Bmblbzzz wrote:PH wrote:I haven't seen the article in cycle so can't comment on that. The point that most of the anti brigade miss is that if you build decent facilities there's no need for compulsion, most people will choose to use them, much like as in the example above where most people driving around Bristol choose to use the Motorway.
Well, no. The M32, M4, M5 exist and will take you from central Bristol to Portishead. But, although these are bigger, wider, smoother, faster roads, most people driving that journey will take the A369, because it's far more direct, therefore quicker, and also uses less fuel (though I don't think most people are really concerned about that). These four roads are actually four sides of a more-or-less rectangle.
And so it is with cycle paths. They need to be not only built to a decent standard, but built on or paralleling all the roads that need them, before they'll become the always default use. In the case of Bristol to Portishead there is the Pill Path, which runs along the River Avon and then connects to Portishead, but most of it is a narrow, gravelly - muddy if it's rained recently - path. Popular with runners and fine for a family day out on bikes, but not a great all-weather, every day, transport route.
In the case of the Pill Path, "rained recently" means "any time in the preceding fortnight" IMO