cycle lanes

[carpetbagger]

I have just got back from Palmyre near Royan in Southwest France and have thoroughly enjoyed the miles of cycle paths running alongside roads,through forests and along the coast.
Many an english voice was heard to say ' this is like being on motorways at home'. And how right they were,except that these were cycle motorways ! I have never seen so many bikes on the road at once,children,old people,families and numerous others enjoying cycling in a safe enviroment. Cycles with trailers with children,dogs,boats you name it it was there.......my wife actually got on her bike and enjoyed it,safely,with no moaning !!
we have a very long way to go......send the MPs(at there own expense) on holiday there for a week to see how it works,they could learn a lot.

 

[flecc]

We do have a long way to go, and unfortunately we'll never get there. What France with it's similar size population has is the space to do this sort of thing, it would be a nightmare to do it here.

In our little island, homes, farm fields, outbuildings and commercial buildings are frequently right next to our roads leaving no spare space, so our version of those paths would be a repeat of the odds and ends of cycle lanes leading nowhere that we have in our cities. I could never see us facing up to the astronomic cost of shifting all the obstructions by compulsory purchase and new building.
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[carpetbagger]

i agree that there are lots of places where it can't be done,but i also know of lots of places where there are big wide footpaths and no pedestrians and also grass verges which in themselves cost a lot to maintain which could create cycle lanes. There is a road which used to be a suicide road near me (3 lanes,middle one overtaking both ways) which is now a wide two lane road(still a suicide road) which could easliy incorporate a cycle lane, both ways !!
This road is frequently used by cyclists. By starting with roads like these and then creating links later we could create some sort of a cycle network.
The planners shouldn't allow any new roads unless they have cycle lanes.Its going to cost but if they want cars off roads and everyone to start being more enviromentally friendly then they will have to start somewhere.

 

[carpetbagger]

i think the biggest problem maybe the weather !! i thought this global warming was all about increase in temperature and less water...somebody forgot to tell him up there because in my part of the country we have just had two tropical rainforest type summers...

 

[flecc]

We've a classic English cyclepath in my area that I use regularly. From the Lodge Lane roundabout the Croydon Council provided a wide mile of cyclepath which dives behind hedgerow with fields and then woodland on the other side, all well away from the busy Kent Gate Way road, and that ran almost to the Surrey/Kent border. It was Bromley Council's job to do the other half alongside Spring Park and the playing fields, across a wide grassland strip placing the cyclepath well away from the road again.

But these two strips don't meet at the border, simply because there's a house front garden running close to the road at that point. The many cyclists who use the cyclepath have to take to a very narrow pavement strip at that point which is further obstructed by signpost poles etc leaving one almost touching 60 mph traffic on a two lane narrow road.

That's just one example of many locations in my area which would absolutely block any attempt at a sensible cyclepath network, and this is common in all the higher population parts of England.

And yes, if this summer and last are a sample of what global warming means for us, we might as well give up now!
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[moon]

I live in Bromley too and used to cycle regularly in the Keston area around the country lanes on my mountain bike, but some of the roads in the area are so busy with few to no paths alongside that I avoid the area completely now as its just too scary,

 

[JohnInStockie]

It is soo depressing. I see to many incredibly poor and short sighted cycles lanes where I am, many so badly maintained that you cant use them even if you wanted too.

I thought I would try and take an active part in improving our cycling facilities, and so I attend the local coucil cycle meetings now too, last time they had a planning officer there, and its always the cycle that comes last in their decision making. The most you can hope to do is to slightly amend there plans, you cant offer them any plans (or at least thats how it came across to me). Its car, closely followed by pedestrian, and a long way back to the back marker of the cyclist.

sigh..

John

 

[JohnInStockie]

And yes, if this summer and last are a sample of what global warming means for us, we might as well give up now!
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Myabe we should be more foresighted and start a kayakelecs forum

John

 

[frank9755]

My experience in France has been different. I've just come back from a week cycling round Brittany. There there are very few cycle lanes (and those that I did encounter tend to be poor with, for example, cyclists having to give way to traffic exiting from roundabouts). The big difference though is that drivers are much more courteous and less threatening to cyclists on normal roads. In 200 miles of cycling there was only one driver of the thousands we encountered who came a bit too close in overtaking us. On my previous cycling holiday in France, in the Lot area, I had a similar experience - no cycle lanes but courteous drivers.

In fact, the more I cycle, the less keen I am on cycle lanes. If they are done well, they can be excellent. I've been on great ones in Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark - and those in SW France sound excellent, too. But as Flecc points out, in Britain we just don't do them properly and they are then worse than useless. They are often so bad that someone has written a book about them. I particularly hate shared cyclist-pedestrian ones, as I don't want to run into a pedestrian, so avoid them like the plague. I also dislike ones that funnel you to the wrong part of the road for a cyclist to be on - in particular right into the gutter, the 'door' zone for parked cars and the edges of roundabouts.

My ideal would be for large numbers of cyclists to be able to ride on the road without fear, and for all drivers to respect their right to do so. Maybe building a network of good cycle lanes would be easier to achieve than that!

 

[JohnInStockie]

I think a solution would be to have more 'blocked' roads, the ones you often see where the middle has almost been blocked and only cyclust can get through. they are fine for access for residents, but its stops the cars.

I'll continue dreamin'

This is why there is so much pressure to sort out a stupid fuel cell solution, so that we can merrily continue to drive our 1 ton tin boxes in ignorance of others, arrogantly (grrr - ranting).

John

 

[rooel]

"What France with it's similar size population has is the space to do this sort of thing, it would be a nightmare to do it here.."

I think the same thing must have been said when Ernest Marples, Transport Minister in 1959, announced the motorway building programme, and as we now know to our cost, motorways take up much more space than cycleways.

The difference is that the building and planning of the motorways was backed by sufficient finance and compulsory purchase powers. Whole fields and streets of houses were not to be allowed to impede their progress across the land.

What we need now is a transport minister who is capable of making a similar announcement with regard to cycleways as Marples made fifty years ago with regard to motorways.

 

[WALKERMAN]

Cycle paths

I have given up on one of the cycle paths on my route to work. It is fairly remote and I have encountered a number of strange characters on it and have often been verbally abused and threatened. It is also used by local dog-walkers who seem to think it is only for them to use as a toilet for their animals.

Because of all this I feel a bit safer on the roads where there are more people around.

There is a short stretch of cycle path running parallel with part of the road but it is so much more bumpy and uncomfortable than the road surface. Last year I had to contact the local council because a contractor was erecting new street lights and they put one smack bang in the middle of this cycle path. It was re-positioned the following day!

The best cycle path on my route is a dedicated lane where a dual carriageway was converted to a single lane to make the road safer. Parking laybys were created out of the redundant car lane and a cycle lane was added. When it was first done I wasn't a cyclist and as a car driver I was really annoyed at what they had done but now, as a cyclist, I think it is excellent.

 

[flecc]

What we need now is a transport minister who is capable of making a similar announcement with regard to cycleways as Marples made fifty years ago with regard to motorways.

Of course transport minister Ernest Marples was the same Marples as the one in motorway builders Marples Ridgeway. That helped a bit.

Seriously, in budgetary terms the traffic on motorways is a huge cash-cow, while cycling is just a cost.
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[Saddlesore]

We have a similar situation around and about Worcester where there are quite a lot of combined cycle/pedestrian routes. These are hardly ever used by cyclists as the routes tend to meander about using cycle paths and side streets and have barriers at intervals to negotiate. Most cyclists head for town straight down the main roads and thereby half the mileage that they would do using the paths. The one good route in our area uses the Worcester-Birmingham canal towpath which is useful as it bisects the city quite nicely and is also reasonably well maintained.