least cycle friendly town

[rower40]

Padstow.

All roads in the centre are closed to motor vehicles during the day. So pedestrians wander everywhere, totally oblivious of the presence of bike traffic, even that minority who haven't just hired bikes for a day out on the Camel Trail, and the even smaller minority who know which way the one-way streets are.

Add in the risk of being elbowed into the harbour, and this town gets my vote.

[Greg]

I find York quite unfriendly - the city centre is closed to cyclists during much of the day and the narrow cycle-lanes seem to encourage drivers to pass cyclists without much clearance. There also seems to be a drive to put shared-use pavements all over the city.

York's fairly good, not because of anything the council's done but because it's flat, and there are enough cyclists* that a decent number of motorists know what to do around us. Though to give them their due, at least the council have installed lots of Sheffield stands. The narrow bike lanes and shared pavements are a bit annoying but you just have to ignore them.



*I resist using the term 'critical mass'. Though if anyone wants to join us, we meet at the west end of the Minster, setting off at 6pm on the first Friday of the month.

[pliptrot]

Houston (Texas) Been here 5 years and every day is a shocker. The roads are wide -often with shoulders- but driving standards are woeful. The use of mobile phones when driving here appears to be mandatory, and should only be interrupted when foraging for food from the back seat or drinking coffee.

A young woman was jailed in the UK last month for using a phone as she killed a cyclist. Such occurrences (death of cyclists due to motorist inattention) are common in the US and normally go without prosecution. Americans, apparently, view the carnage on the roads as normal concomitants of life.

[essexman]

oooh leap to the defence of Reading slightly. We lived there for years and never used the car always used bikes.

We had a lot of moans, and the council was hopelessly apathetic about cycling, but it was mostly flat has a river and canal running through its heart that made life easy for cyclists and pedestrians. In fact our main beef was always pedestrians, then the council, then toys r us, with cars and traffic as a poor 4th.

[Peyote]

Never had any major gripes about the towns around me, Reading, Woking and Guildford are all pretty much of a muchness. Same attitude from the drivers in each location, rarely malicious! The highway engineering in all three locations is predominantly catering to motorists and pedestrians, but I'm fine with that because I cycle too fast for cyclelanes/paths.

One thing I would say about Guildford is that the road surfaces are terrible. I usually base my route choice on length and presence of other traffic. Not so in Guildford, I choose my routes entirely based on road surface!

[Crazydave]

Bradford-on-Avon is pretty bad to cycle in. The roads are all narrow, and often missing the central dashed line, and we have the most polluted stretch of road in the country (arguably) on a 1 in 7 gradient. there are no on road cycle facilities at all. There are a number of mini roundabouts where car drivers cheat, as well as a broken down pedestrian crossing which the council are too lazy to fix in the centre of town.
The main road from Bath to Trowbridge/ West Wilts comes through, and narrows to single track twice on the 1/7 gradient, and parking facilities are inadequate, meaning high on street parking. Add to that, 20% of drivers are aggressive chavs, and a further 20% are arrogant upper-middle class people who look down their noses at cyclists/ anyone under 30. Sorry, not the most pleasant rant but had to get it off my chest. I avoid the town centre during ruch hour like the plague on a bike.
In terms of other towns/ cities I know, cycling through Runcorn (JOG-LE) was pretty unpleasnt, as were Widnes, Wigan, St. Helens and Preston (apologies to anyone who lives there). Bristol is horrible to cycle in, and hard to navigate. I find Bath, and all the other West Wilts. towns easier to manage than B-o-A.
My uni town of Southampton is very mixed. A lot of students cycle, and clearly a lot of effort has gone into providing a decent infrastructure for us. There are some very good routes across the common providing shortcuts. There are also a lot of advance stop line. On the other hand, there are a number of trashy cycle route on the pavements, where you have to slow down/ stop for every side turning and you have very little priority.

[mhara]

My wife tells me Birmingham in the 80s was grim for cycling. She only knew one student at university who cycled and they were knocked off shortly afterwards.

I suspect it's still grim. My first ever visit to Birmingam - this year - I was in the taxi rank queue at Birmingham New Street (not a pleasant station) and a stunt-bike cyclist was trying to get a taxi ride (though none of the drivers wanted to know). After 2 days in that city I could understand why it was safer to go out with your bike by taxi. Was very pleased I'd not taken my Brompton to get round on.

[Gisen]

My wife tells me Birmingham in the 80s was grim for cycling. She only knew one student at university who cycled and they were knocked off shortly afterwards.

I suspect it's still grim. My first ever visit to Birmingam - this year - I was in the taxi rank queue at Birmingham New Street (not a pleasant station) and a stunt-bike cyclist was trying to get a taxi ride (though none of the drivers wanted to know). After 2 days in that city I could understand why it was safer to go out with your bike by taxi. Was very pleased I'd not taken my Brompton to get round on.

I cycle in birmingham most weekdays. It is, indeed, awful. One of the few places where vehicles actually cut you off on purpose.
I've been overtaken by a lorry while doing 32mph in a 30 zone, who blasted his horn, swerved in front of me and complained that I was taking up too much room (I was in the primary position because there were a lot of parked cars) when I asked him what the £(%* he was playing at at the junction!

Because of the traffic, drivers seem to get amazingly competitive in queues and will accelerate as fast as they can to overtake a bike only to instantly slam on their brakes when they reach the queue 50m in front.

[gilesjuk]

Birmingham is pretty bad, much of the infrastructure is designed with cars and buses in mind.

Cannock isn't very bike friendly either, there's nothing much to lock your bike to, virtually no cycle lanes anywhere. One way systems in the town centre which mean cyclists have to cycle much further.

The train station has about 3 lockers for bikes, but the people who use them stick in their £1 coin and keep hold of the key even when they're not using them.

[Simon L6]

I've not been for a while, but my vote goes to Edinburgh. Potholes that you need a map to get out of, and drivers who just don't look.

[120717anon]

Bristol is very nice for cycling, there are only a few places that you need to "enforce" your presence to ensure you dont get run over!

[Kirst]

i would bet that bradford is worse, hillier still and no cycle lanes that i've seen and huddersfield must be pretty hilly too
i don't think we'll reach a verdict!

I grew up in Huddersfield and my parents still live there, and it's ridiculously hilly.

Simon's right though, Edinburgh's pretty bad too. The roads are awful and there's a very strong anti-cyclist attitude.

[Si]

Birmingham is pretty bad, much of the infrastructure is designed with cars and buses in mind.

Cannock isn't very bike friendly either, there's nothing much to lock your bike to, virtually no cycle lanes anywhere. One way systems in the town centre which mean cyclists have to cycle much further.

I don't find Brum as bad as some have reported on this thread. I guess it depends upon which bits you ride through. Sure you get the odd nutter (both in cars and on bikes!) but on the whole it's not too bad, and is improving slowly. For instance the N.Brum cycling/walking route, the route across Cannon Hill Park and the new crossing to get across the PErshore Rd make things much more relaxed for me.

Agree about Cannock. Have been bottled there in the past.

[pigman]

mmm .. plymouth brings back memories. We were off touring brittany and managed to book a train direct from sheffield to plymouth. The downside was that the time between the train's arrival and the ferry's departure was a tad tight. When we finally cleared the station and loaded up our panniers etc, we seemed to be forced into these "friendly" bike facilities that seemed to go under every traffic island. My frustrations turned to the Mrs panicking a bit that we might miss the boat. We basically just wanted to ride the roads and get from station to ferry ASAP and we seemed to be forced onto these long-winded facilities. This was about 10 yrs ago. Mind you, Ive never been one for bike paths etc esp where theyre shared with jay-walking peds and inexperienced cyclists. I just wanna get from a to b and will take my chance with the motors.

[essexman]

I've not been for a while, but my vote goes to Edinburgh. Potholes that you need a map to get out of, and drivers who just don't look.

I love Edinburgh, its my favuorite city in Europe, but you are right its not cycle friendly. Which is weird because its got all these dedicated ex railine cycle spoke routes straight to the city centre area, some of them almost as good as holland etc. and lots of people cycle....

Then you hit the centre and its like something from the US. Car is king, no pedestrianisation, Hello!!! Union Street! do you want to sell stuff and be a mecca for money spending tourists or do you want to be athrough road for cars?) , little or crappy insfrastructure for bikes eg ASLs etc

London really shows it up big time on pedestrain and bike friendliness. Hang your head in shame Edinburgh! Try and keep up with the English!