UK’s cycling infrastructure “seriously lagging behind” bike-friendly European cities, according to new safe cycling ranking
https://road.cc/content/news/uks-cycling-infrastructure-lagging-behind-europe-309063
Posted by Full-Sherbert-8060
UK’s cycling infrastructure “seriously lagging behind” bike-friendly European cities, according to new safe cycling ranking
https://road.cc/content/news/uks-cycling-infrastructure-lagging-behind-europe-309063
Posted by Full-Sherbert-8060
16 Comments
This is the ultimate “no shit Sherlock”.
We barely *have* any cycling infrastructure compared to swathes of continental Europe.
They annoying thing about anti-cyclist sentiment being everywhere in the UK is we don’t spend anything on cycle lanes thereby forcing cyclists onto the roads which aggravates motorists… So it’s a vicious cycle (apologies for the pun) – if we actually invested in safe and well connected cycle lanes and infrastructure it would benefit *all* road users.
I mean infrastructure in general is shit in the UK, more so when you leave the cities. Even if there is a cycle path often it’s incredibly poorly maintained so it’s safer on the roads.
We don’t spend on it and it normally ends up fairly poor – https://i.imgur.com/YR7F5gH.jpeg
British cycling infrastructure is a joke. Even when I lived in Oxford that has massive bicycle use the infrastructure was poor.
Cycling around Berlin is amazing. The Hague is great for cycling.
I wouldn’t cycle in London (or Paris).
Where I live the cyclists don’t use the cycle lanes or the segregated cycle lanes – and no, it’s not because it’s safe not to. They literally don’t use them when they’re clear.
I just want proper bicycle parking, which I think should be much easier than making cycling lanes. Maybe you want to cycle from a city to a nearby town, or cycle from a suburb to a particular bus route which would be 20mins walk away. You can’t (unless you want to leave your bike by a tree) because bicycle parking doesn’t seem to exist outside of some cities and maybe train stations.
OK so leaving aside the moronic culture war nonsense, surely bike infrastructure is something governments would love? It’s significantly cheaper to build and maintain bike infrastructure than public transport or private car-centric cities (especially since in a lot of urban areas in the UK driving is a ballache anyway). Every bike that gets used instead of a car means order of magnitude less wear and tear on roads, less parking spaces that need to be built, etc. It ought to be a no-brainer.
The forward box at traffic lights is always commandeered by taxis, that all we have around my area that is considered “cycling infrastructure”
It is annoying as a pedestrian when I am walking anywhere and cyclists ring their bell and expect me to move over to let them pass, even when there are perfectly good cycle lanes on the road I am going past. I sympathise that some people might not feel comfortable cycling in the road and that cars are often hostile towards cyclists, however there does seem to be a number of cyclists who do not like existing infrastructure as it is.
I live in Köln Germany and I have to say that there are three key points to consider when we talk about cycling in the UK and how the infrastructure is shocking. Firstly is that bikes here are readily available and are relatively cheap in comparison – especially on the second hand market. Due to the much larger quantity of bikes being available all year round I personally feel like there isn’t as much risk involved in regards to crime – unless of course you drop a couple of grand on your bike.
Secondly the roads and paths are designed with cycle lanes built-in. They are not converted to accommodate bikes. This is an incredibly important point because from my experience of growing up in the midlands and then in London for Uni is that UK roads are small as fuck and only after the road is built are the cycle lanes then integrated into the road. This is naturally a flawed way of creating safe cycle spaces.
Thirdly is it a cultural thing. Over here to A. not know how to ride a bike but also B. to not actually own a bike is almost unheard of. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t at least own or have access to a bike. You learn to drive and look out for bikes – they are not just something that you have to remember to watch out for during your hazard test when you learn to drive. Most of the time bikes have right of way over cars, so by default motorists are more aware and vigilant of bikes.
Sadly the UK lacks both a societal acceptance of cycling alongside the existing road and path network being suitably large enough to safely incorporate cycle paths.
To just drive home the point like in Holland if you are on a pedastrian path that also has a cycle lane – legit no one walks on the cycle lane. Not a single person unless they are crossing over or intoxicated haha walks on the cycle lane.
TLDR: UK has an infrastructure and cultural problem with cycling and until that is fixed it’ll always suck in comparison to EU countries like Germany.
There are massive fucking hills everywhere. Maybe in a city centre it’s ok but 90% of the UK isn’t suitable for cycling unless you want to do the Tour de France every morning.
I used to cycle to work daily but now the roads are too dangerous. They’re too busy and they’re in shit condition, and there’s no alternative route other than using the roads.
My local council built a half arsed attempt at a mixed cycle and pedestrian path down an old railway but it’s used too much by cunts on motorbikes so that’s also dangerous, and of course our gloriously understaffed police and council don’t give a shit.
So now I add to the busy traffic and pollution and drive. Where I work I barely see bikes in the bike shed anymore, it used to be packed.
No shit. This could be said for most of the UK these days.
Would love better cycling infrastructure here. Encourage it rather than vilify cyclists. Would help a little to keep people fit and healthy too.
in london, they inconvenience quite literally all road users to purely please cyclists by shutting off car access to roads and making them bike only, which is just a huge pain in the ass when you’re driving in rush hour, your gps tells you to go one way but only to find out that pratty sadiq’s shut everything down and limited drivers to 20 MPH, shockingly slow