The Irwell path is only passable on slicks in the summer. It's only a 20 min walk from Victoria to Deansgate if you wanted to use slicks and then catch the train to Irlam.