Main roads that don't allow cycling

[Pete Owens]

Is there a list somewhere of A-roads where cycling is not permitted?

If the road has been tagged in open street map then it will appear pink on this map:
http://product.itoworld.com/map/151?lon=-2.64052&lat=53.36994&zoom=10

[Questor4]

Thanks for the two links provided but I've just been informed that cycling is now banned on the A414 between Hertford and Hatfield and this isn't noted in either case. I regularly use this way enroute from Ware to Welwyn Garden City and for me it's much quicker than any other way (and much safer!)

[Questor4]

Cancel the previous mention of the suppose cycling ban on the A414- the friend who told me about it sent a photo --(He needs to read his road code!) It's a triangular caution not a ban! Sorry about the confusion and I'll keep riding that way!

[[XAP]Bob]

There is a temporary prohibition on the A14 between the A5199 (near Welford) and the M1/M6/Cathorpe junction. This is because the access to roads other than the motorways at the M1/M6 are blocked off for roadworks.
Although why anyone in their right head would ever even think about cycling on the A14 is beyond me.

That is a justified closure - but the A14 should be classified as a motorway IMO.

[Vorpal]

That is a justified closure - but the A14 should be classified as a motorway IMO.

It doesn't meet motorway standards, and there are places where they have not provided adequate alternatives for slow moving vehicles, such as tractors or pedal cycles.

If they planned to convert it to M road status, they would obviously have to plan alternatives, but that might cost money.

IMO, they will pobably just create a new classification for the roads that we have been calling motorway-in-all-but-name, then they can have their motorways without properly providing for other road users. A win-win from the motoring perspective

[mjr]

There is a temporary prohibition on the A14 between the A5199 (near Welford) and the M1/M6/Cathorpe junction. This is because the access to roads other than the motorways at the M1/M6 are blocked off for roadworks.
Although why anyone in their right head would ever even think about cycling on the A14 is beyond me.

That is a justified closure - but the A14 should be classified as a motorway IMO.

Ah, but I think then they'd have to rebuild the A5199 junction to take the farm accesses off of the link roads, which would probably now mean upgrading the junction in other ways to meet the current Design Manual instead of the 1989 one - the links there seem to be fairly tight curves with short merges and the lack of a hard shoulder makes it all a bit for-the-fast-and-the-brave.

If they can get away with simply banning non-motorway traffic from an A road, that's much cheaper and gets much less public scrutiny.

[Bmblbzzz]

I think we are narrowing our concerns to those instances where alternatives to the prohibited road are absent or inconvenient.

Which might well be the majority of cases where cyclists actually use the main road. Who chooses to ride a very busy road when there is a quieter road which is no less convenient for them? The question then becomes how you define inconvenient. It doesn't take much of a delay twice a day to significantly lengthen a commute. What we absolutely do not want to encourage is a situation where the council or Highways England prohibit cyclists based upon their own subjective views of there being "a suitable alternate route". They'd have us winding our way round the rural backroads and tracks, and fighting with motorcycle barriers on canals and NCN routes. If there's a hostile road with a segregated cycle path and still cyclists use the road, you don't need to prohibit them, you need to ask why the path is inadequate for them. Cyclists being able to choose to use the carriageway acts as a great quality check of cycling facilities.

A good point raised there by Bicycler.