Forgotten Cycleways from the 1930's

[mjr]

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

This is good though.

Anyone able to find a lost cycleway in a 1930s-1950s picture there? The Wymondham and Swaffham-Dereham ones aren't there, as far as I could tell. The plane seems only interested in the sewage works between Swaffham and Dereham

[Pete Owens]

I had noticed this one, wasn't certain it was a cycle path, which seems to be used as a car park, no reason it can't be a cycle path, think I'd favour having give way markings alongside it at all the driveways, rather than alongside the driveways. With the mature trees lining the verge between pavement and cycleway, visibility wouldn't be too clear for cars pulling out of driveways.

https://goo.gl/maps/bPyWBV9Zwns

That is effectively the extension of the utterly c**p farcility on Barton Road near where my daughter lives that I mentioned on the other thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=102884.msg2163174#msg2163174. Gives way at every side road, very frequent conflicts at driveways, strewn with bollards and other rubbish plus the occasional bus stop. The only bit I would consider using is the underpass under the M60 (obviously post 1930s). The only motivation for construction of these things was to keep the roads clear for motorists from the then far more numerous cyclists. The people implementing them didn't even pretend at that time that the paths were meant for the benefit of cyclists rather than motorists - they assumed that legislation would be implemented to make their use compulsory - as they were in rather less enlightened regimes on the continent at the time.

There is one use for the path that does make the road safer for cyclists:
https://www.cyclestreets.net/location/49633/

[OldGreyBeard]

I think a number of them may have been approved but not built due to WW2. Maybe some were built to the same design after WW2. I have a real photo postcard of one next to the Totton bypass. The postcard is probably late 1940s/early 1950s. The cycle path is shown on Britain from Above
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw022458?name=TOTTON&gazetteer=totton&POPULATED_PLACE=TOTTON&DISTRICT=NEW%20FOREST&searchCountry=3&ref=0

[MikeF]

"Sometimes cars mistake the cycle ways for roads, because they are so wide"

No fault of the drivers of course!

There are very few in the south. The Crawley bypass has them, 1 in each direction, but they have become very fragmented and incomplete so they don't fulfil the original intention. The Crawley doesn't bypass anything now so only us old'uns know what it is.

[sirmy]

The "forgotten" track alongside Durham Road in Sunderland isn't forgotten, it's just been rendered useless by changes to road junctions over the years. It could probably be made useable fairly easily but would still dump a user onto one is f the busiest roads in the city

[DaveGos]

We have quite a few built in Telford mainly in the 70s that are now effectively abandoned, they are not maintained , full of glass , overgrown and not sign posted so nobody uses them . I lived for years close to one and even as a cyclist did not know about it