Airports with cycle-friendly feeder roads

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
james01
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Joined: 6 Aug 2007, 4:48am

Airports with cycle-friendly feeder roads

Post by james01 »

Does anyone know of a list of good/bad airports for cyclists who wish to pedal away from the terminal without risking those all too familar 6 lane airport super-highways?
I happen to know that Cardiff Airport is excellent to arrive at, you can wheel your bike out of the main terminal door, mount up & ride 5 mins along a small, quiet feeder road, cross a busy-ish roundabout, then you're straight into the quiet country lanes of the Vale of Glamorgan.
Can anyone name any similar airports, at home or abroad ( or conversely, name ones to avoid)?
simonhill
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Joined: 13 Jan 2007, 11:28am
Location: Essex

Post by simonhill »

Stansted must stand out as an airport in the middle of the country(side) with plenty of quiet roads in the vicinity. You can get very near the terminal on country lanes.

Southend as well, because there is no feeder road, but hardly any flights so doesn't really count.
dgibby
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Joined: 22 Feb 2007, 5:07pm

Post by dgibby »

Bristol airport is also a good one. Quiet roads very near to the entrance of the boundary.
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Post by thirdcrank »

You can get right up to LEEDS AND BRADFORD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (AKA Yeadon) on very narrow country roads. Unfortunately, those minor roads approaching from the Leeds side are used as direct routes to the airport by taxi drivers etc., some driving at silly speeds. On a recent visit driving 'Dad's Taxi' I noticed that they seem to have abolished the taxi rank and given a private hire firm a monopoly of pick-ups there. My bried observation is that those drivers seem to be driving at speed, presumably to provide quick pick-ups.

(The roads immediately surrounding the airport have some traffic calming, including rumble strips severe enough to affect cycling, and without a gap for cyclists to pass without being shaken up.)
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bigjim
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Location: Manchester

Post by bigjim »

Liverpool. Manchester, Mallorca.

Jim
pal
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Post by pal »

The Mount Vernon Trail goes right past the terminal door at National (=Reagan) Airport in Washington DC, and takes you all the way to the centre of the city (or out to Virginia, if you're heading the other way). BWI airport (Baltimore/Washington) has its own 'orbital' cyclepath, as (as already mentioned) does Manchester International. It's very easy to bike to/from Helsinki airport, too.
Tony
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Joined: 28 Jan 2007, 2:48pm

Post by Tony »

Gatwick has very quiet approaches to it, either through a stile at the wooden gate by Schlumberger house on Balcombe Road just south of the motorway spur, or by way of the NCN Brighton-Greenwich route which has lift access to the South terminal.
Mind you, I did have a conversation with two nice Canucks on their way to Barcelona a few days ago, pointing out that it would be a good idea to get off the M23......
ae_ep

Post by ae_ep »

hongkong internation airport is the bad one i think...
just look at the map, there is in a island, hongkong gov had not make any bike path to there. you can just pack your bike and take bus or train to there, you cannot take you bike into the train or bus, you must pack it into a case or box, even it is hard to carry!
fatboy
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Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 1:32pm
Location: North Hertfordshire

Post by fatboy »

Luton should be OK also.
"Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again so is the bicycle puncture repair kit." - Billy Connolly
randonneur
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Joined: 9 Apr 2007, 5:55pm

Post by randonneur »

A cycle path runs right in front of the terminal at Geneva which takes you onto suburban roads.
At Toulouse a quiet road follows the airport perimeter to the Airbus factory and then onto reasonably quiet roads.
If using Malaga, head north as you leave the terminal which takes you onto lanes, the main route out puts you on the 3 lane coast road, best avoided.
Other airports in Europe that were pleasant to cycle away from are Bergen, Trondheim, Tromso, Keflavik, Reykavik, Vienna, Dublin and Cork.
Milan Malpensa has aquiet lane to cycle away from after negotiating a couple of busy roundabouts, but had difficulty getting back without using busy roads.
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andrew_s
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Location: Gloucestershire

Post by andrew_s »

Madrid is poor.
It's not too difficult to get out onto local residential roads, but getting much further without either going on a motorway or halfway to the centre of the city seemed next to impossible.

Murcia is good

Seville is poor

Nice isn't too bad from the east, provided you do the last half km as a pedestrian (underpasses etc). Going west across the Var is major roads only though.
lloyd

Post by lloyd »

I'd agree Mallorca is an easy airport to navigate out of. Further afield San Jose, or more accurately Alajuela airport Costa Rica easy to navigate from to and likewise Belize City
james01
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Joined: 6 Aug 2007, 4:48am

Post by james01 »

Thanks to all for this info. I loathe the idea of being forced to get a taxi from an airport. I'll store this thread for future trip-planning
pal
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Joined: 22 Mar 2008, 11:49am

Post by pal »

Just remember not to try cycling out of Minneapolis St Paul!
http://greencycles.blogspot.com/
Sares
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Joined: 4 Feb 2007, 3:34pm

Post by Sares »

Birmingham can be done- it's not great, but you can get to small roads fairly soon. Relatively quiet dual carriageway right at the airport.
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