Cycling UK Forum

i guess everyone will think their home city is the worst, as few places are particularly good and the home city is the one you have experience of.
however i live in leeds and was talking to a fellow commuter who told me that she lived in london and thought cycling there more pleasant than here, she cited the lack of lanes for cycling and the lack of infrastructure to allow for cyclists and the absence of thought in any infrastructure (she pointed out an advance stop line, which for practical purposes is unreacheable).
just set me thinking... add in the terrain, nowhere is flat, hills are either steepish or perhaps worse, are of varying gradients so that you can get no rhythm going and you are always up and down gears. makes popping to the shops a sweaty experience in ordinary clothes.
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!

Ive never been to Leeds.... Did go to Bradford once a long while ago while courting my now hubby.


Do you only have the city to ride in then....? No canal paths or train lines?


Mary

Guildford - and its got nothing to do with CTC being there.

jawaka

It's been on 24 hours and only one vote against Leeds which is not surprising. 'The Motorway City of the Seventies' is never going to be a pleasant place to cycle.

Plymouth was pretty grim when I lived there in the 90s and I doubt it's improved much since then. At that time, the city councillors had only just learnt to walk upright and when they carried out major refurbishments to the large, central shopping area, no access provisions were made for cyclists. Later, they sent somebody out with a bucket of paint to mark out permitted routes.

What struck me at the time was the public hostility to cyclists and the letters of outrage in the local rag about cyclists' behaviour. Few people seemed bothered if a speeding driver killed a child but you only had to cycle across Armada Way to incur the righteous anger of the citizenry.

Nearly all towns are now cycle unfriendly. This is due to the fact that whereas one could previously cycle through and around the town centre, this is now impossible due to pedestrianisation. You are forced either to walk or take your chances (and a longer route) on a ring road, usually one way. This car/pedestrian split seems to afflict most small to medium towns but Andover, Guildford, Southampton, Slough, Hounslow and Reading come to mind as random but typical examples. Basingstoke is in a league of its own.

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 agree with Horizon.

Basically, what we're being asked, is to pick the worst of a bad bunch. I don't like cycling in towns. Full Stop. They are a necessary evil though, we all have do it some time or another.

Plymouth was suggested as bad by Les Reay, can't disagree, but I've never had any problems with it. Too many roundabouts and fast approaches. I used to commute all through the 80's and to mid 90's. Things were eased when the Saltash bypass and The Parkway came, they eased the traffic congestion no end.

Can't speak for the current situation but cycling north out of London from say, Tottenham to Hertfordshire used to be unremittingly grim. Mostly single width carriageways into which two lanes had been squeezed leaving no room for bikes, shockingly bad 1930s cycle paths, underpasses and motorways in all but name.
A truly nerve wracking experience.

Les Reay wrote:....the city councillors had only just learnt to walk upright .

On the evolutionary scale, they sound as though they're slightly in advance of my own local authority.

The centre of Leeds is definitely not very cycle-friendly, due to the Inner Ring Road and the City Centre Loop - both designed to allow motor vehicles to whizz around the city at high speed. Various "big" junctions in the city are also very unfriendly - especially Armley Gyratory and Sheepscar.

I don't think Bradford is too bad. You can't do much about the hills, but the cycle-facilities that do exist don't seem too bad. They are also removing a lot of the bad highways in the city centre to make it more pedestrian and cycle friendly, as well as rejigging a lot of junctions. The Cycling Officer at the council is very good and has been known to veto various poorly designed cycling schemes.

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.

I totally agree with the vote against Plymouth. I particular,when the buses double park on Royal Parade wth all thier engines belching out diesel fumes (just how is it that breathing in diesel fumes is safer than petrol fumes?).
Something else. when drivers take thier test' in Plymouth, use of indicators doesn't come in to it.This is evidenced by the fact that I've never seen anybody use them!

But, it's not all bad. I'm pleased to say that Ipswich is not too bad for cyclists. Yes, we have to use the one way system with roundabouts seemingly shoved out the back of a low flyng Hercules and where they land,so they stay.
Most of the town centre is pedestrianised,but that's O.K., they've made a good job of it. I don't walking a bit.
The drivers are probably much the same as anywhere else,some good, some terrible.

Hey ho. Look on the bright side. I really think that slowly but surely,things are changing in our favour.

It's the prejudice of the general public that gets me. So many people succumb to lazy thinking and just swallow whole what the right wing gutter press tells them.

My brother lives in Guildford, and he and his wife are continually vehemently chastising the behaviour of *all* cyclists regardless. As I and my family all cycle we took this to mean that they see us as just a bunch of lawless hooligans. He didn't argue.

We now no longer meet or speak.

This, perhaps, is an extreme example of how mindless prejudice can split families.

It also hardened our desire to turn our backs on living in Britain just as soon as we are able.

Appollo wrote: when drivers take thier test' in Plymouth, use of indicators doesn't come in to it.

Yes, that was another thing about Plymouth – there seems to be an exemption from the general rule about using indicators to signal left and right, and the use of roundabouts is completely eccentric, with drivers turning right from the left lane and other imaginative manoeuvres.

nigel s wrote: It also hardened our desire to turn our backs on living in Britain just as soon as we are able.

I did this several years ago to live in a bike-friendly part of Europe, but to be honest, the car is pretty much king wherever you go. Having said that, it seems to be a particularly English thing to blame cyclists for all the troubles of the world. I doubt that in any other country, an ex-MP would consider it appropriate to recommend in a so-called quality newspaper that razor-wire be strung across cycle routes, and even get letters of support. Even in car-mad Germany, cyclists are accepted and encouraged.

jawaka wrote:i guess everyone will think their home city is the worst, as few places are particularly good and the home city is the one you have experience of.
however i live in leeds and was talking to a fellow commuter who told me that she lived in london and thought cycling there more pleasant than here, she cited the lack of lanes for cycling and the lack of infrastructure to allow for cyclists and the absence of thought in any infrastructure (she pointed out an advance stop line, which for practical purposes is unreacheable).
just set me thinking... add in the terrain, nowhere is flat, hills are either steepish or perhaps worse, are of varying gradients so that you can get no rhythm going and you are always up and down gears. makes popping to the shops a sweaty experience in ordinary clothes.
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!

Leeds is sound. Never had any problems with traffic, doesn't need cycle lanes and hills are a training opportunity not an impediment to forward progress

If you don't want to sweat, use lower gears and pedal more slowly - it usually works.

Bradford isn't that much worse for hills - try Hebden Bridge or Bristol.