Will we ever have national motorways for bicycles?

[tuffty]

And Jonesy will be along in a minute to show us why the journeys that matter are not long ones between cities but short ones within or into/out of them. .

I'd agree but London is a big place isn't it? Although the Busway goes for about 20 miles, it passes through 8 or 9 small towns / villages on the way many of which are only 5 / 6 miles out of Cambridge - about the length of a typical London commute I'd think? The main road going that way is dual carriageway with huge lorry traffic problems, you'd be suicidal to cycle on it and nobody does. You could use the back roads but very often the route would be much longer than going direct. Again I'd agree a longer, roundabout route is great if you're out for a ride in the evening / at the weekend but if you just want to get your head down and get to work ...

 

[steve52]

i cant understand why when we upgrade a road or biuld a new bypas we dont build a cycle track along side? surley the cost would be minimal if done at this stage ?
i mean a seperate lane that could be for human powerd and even electric bickes and mobility scoters and such.. i love the dutch model

 

[youngoldbloke]

We already have one in the form of the Bristol - Bath cycle path, much used by commuters and leisure cyclists, AND walkers, AND dog walkers AND pushchair pushers AND buggy pushers AND aimless wanderers etc etc etc - a victim of its own success especially on sunny summer weekends! Would you have a cyclists only rule on the new routes?

 

[400bhp]

i cant understand why when we upgrade a road or biuld a new bypas we dont build a cycle track along side? surley the cost would be minimal if done at this stage ?
i mean a seperate lane that could be for human powerd and even electric bickes and mobility scoters and such.. i love the dutch model

Well, I wonder if actually new roads do have to? There's a couple of examples of new roads that have been built recently that do. I don't know of any recent ones that don't. I'm sure someone here knows the legalities of new road builds here.

 

[davefb]

they supposedly have one... But as I was saying to a guy yesturday, it beggers belief how much has been spent on the NCN stuff, but it isn't a "motorway".
The one I used to use , ncn6 into manchester, changes from 'pretty decent' to 'it's a bridleway suitable for mountainbikes' to 'nice path' to 'dodge the glass riding through a housing estate' to 'stop start kriss kross along major roads'.. So for a lot of it, you ignore it as it is only useful as a 'tootle route'.
yet, you do think ' surely a bit of tarmac here, bit more there' would mean a fast efficient commuting route.
I don't want 'cyclemotorways' to be 'as good as the road', I think the target should be faster, same as motorways are for cars.

 

[redcard]

Forget about cycle motorways, the next big thing is cycle rollercoasters.

Hitch a lift up to 500ft, a slight descent all the way and a loop-de-loop to take you through the office window.

I'd pay a fiver a ride.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Forget about cycle motorways, the next big thing is cycle rollercoasters.

Hitch a lift up to 500ft, a slight descent all the way and a loop-de-loop to take you through the office window.

I'd pay a fiver a ride.

I see some issues with this.

1. How would you get home again?

2. £5 one-way is £25 for a normal working week and you still have to find your own way home.

3. Planning consent would be an obstacle. If every street or household had one of these, access for the emergency services would be problematic.

I think this idea is unworkable and detracts from an oherwise sensible debate.

No wonder our jails are slightly full whilst not actually being overcrowded!

 

[Peowpeowpeowlasers]

I'd rather see green byways created. Look at Google Maps around any town or city and you'll see entirely disconnected areas of greenery. I'd like to see some means of connecting these, via small bridges and the like, so that someone might walk from one end of a city to the other without once crossing a road.

Sounds impossible? Think again:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/jun/08/high-line-park-new-york

 

[Cyclopathic]

This is excellent. I'd love to have these here. It's a shame that our cities are not littered with old unused raised railway lines because I can't see anything like it being built from scratch...just for people to use.

 

[redcard]

I see some issues with this.

1. How would you get home again?

2. £5 one-way is £25 for a normal working week and you still have to find your own way home.

3. Planning consent would be an obstacle. If every street or household had one of these, access for the emergency services would be problematic.

I think this idea is unworkable and detracts from an oherwise sensible debate.

No wonder our jails are slightly full whilst not actually being overcrowded!

Turbos.

There's 1000s of them lying in cupboards. We put them on top of trains, and give people a reason to use them again. You provide the turbo, charge a quid a journey, 20% goes to the railco, the rest pays for Cyclacoasta.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Turbos.

There's 1000s of them lying in cupboards. We put them on top of trains, and give people a reason to use them again. You provide the turbo, charge a quid a journey, 20% goes to the railco, the rest pays for Cyclacoasta.

I'd have to change my QR skewer to put my bike on a train-mounted Turbo.

There would also be the issue of low bridges. I saw a documentary film about espionage once and several foreign agents were knocked off trains by the rooves of tunnels.

Birdstrike (as suffered by aircraft) would also present a problem and might get the RSPCA or RSPB involved.

I do not think you have thought this through.

 

[Peowpeowpeowlasers]

This is excellent. I'd love to have these here. It's a shame that our cities are not littered with old unused raised railway lines because I can't see anything like it being built from scratch...just for people to use.

Well look at Manchester and Salford, for instance. Great big river bisecting the two, completely ignored by everyone. Nothing happening on it, anywhere.

There's no reason why an embankment couldn't be built down one side, enabling people to walk or cycle from the north to the southwest of the cities, free of roads. And if you follow the Irwell valley to the northwest, to Clifton and Bolton, it's gorgeous up there - I know, I've cycled it on hundreds of occasions. Miles and miles of pathways, flowers, wildlife, you name it. There's a disused railway from Clifton that goes straight into Radcliffe, and from Radcliffe you can get on the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal straight into Bury.

The dots just need connecting and the cost is negligible compared to other large scale projects, like building a ring road.

There's also the Rochdale, Ashton and Bridgewater Canals - all could be linked and with good planning, in a way that meant no interference from cars, lorries, etc. Let's face it, you won't find any roads that require motorists to stop, get out and push their cars for a few yards, but that's what's expected of everyone else...

 

[snorri]

I do not think you have thought this through.

That's right, put a damper on redcards idea just because you didn't think of it first.

 

[byegad]

It's a great idea. Wherever the Cycleway crosses a road we could get drivers to get out and push across it, giving way to the hoards of cyclists.

Lets start tomorrow.

 

[Deleted member 20519]

I'm sure I read somewhere about a plan for big tubes with fans to suck the air along, giving cyclists an easy ride.

Here's another thought: in the last couple of decades millions have been spent on trail centres for mountain bikers so how about a few dedicated centres for road bikes? They could have a long straight and a circle, a banked track, some hills of varying steepness, some twisty windy narrow roads like country lanes and of course a cafe. Why should the MTBers have all the fun?

Or a really long conveyor belt and you can pedal to go faster or just chill and take a seat and still keep moving.