I've been looking at National Cycle Network routes local to me. I live in the High Peak, in Derbyshire, in a semi-rural location.
I was a bit surprised to find several National Cycle Network routes were on roads. Not only that but there isn't anything that indicated the roads were good for cycling. No dedicated cycle path, no signposting... Nothing, other than cars hammering past as fast as they can.
So what's going on? Why are these roads referred to as National Cycle Network routes when they're no different to any other road? Is it because it's anticipated they'll get cycle lanes in future?
National Cycle Network on-road routes
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daveb
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r-sparks
daveb wrote:The on-road bits are generally very quiet roads like country lanes. They're often the bits with the best surfaces too.
Dave
Thanks, Dave.
It has to be said that the concept of the quiet country lane might be anachronistic. One designated route near me goes along a quiet country lane, technically speaking, but it's also a rat-run to cut across to the nearby A6. Sales reps and white vans bomb down it and there are several narrow stretches and blind corners. I've almost had an accident there in my car, and I wasn't going fast. Cycling down it would be suicidal.
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mhara
Sometimes the horrible bits are necessary in order to join together some nice stretches.
Coming out of Carmarthen to the North is a very bad stretch, grit your teeth and cycle through it as quick as possible! If you buy the map you will see that such stretches are marked with little red markers along their length to warn you. That stretch even has an alternative route marked on the map, which is much longer and hillier but quieter.
Again it has to be said that Sustrans is not perfect, just doing the best they can with not that much to work with.
There are leaflets available which show you the nice traffic free routes in your area if you want a nice cycle ride. The NCN routes on the maps are for long distance journeys and this involves some of the bad roads inorder to get from A-B.
Coming out of Carmarthen to the North is a very bad stretch, grit your teeth and cycle through it as quick as possible! If you buy the map you will see that such stretches are marked with little red markers along their length to warn you. That stretch even has an alternative route marked on the map, which is much longer and hillier but quieter.
Again it has to be said that Sustrans is not perfect, just doing the best they can with not that much to work with.
There are leaflets available which show you the nice traffic free routes in your area if you want a nice cycle ride. The NCN routes on the maps are for long distance journeys and this involves some of the bad roads inorder to get from A-B.
When I was in Norfolk I cycled between Sandringham and Hunstanton mainly following the NCN. It was all on road and it was a super ride, much better than their off-road routes. It was nice to be able to just follow some simple signs (it was a bit tricky to get started as is often the way) but it was a lovely trip and just took a bit of hassle out of navigation. Hardly saw another car all the way.
"Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again so is the bicycle puncture repair kit." - Billy Connolly
Most of the NCN on-road routes that I've used are very quiet. I find they avoid traffic too much, taking the smallest possible road in the area (often the steepest as well) to avoid traffic, when on an OS Landranger there is another, more direct, and equally small road nearby. I've done about 2/3 of the Pennine Trail, and whenever I saw a very steep road to one side, the signs always seemed to point that way, sometimes through fords and the like as well.
They try very hard to avoid traffic, but sometimes at the expense of a route that normal cyclists can actually ride. A 25% slope (outside of Newton Stewart in Galloway, Scotland) is not within the capability of many people including myself with panniers.
The good thing about on-road routes is that they rarely have access barriers (except for the occasional gated road) and that the surfacing is usally good. Though NCN 68 gated road just north of Buxton is not passable by anything less than a mountain bike.
On the NCN as a whole, I am not really sure who they have in mind as the target user, as it doesn't seem to fit either mountain bikers (too much on road), tourers (too many roundabout routes, no need for extreme traffic avoidance), road bikes (some sections impassable) or beginners or children (due to challenging nature of certain trails).
They try very hard to avoid traffic, but sometimes at the expense of a route that normal cyclists can actually ride. A 25% slope (outside of Newton Stewart in Galloway, Scotland) is not within the capability of many people including myself with panniers.
The good thing about on-road routes is that they rarely have access barriers (except for the occasional gated road) and that the surfacing is usally good. Though NCN 68 gated road just north of Buxton is not passable by anything less than a mountain bike.
On the NCN as a whole, I am not really sure who they have in mind as the target user, as it doesn't seem to fit either mountain bikers (too much on road), tourers (too many roundabout routes, no need for extreme traffic avoidance), road bikes (some sections impassable) or beginners or children (due to challenging nature of certain trails).
Re: National Cycle Network on-road routes
r-sparks wrote:So what's going on? Why are these roads referred to as National Cycle Network routes when they're no different to any other road? Is it because it's anticipated they'll get cycle lanes in future?
Sustrans design criteria is described on their website here
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp? ... 9001882109
Click on Introduction and work your way down
sares: that's a really good point - the mixture seems to suit no-one. It seems to me that any route is OK if it doesn't have cars, then at other times it is on road. On the Devon C to C, the best bits were on the roads and on the railway paths but other bits were awful. I think it needs a complete re-think.