A rant about MK cyclists (and peds, for that matter)

[toffee]

[QUOTE 4505223, member: 259"]Thanks, I wouldn't have taken it anyway, as I thought it was a sh*tehole.[/QUOTE]

You must live in some paradise if you can tell from the view from the station that MK is a sh*thole

Derek

 

[CharlieB]

I did ask, on page 1, if MK was a hot-spot of cyclist-cyclist or cyclist-pedestrian collisions, but no one responded. I'm assuming that's because, despite all the fuss and fear, people don't collide all that much - in the same way as pedestrians on crowded pavements manage to avoid each other most of the time.

Hello, TMN, three near misses for me, two of which sent me off the path, and talking since to one or two of my other cycling colleagues in the office produced tales of two actual impact incidents this year.
People who know me on CC are aware I can be a bit fast, but for the record, I learned very quickly to take this commute really slowly for the reasons in my OP.

Slightly off-topic, I also learned this morning that there is a MK cycling challenge for cycle commuting miles among the numerous organisations, and apparently the one I currently work for came a creditable second when the years' results (not sure when the period runs from/to) were announced at the weekend.

 

[uphillstruggler]

Hello, TMN, three near misses for me, two of which sent me off the path, and talking since to one or two of my other cycling colleagues in the office produced tales of two actual impact incidents this year.
People who know me on CC are aware I can be a bit fast, but for the record, I learned very quickly to take this commute really slowly for the reasons in my OP.

Slightly off-topic, I also learned this morning that there is a MK cycling challenge for cycle commuting miles among the numerous organisations, and apparently the one I currently work for came a creditable second when the years' results (not sure when the period runs from/to) were announced at the weekend.

Hi Charlie

What is your route and what time are you travelling.

I'm thinking that you are going from Gifford park ish to cmk?

Have you thought about trying an alternative route?

I could give some pointers if necessary.

 

[robjh]

As a visitor to MK looking to cycle through it rather than just to the next housing/shopping/commercial area, I have found the cycle paths (redways?) almost impossible to use, due to the lack of much signage other than to the next local area, and their tendency to veer away from the main roads so you can't even use the long-distance signage on the road to guide you. They may or may not be useful for local journeys, as already discussed here with pros and cons. Instead I have ended up riding on the dual carriageways, which are faster but I had the strong sense that that they were not meant for the likes of me.
There are exceptions - the NW-SE axis west of the railway line seems to be OK - but most routes I've used were as above.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Last month I had to go from the far south-east, up to the north of MK. Fortunately my Satnav has all the cycle paths shown, so I just plotted a route and followed the dotted line. However, as stated by @robjh, the lack of signage is a real problem, and I would have been constantly stopping to look at a map to work out if a Redway went the way I wanted. There was one I had to check on Streetview beforehand, as the turn didn't seem to make sense otherwise. I did see quite a few people on foot and bikes in some parts, but others were quiet, but then again, it is a big place.


PS The dinky little 1 carriage train that runs from Bedford to Bletchley was full in the morning rush hour - including 8 bikes before I got on, but the conductor was perfectly happy. When the Oxford to Bedford rail link opens in 2019, it should give some car drivers an incentive to use the train to MK.

 

[toffee]

PS The dinky little 1 carriage train that runs from Bedford to Bletchley was full in the morning rush hour - including 8 bikes before I got on, but the conductor was perfectly happy. When the Oxford to Bedford rail link opens in 2019, it should give some car drivers an incentive to use the train to MK.

That ain't going to help the 5 mile tail backs of cars trying to get into MK I go past on the way to work on a morning.

Derek

 

[toffee]

As a visitor to MK looking to cycle through it rather than just to the next housing/shopping/commercial area, I have found the cycle paths (redways?) almost impossible to use, due to the lack of much signage other than to the next local area, and their tendency to veer away from the main roads so you can't even use the long-distance signage on the road to guide you. They may or may not be useful for local journeys, as already discussed here with pros and cons. Instead I have ended up riding on the dual carriageways, which are faster but I had the strong sense that that they were not meant for the likes of me.
There are exceptions - the NW-SE axis west of the railway line seems to be OK - but most routes I've used were as above.

Surely that's a problem all visitors to an area have not just to MK. I wouldn't know how to navigate across Luton or Oxford without a map or GPS. Most journey are local not across the whole place. In some place the redways do follow the grid roads in others they takes a short cut across the grid square, the designers really can't win.

Derek

 

[mjr]

their tendency to veer away from the main roads

I just had a bit of a look at this on the map for the long-distance redways: V2 stays to the south of its similarly-named road; V4 stays north; V6 stays south except for Bancroft and Bleak Hall (?); V8 stays south/west except it crosses the road to avoid CMK and a square either side, and the hospital; V11 is east except for Monkston and Broughton; H4 stays south to the west of the canal, then uses the corkscrew up to the canal bridge to swap sides; H6 is south of its road except past Willen Lake; H8 is a mess, which is a shame because it would make more sense than National Route 51 for people travelling though; H10 stays south. Maybe I should post this up somewhere that search engines might find it, unless anyone knows how to mark some cycle tracks as better than others on OpenStreetMap.

PS The dinky little 1 carriage train that runs from Bedford to Bletchley was full in the morning rush hour - including 8 bikes before I got on, but the conductor was perfectly happy.

Wow. I think that used to be a locomotive hauling 3 Mark 1 coaches in the 1980s/90s. How things decline

 

[robjh]

Surely that's a problem all visitors to an area have not just to MK. I wouldn't know how to navigate across Luton or Oxford without a map or GPS. Most journey are local not across the whole place. In some place the redways do follow the grid roads in others they takes a short cut across the grid square, the designers really can't win.

Derek

In most towns you can look for the main roads out of town and follow them. Of course, you can do that in MK but then you can't easily use the redways as they don't follow the roads in any obvious fashion (with a few exceptions as I mentioned). The grid pattern in MK makes instinctive direction-finding harder too compared to a more traditional town layout where the main routes tend to radiate out from the centre. I generally carry a road-atlas quality map with me in unfamiliar areas, and have found both Oxford and Luton easier to navigate through than MK.

the designers really can't win.
Derek

Some long-distance signage would go some way to remedying that. But in reality the older redways were never meant for long-distance travel (as mentioned by @Drago somewhere upthread) so it's hard to catch up now.

 

[CharlieB]

Hi Charlie

What is your route and what time are you travelling.

I'm thinking that you are going from Gifford park ish to cmk?

Have you thought about trying an alternative route?

I could give some pointers if necessary.

Thank you US. No, my route is far simpler - it's Central Train station to Fox Milne in the morning and back in the evening. Almost a straight line with a wiggle across the bottom end of Campbell Park. I accept that Child's Way would be foolhardy, but it gets a bit mad all the way from Campbell Park to Fox Milne.

 

[toffee]

There is a Redways map if you want to use it

http://www.destinationmiltonkeynes.co.uk/upload/managerFile/Downloads/2016 Redway Map.pdf

Derek

 

[mjr]

Thank you US. No, my route is far simpler - it's Central Train station to Fox Milne in the morning and back in the evening. Almost a straight line with a wiggle across the bottom end of Campbell Park. I accept that Child's Way would be foolhardy, but it gets a bit mad all the way from Campbell Park to Fox Milne.

Alternative route: head away from the station, under the righthand underpass, keep going forwards and turn right onto the redway before Grafton Gate, follow that out of the city centre squares and turn left after going under Childs Way, then follow that track east to where it changes sides to go by Willen Lake, go up to the roadside to go over the bridge, then after it leaves the road, turn left into Fox Milne. It's a little further but avoids all the slow stuff around the shopping centre and through the park. Main drawback is it's skirting housing estates near the centre, which still isn't as fast as it could be.

Disclaimer: they might have scuppered that route since I last rode it many years ago, but it looks like it's still there on the map.

 

[CharlieB]

Alternative route: head away from the station, under the righthand underpass, keep going forwards and turn right onto the redway before Grafton Gate, follow that out of the city centre squares and turn left after going under Childs Way, then follow that track east to where it changes sides to go by Willen Lake, go up to the roadside to go over the bridge, then after it leaves the road, turn left into Fox Milne. It's a little further but avoids all the slow stuff around the shopping centre and through the park. Main drawback is it's skirting housing estates near the centre, which still isn't as fast as it could be.

Disclaimer: they might have scuppered that route since I last rode it many years ago, but it looks like it's still there on the map.

Ummm. That was my route up to about a week ago. Except I'm now using the road from the train station as far as Campbell Park.

 

[mjr]

There is a Redways map if you want to use it

http://www.destinationmiltonkeynes.co.uk/upload/managerFile/Downloads/2016 Redway Map.pdf

That's a bit odd... it shows a couple of "Priority Cycle Routes" where there's no redway or road, such as parallel to Portway where it crosses Watling Street. Any idea what it means?

 

[toffee]

That's a bit odd... it shows a couple of "Priority Cycle Routes" where there's no redway or road, such as parallel to Portway where it crosses Watling Street. Any idea what it means?

I think that is a map makers error. Some of it was probably aspirations of things they wanted to do.

You can see how long it is since it was updated by the fact that the Hockey Stadium is marked next to the railway station. It's now Network Rail HQ.

The basics of the map is ok, if anything there is more redways now than when if was printed.

The route to from the station to Fox Milne is quite easy part from the fact that you have to go up and down the hill that CMK is built on.

Derek