Cycling on the A5

[Niborf]

I'm cycling from Woburn (Beds) to Skipton (N Yorks) next week on a 2/3 day trip. The first section takes me approx 60mls along the A5 in a northerly direction. Does anyone have experience of cycling along the A5? I was wondering if it was wide enough to cycle without being too close to cars & trucks? I prefer a higher average speed over scenic view.

[MartinBrice]

I suggest you either do the A5 bit at 5am of avoid it entirely.

[CJ]

The M1/M45 goes pretty much the same way and has a good, paved hard shoulder, wide enough to park a juggernaut. So you can count on being a whole lot further from the cars and trucks than on the A5, which doesn't have any shoulders as such, at all.

Now could somebody please explain why those cars and trucks are allowed to go just as fast on the A5, and why we are not allowed to cycle instead in the relative safety provided on the shoulders of motorways? I've been trying to explain this to a visitor from Mars and he just doesn't get it.

[DaveP]

Err, This am. I was hammering along the A38M (Aston Expressway) and approaching the junction with the M6 when I noticed a cyclist wobbling along the hard shoulder, trying to look over his shoulder to time his dash across both M6 bound lanes to the relative tranquility of the Gravelly Hill exit. At least, I hope thats what he was about to do These elderly Oriental gents can be so inscrutable...
Nice to realise, in retrospect, that he was quite safe

I have seen cyclists on the A5 N of Milton Keynes but I doubt it could be a pleasurable experience. IMO its the sort of road where you might cautiously use a few miles if you cant find an alternative but 60 miles of it could make an old man of you... I think the best I could say of it is that there aren't any of those big junctions where cyclists are instructed to leave and rejoin. The leafy stretches often feature fast traffic and where it passes through minor towns its essential narrowness becomes all too apparent.

[Dudley Manlove]

Not too relevant, but offloading anyhow. It's actually not too bad right at the London end, say S of St Albans, where most of the heavy traffic takes other routes. Makes a good route for getting into London and takes you right into the centre without much hassle. I've no experience of the middle section. The Welsh end is horrible being an arterial route - I had my scariest moment on the road when a mobile home passed to close, stripped the panniers of the right of the bike and sent me flying into a garage forecourt (and didn't bother to stop).

[DougR]

I'm cycling from Woburn (Beds) to Skipton (N Yorks) next week on a 2/3 day trip. The first section takes me approx 60mls along the A5 in a northerly direction. Does anyone have experience of cycling along the A5? I was wondering if it was wide enough to cycle without being too close to cars & trucks? I prefer a higher average speed over scenic view.

The A5 north of MK and outside of rush hour is no worse than the Woburn to Bedford road - unless the M1 gets fouled, in which case the A5 is used by all and sundry as the alternative M1.

However - inside MK is a whole different story - there are two A5s and in one places three.

The straight line road is the Old Roman road "Watling Street" and is an MK "grid road" - which means high speed roundabouts, fast competitive traffic and hills - I used to commute along this and its not nice - don't touch it in the dark.

The modern road signposted A5 is a fast dual carriageway with grade separated junctions and used as though M-way - I have never heard of a minor injury on this strip of road.

[drossall]

I did it a few years ago from Crick to Staffordshire. Didn't enjoy it, and I am confident on busy roads. I'd look for an alternative next time.

Of course, enjoyment and safety are not always the same thing. Sometimes, I reckon, you can feel safer whilst being at more risk.

[Niborf]

Hi,

Just like to say a big thanks for all your input re the A5 - most notably from MartinBrice. I have now completed the trip and am thankfully alive to tell the tale. As I had 233 miles to cover in 2 days (Battersea, London to Ilkley, N.Yorks), I decided I had no option but to go for the A5, since I figured that A roads are all going to be much of a muchness and I didn't much fancy the idea of going through Northampton and Leicester as an alternative. Having tested out the first section of the A5 (J9, MI to Hockliffe) the day before I was ready to accept the challenge. I decided to take Martin's advice and started out at 7am about 3 miles due south of Milton Keynes and made it to Hinckley in approx 4 hours (60miles). It's certainly wasn't the scariest part of the trip, and I was really pleased to have broken the back of that day's journey by midday. I gave me the confidence to go further than I expected that day, clocking up a total of 120 miles that day to get as far as Buxton, Derbyshire (I was aiming for Ashbourne). I'm glad I did as the next day the conditions were not so good and the cycling much harder. So if anyone wants a detailed analysis on the first section of the A5 to Hinckley - I'm your man!

[Si]

Sorry, I know it's a bit late, but I use bits of it between Chasewater and Hinckley (as do many time trialists of a Sunday morning), and again north of Wolves.

It's often busy and the traffic can go along at a fair whack. I wouldn't call it pleasurable but at the same time I wouldn't say that it was overly dangerous for the most part. The bit between Hints and Weeford is very nice now that they have bypassed it with a new dual carriageway (that seems to shadow the M6Toll - shows how successful that was then). The worst part is the multi-lane roundabouts - a lot of the traffic on them doesn't know where it's going and can be want to suddenly change lane without warning or looking.

[gilesjuk]

The A5 is a truckers favourite. The section I'm most familiar with is between Milton Keynes up to Weston Park in Staffordshire.

Almost all of the way it is two lanes wide, there are a few overtaking lanes in places. It's pretty darn busy and has fast traffic flow.

[gilesjuk]

Now could somebody please explain why those cars and trucks are allowed to go just as fast on the A5, and why we are not allowed to cycle instead in the relative safety provided on the shoulders of motorways? I've been trying to explain this to a visitor from Mars and he just doesn't get it.

If they legalised cycling on the hard shoulder would you do it?

Anyway, some trucks are limited to a lower speed on A roads, but usually by the company not by law.

[DougR]

.....

Now could somebody please explain why those cars and trucks are allowed to go just as fast on the A5, and why we are not allowed to cycle instead in the relative safety provided on the shoulders of motorways? I've been trying to explain this to a visitor from Mars and he just doesn't get it.

Tell your martian buddy that a stationary vehicle on the hard shoulder of a Brit motorway has a 50% chance of being involved in an accident inside an hour.

M.K. (J14) to Northampton (J15) is seventeen miles - the question is; Do you feel lucky? - well do ya, punk?

Seriously, if you stop on the hard shoulder you will get a police escort real fast - their normal approach is to stop on the upstream side of the victim and turn on all the flashing lights they have - then to try to clear the victim from the road ASAP - those guys don't like fatal accidents any more than the rest of us do.

[cheadle hulme]

Tell your martian buddy that a stationary vehicle on the hard shoulder of a Brit motorway has a 50% chance of being involved in an accident inside an hour.

My martian buddy finds this hard to believe and asks if you have any evidence for the rate you quote?

French autoroutes and N roads have shoulders, but they're a lot more casual about it, often on N roads, they can be used as a nice 1m cycle lane. Sometimes they're even marked as a cycle lane!!

Although I wouldn't fancy cycling up the M6 shoulder, I think we're a bit over the top in terms of the danger levels - willing to be convinced otherwise with accident stats though....

[DougR]

Tell your martian buddy that a stationary vehicle on the hard shoulder of a Brit motorway has a 50% chance of being involved in an accident inside an hour.

My martian buddy finds this hard to believe and asks if you have any evidence for the rate you quote?
...
Although I wouldn't fancy cycling up the M6 shoulder, I think we're a bit over the top in terms of the danger levels - willing to be convinced otherwise with accident stats though....

Source was a police road safety lecture for BP in the early nineties - but that wasn't his best stat.

What is the fastest moving thing on a busy UK Motorway? - Answer a tailback - in heavy traffic the leading edge of the compression travels upstream at three miles a miles a minute - 180 mph.

[bilban]

This just reminded me, I cycled a short stretch, from Long Buckby to near to just past Weedon Bec, with another person late/afternoon/dusk. And it was utterly utterly horrible. This was about 15 years back. When there are two trucks coming from opposing directions, you are pretty much stuffed. Avoid if at all possible.

I agree this is a popular back route, I had assumed traffic would be using the M1, and was amazed at the quantity of freight on it. Heart was in the back of my mouth for most of the journey, and I regret putting another cyclist in danger on that day.