What Do Cyclists Have Against Cycle Tracks ?

Keep_pedalling

In Belgium they do actually have some cycle lanes that are compulsory, however their cycle lanes and tracks are several magnitudes better than ours. Cycle lanes in this country are really not much use for riding in groups or at speed because they are often shared cycling / pedestrian routes, cross lots of junctions and have lots of road furnature built on them.

And Lycra is not a fetish, it is simply the most comfortable gear for riding.

Nasqueron

Altarf wrote: »

An odd statement, as wearing high viz clearly would mitigate the risk from inattentive drivers.

That's one very specific risk, a driver who can't see a bloke on a bike in bright coloured clothing, them being inattentive isn't somehow cancelled out by high viz if they're changing the radio or on the phone or whatever. It also ignores the other points I made that were inconvenient to you doesn't it?

Johno100

Altarf wrote: »

An odd statement, as wearing high viz clearly would mitigate the risk from inattentive drivers.

You have to understand the mindset of many of them, they're single handedly saving the planet, the NHS a fortune and have the answer to the nations transport problems. With such moral superiority it's really no surprise that many think they can do no wrong and that it's up to everyone else to be their guardian :A.

Altarf

Nasqueron wrote: »

That's one very specific risk

And that is not a risk worth mitigating?

As I said before either brave or stupid.

Johno100 wrote: »

You have to understand the mindset of many of them, they're single handedly saving ... the NHS a fortune

Although some seem to want to increase expenditure in the A&E department.

Norman_Castle

Johno100 wrote: »

You have to understand the mindset of many of them, they're single handedly saving the planet, the NHS a fortune and have the answer to the nations transport problems. With such moral superiority it's really no surprise that many think they can do no wrong and that it's up to everyone else to be their guardian :A.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Altarf

Norman_Castle wrote: »

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well that was a spectacular fail, posting a whole load of broken links.

emtsuj

Altarf wrote: »

An odd statement, as wearing high viz clearly would mitigate the risk from inattentive drivers.

Wearing a hi viz vest didn't stop me from being knocked off my cycle by an inattentive driver.

Altarf

emtsuj wrote: »

Wearing a hi viz vest didn't stop me from being knocked off my cycle by an inattentive driver.

Another cyclist who fails to understand the word "mitigate".

brat

There will always be silly cyclists who cycle in dark or shadowed routes wearing dark clothing. In bright daylight, they should be easy to see whatever they're wearing.
Cycle paths are there to be used if they are useful and convenient.

There will always be Johnos and Altarfs. They usually have high blood pressure. Ignore them, get out on your bike, and enjoy yourself.

Johnmcl7

I guess the difficulty is for those that don't cycle, these cycle lanes can look fine but simply aren't hence people don't use them. It's not unusual when friends start cycling here are shocked at how bad some of the cycle lanes are when they've actually tried to cycle them and found themselves weaving around drains, manholes covers and debris.

They've been doing quite a bit of work on cycle lanes here and some of them are great, they've linked together quiet roads and ensured cars can't rat run through them so they have a decent surface and quiet. On the section running north of here given the choice of a decent cycle option, pretty much everyone takes it rather than the busy road.

Unfortunately the section south is not so good despite a considerable amount of construction work and disruption to the road to build it. The first single track shared road section is fine but then it goes onto a very narrow section (narrower than a normal pavement and for two way traffic) with no proper separation to the road. It doesn't get maintained so it quickly got covered in debris kicked up from the road and it also crosses several other tracks which you have to slow right down to cross, a couple of them are dirt tracks.

It then goes back to another single track road which is fine for a bit until it reaches the point where it's heavily used by tractors to access fields along the rest of the road building up a deep covering of mud as no-one else really uses this section of road. The final section is another purpose built part but last year the horse riders decided to use it as well and left progressively more manure dumps along it which means you have to slow right down and ease the bike round all the dumps.

It's not at all suitable for road bikes as it needs softer treaded tyres for the debris and mud so the road bikers are sticking to the original road and the mountain bikers are using the existing fully off road route. It's frustrating as it was a considerable time and money investment and the end result is a largely unusable route and cyclists having to endure the backlash from drivers annoyed at them for not using the cycle route, some quite aggressively to those on the road.

John