Go left Young man/woman ......go left.

[fatboy]

As a very regular user of the Stevenage cycle paths (I work there) I reckon one issue is the low numbers of bikes so there's no going with the flow so no obvious correct side). I do see the odd bike on the wrong side and I have wondered if it is people not used to roads that drive on the left.

Ditto Drossal's comment about some of the underpasses but I do think that the original network is fantastic. Just a shame that any development seems to degrade the network; they've recently opened a Costco which gives cars priority with poor sight lines and they've added the rumble strips but with the strips in line with the direction of travel, great when wet grrr

[ANTONISH]

Whilst riding the Danube cycle path I kept to the right in order to comply with what I thought was the rule of the road.
I sometimes encountered groups on e-bikes. They seemed to ride without consideration of what was the correct side - a bit disconcerting when I had a large group coming towards me.
Maybe it's the sense of release coming from not having to deal with motorised traffic.

[Cyril Haearn]

One should always single out and leave plenty of room, we learnt that on clubruns 1974

Maybe some of those riding on the wrong side are recent immigrants from Poland, Romania etc. Or mortons off the leash?

[GeorgeRiches]

The utility cyclist wrote

the cycleway infra is utterly pants! It doesn't link up across the town, not even close, it zig zags its way unlike the motor roads which are flat and direct, and when it does meet a road (as you've found) it ducks under the road at an often significant gradient with the accompanying 90 degree turn (sometimes more acute)

Most turns anywhere are 90 degree. The real problems are the curve radius and the sight lines for the people approaching the junction. I expect the infrastructure was designed for a maximum speed of 4 mph (i.e. pedestrians).

Current UK standards are a minimum horizontal radius of 14 metres at 12 mph. See http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/h ... ic-web.pdf

[drossall]

Ditto Drossal's comment about some of the underpasses but I do think that the original network is fantastic.

The problem I described is on the original network. Generally though it is better than the later additions. Even the original, however, tends to stop unpredictably in obscure parks and so on. You basically need to ride the road for a bit to learn the area, in order to make sense of everything, before you can use the paths to try to get to the same places. Using the road also helps you spot the places where paths do weird things, and where it's important to be on the path one one side or the other of the road if you don't want to be diverted unexpectedly. Getting across town is one particular issue, as the town centre is rather in the way, and there's not much help if you happen to want to cross it rather than go shopping. Routes are available to go round, but you're on your own finding them.

Or of course you can drive the area in order to work out how to cycle it