Cycle City?

[andyfraser]

I think the powers that be in Swindon think they have a cycling town, and to an extent they do. There are shared use paths everywhere and they've built some infrastructure.

Where it goes wrong is with the way they've done it. A lot of the shared use paths are a maze. It can be a bit confusing trying to get about until you know where you're going. If I head for ASDA West Swindon I could pop out on Shaw Ridge or in Westlea if I'm not careful. My Garmin is no use on these paths.

The Western Flyer cycle route linking West Swindon to the town centre is very nice at the west end. Beyond that it joins the West Swindon maze I mentioned above. The path linking my part of town to the Western Flyer is unpaved (NCN45) so useless for my road bike.

As the Western Flyer heads towards the town centre some of the paths really deteriorate in palces. By the time you get to the town centre the path splits in two: half for peds and half for cyclists. The cycle part has the worst surface of the two and peds walk on it but we're not allowed on the nice ped part that they don't seem to want to use.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

@Exile. Super post.

 

[jonny jeez]

I live in London and I must say that on the whole it is not a vehicle friendly city.

The challenge for any ancient city like London is that they were never designed with the concept of cars, lorries, tubes, motorcycles, bikes and sheer volume of pedestrians in mind.

As such, riding a bike through London is as challenging as driving a lorry.

Trying to squeeze segregated routes in amongst all of that will only add to the challenge.

Re-education (for everyone, cyclist inc) and integration are the key.

 

[Schneil]

Stockport to manchester is bus lanes all the way till levenshulme...

But then the A6 in Levenshulme (and Longsight) is a nightmare on a bike. The lane is really narrow so you either take the lane (following best practice) and ge numpties tailgating you, or risk being in the door zone for two miles of parking bays and bus stops.

Once I get to McVities, I use the fallowfield loop and take the remainder of the ride into Manchester down Birchfields Road (a34) or Wilmslow Road, Safer, but still a frying pan compared to the fire of the A6.

 

[Schneil]

Manchester is a city which could do so much better. Poor infrastructure, poor vision by TfGM, poor enforcement by GMP. Given the wide main roads leading to the city centre (A665, A56, A62 to name a couple) there is so much space to add good quality infrastructure if only the council and transport authority had the guts to prioritise people over cars. Unfortunately, nobody in the position to make such a change has the spine they were born with, so rather than the revolution we need, we get useless tinkering around the edges.

Don't get me wrong, there are some nice cycle routes. You could certainly do worse than using the Fallowfield Loop to get from Droylsden to Chorlton, even if it is a bit of a barrier-fest. It's just unfortunate that we're then given things like door-zone cycle lanes next to tram lines on Ashton New Road, or have a key cross-city cycle route removed as part of the work done at St Peters Square. They also don't seem to understand you won't get more people cycling by having fancy places to park their bike if they don't feel safe on the roads. That or they just want cyclists off the roads, hence the abundance of tow-path routes in the Velocity 2025 plans.

There's been a lot of money spent on "improvements" to Manchester Road between Parrs Wood ad Cheadle. It's one of the only routes in the area for crossing the River Mersey and the M60.
This involves turning the pavement on the South side of the road into "shared use".
However this doesn't work if you're travelling North. Or you get spat out into traffic going the wrong way once you hot the border with Manchester. Then on Sundays the shared use facility becomes a place for people to park their cars illegally

Still at least they dropped the limit from 40 to 30.

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Well from my experience of cycling in Cambridge for the last 6 years.
Cyclist is king. All other forms of transport are the enemy.
I have never known anywhere do so much for cyclists, defend cyclists, lanes, junctions etc
The poor motorist here is penalised every which way they can.

 

[robjh]

Hi people,
I live in Leicester which according to LCC I live in a "cycle friendly city"........ But in actual reality "it's not". (cycle lanes designed by morons etc)

If Leicester is cycle friendly then it must have changed a lot in the 3 years since I lived there. It was not so much unfriendly, just indifferent.

Well from my experience of cycling in Cambridge for the last 6 years.
Cyclist is king. All other forms of transport are the enemy.
I have never known anywhere do so much for cyclists, defend cyclists, lanes, junctions etc
The poor motorist here is penalised every which way they can.

Indeed Cambridge is unbelievably cycle-friendly compared to anywhere else I know in the UK, and I love it. Of course it's not quite Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but for me it tops the UK charts.

As for the 'poor motorist', I also drive here and don't feel penalised nor like the 'enemy', and don't think I need any pity.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

But then the A6 in Levenshulme (and Longsight) is a nightmare on a bike. The lane is really narrow so you either take the lane (following best practice) and ge numpties tailgating you, or risk being in the door zone for two miles of parking bays and bus stops.

Once I get to McVities, I use the fallowfield loop and take the remainder of the ride into Manchester down Birchfields Road (a34) or Wilmslow Road, Safer, but still a frying pan compared to the fire of the A6.

i turn right at the a665 (by the mcdonalds) and it takes me to the door of my workplace (cis building). that's probably the hairiest bit; never feel particularly troubled by the a6, but then i'm confident and know when to give best to other traffic…

 

[DooDah]

I briefly lived in Milton Keynes. It takes a lot of stick torn the poor quality of its cycle network, but the bottom line is I found it pretty reasonable. Several main arteries give rise to a huge network of more local routes, which do tend to meander a bit but aren't all that bad. Some of them are very picturesque. My biggest beef was poor maintenance, cleaning trees overgrowing lamp posts etc.

Bloody hell, they don't clean their trees, and the lamp posts are overgrowing, what is happening with Milton Keynes

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

If Leicester is cycle friendly then it must have changed a lot in the 3 years since I lived there. It was not so much unfriendly, just indifferent.



Indeed Cambridge is unbelievably cycle-friendly compared to anywhere else I know in the UK, and I love it. Of course it's not quite Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but for me it tops the UK charts.

As for the 'poor motorist', I also drive here and don't feel penalised nor like the 'enemy', and don't think I need any pity.

I think the people who use the Park and Ride and pay for an awful service, and now have to pay at the Park and ride sites as well, may differ. Even as a cyclist I think that seems just a tad unfair!

 

[Exile]

There's been a lot of money spent on "improvements" to Manchester Road between Parrs Wood ad Cheadle. It's one of the only routes in the area for crossing the River Mersey and the M60.
This involves turning the pavement on the South side of the road into "shared use".
However this doesn't work if you're travelling North. Or you get spat out into traffic going the wrong way once you hot the border with Manchester. Then on Sundays the shared use facility becomes a place for people to park their cars illegally

Still at least they dropped the limit from 40 to 30.

It does seem shared use is the preferred option for TfGM. Plans for the 'improvement' of Irlam o' th' Heights roundabout essentially boil down to "Don't ride on it, use the pavement". Even where they do try and provide on-road facilities, as you've found out, cars decide they make a nice parking space. The cycle lanes along Talbot Road through Old Trafford were widened this year.

The road went from a narrow cycle lane and two main traffic lanes each way, to one main lane and a cycle lane wide enough (just) to ride two abreast. It's also the perfect width for taxi's, delivery vans and just about any other four wheeled vehicle to pull up in and not impact the flow in the traffic lane. The fact this isn't clamped down on hard by Greater Manchester police is depressing enough, but the fact there's a fairly busy police station on Talbot Road, with cars and vans coming and going frequently, is just damning. I understand that GMP are stretched at the moment, and given the kicking they've come in for about other issues I'm not surprised traffic enforcement has taken a back seat, but if you're not enforcing the rules of the road, breaking them starts to become socially acceptable, and it then takes so much more effort to re-establish following the rules as the norm.