# What's your town / city doing?



## redcard (28 Feb 2012)

I'm I naive in thinking that there's going to be a radical overhaul of cycling in the UK over the next few years? The Times campaign, facilities are going to be way better, cycling will get more popular year-after-year, you'll be able to leave your expensive bike locked up at the station without worry, you'll feel safer cycling through city centres? Cycle lanes won't just be an afterthought?

Just looking at the councils in central Scotland, they're all committing to increasing journeys by bike. The only way to do this is by investing time, money and energy to make it happen.

Or is it all just a bit of a fad, and councils will end up saying 'bugger it, we don't have the money'?


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## classic33 (1 Mar 2012)

Local council claims to be spending £200,000 on a completly segregated cycle lane for as many as 17 cyclists a week. IF it gets busy!


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## Maylian (1 Mar 2012)

Southampton seems to be putting together some scheme requesting funding and last year asked cyclists to complete a survey either online or with various improvements planned below. Hopefully should see some good improvements to road quality and provisions for us.

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-environment/transportplanning/cyclesurvey2011.aspx


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## mangaman (1 Mar 2012)

Nothing much here - except publishing commuting maps - that deviate wildly from the most direct route - and lead on to completely segregated paths.

And off road, multi-use, dog-walking paths that meander around for tourists to pootle on and start in the middle of nowhere.


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## Richard Mann (1 Mar 2012)

Oxford - mostly additional bits of cycle lane on main roads, sometimes in association with reducing or re-arranging parking to make it fit. A few minor improvements to quiet routes away from the main roads, most notably between one Park & Ride site and the hospitals (as part of a parking clampdown at the hospital). Residential controlled parking zones, to try and stop students from cluttering the place with cars. Some residential traffic calming, mostly raised crossings of side roads to act as a gateway and make it easier to walk along the main road, and create small interruptions in the flow along the main road.


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## ColinJ (1 Mar 2012)

Our council imposed a 20 mph speed limit in the town centre and motorists complained bitterly about it!

If you take a look at the kind of road in question you will see that apparently those drivers think it is okay to drive at 30+ mph down twisty, turny, narrow roads on steep descents with parked vehicles narrowing the carriageway further!


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## MontyVeda (1 Mar 2012)

We have them Celebrating Cycling signs as you enter Lancaster... I guess thats the reward for laying numerous very short strips of red paint on the roads here there and everywhere to artificially inflate "The miles of cycle lanes the council has provided". It's not all bad, some of the newer cycle routes are pretty good, but I can't see any council initiative being 'well thought out' for the most part.


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## Paul J (1 Mar 2012)

As far as I know nothing in Wisbech amd surrounding area. Coucil is more likely to put in tractor lanes than bike.


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## Rahul Sapariya (3 Apr 2012)

In Leicester, I heard that they might be doing some sort of borisbike thing. It's a rubbish idea seeing as you can get from one side of leicester to the other in 30 minutes. Leicester needs the road surfaces sorting out, winter a few years ago ruined it and I own a bike with narrow tyres that have a high air pressure in them so even the slightly bump and I'd feel it so when I am riding up a road with loads of big bumps and cracks and potholes, you realise that the roads are attrocious. I also think that in Leicester, they need to make some of the cyclepaths wider because for some people (not myself), their handlebars are wider than the bloody cyclepath. There should be a standardised width for cyclepathes.


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## MrHappyCyclist (4 Apr 2012)

In Bolton, there will be a cycle centre created at the railway station, announced last year as part of a Greater Manchester LSTF bid.

Bolton Council, on the other hand, are completely silent. I got nowhere last year with the highway authority when I raised the issue of sub-standard and dangerous cycle lanes all over the place. In the middle of February, I wrote to my 2 councillors about the Times #cyclesafe campaign and the Parliamentary debate in February, and they haven't even bothered to send an acknowledgement. All rather pathetic really.

Greater Manchester Police have announced a campaign to tackle bad driving (called "Dicing With Death"). It's not about cyclists or cycling, but hopefully may have some effect on the large number of very aggressive drivers. (Fingers crossed.)


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## bikepete (5 Apr 2012)

What's your town/city doing?

Going backwards is what:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9630272.Clifton_Green_cycle_lane_is_scrapped/?ref=mc

Usual depressing comments underneath.

FWIW I was one of the 106 who wrote in to try to save it.


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## dellzeqq (5 Apr 2012)

mangaman said:


> Nothing much here - except publishing commuting maps - that deviate wildly from the most direct route - and lead on to completely segregated paths.
> 
> And off road, multi-use, dog-walking paths that meander around for tourists to pootle on and start in the middle of nowhere.


yours is an interesting one, because Chichester is of a size that could be ideal for cycling, and the roads south are congested both morning and evening. And yet......the one way system is horrible, for cyclists and pedestrians, but also for drivers. You'd have thought they would try and make something of the land between the railway station and the centre of town, but, no, it's a traffic scheme.


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## srw (5 Apr 2012)

Resurfacing stretches of the roads through the town. At last.

We must have picked up 2mph last weekend when we went from the clapped-out rutted tarmac onto the spanking new shiny stuff.


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## gaz (5 Apr 2012)

Croydon council is building a cycle hub at East Croydon station.


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## snorri (6 Apr 2012)

Transport Scotland are barely willing to admit the existence of the bicycle.


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## redcard (6 Apr 2012)

srw said:


> Resurfacing stretches of the roads through the town. At last.
> 
> We must have picked up 2mph last weekend when we went from the clapped-out rutted tarmac onto the spanking new shiny stuff.



There's 2 painfully short stretches of shiny tarmac on my route. The other 8 miles is bumpier than the face of the local oiks. 



---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?juluig


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## mangaman (6 Apr 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> yours is an interesting one, because Chichester is of a size that could be ideal for cycling, and the roads south are congested both morning and evening. And yet......the one way system is horrible, for cyclists and pedestrians, but also for drivers. You'd have thought they would try and make something of the land between the railway station and the centre of town, but, no, it's a traffic scheme.


 
I agree - it's a bizarre road layout.

Behind the 4 main shopping streets are a few quiet residential roads and a million car parks.

The one way system is dangerous enough in a car (around The Hornet turning into St Pancras with cars comung at you from all over.

You see very few cycle commuters - if you do you need to be very assertive and take up the whole lane on that system - more people use the pavement and miss it out.

As you say the A27 blocks off the South of the city from a lot of small but cheaper towns that are commutable by bike.

Selsey, for example, is popular with NHS staff as it is cheap.
The B road from Selsey to Chichester is said to be Britain's busiest B road (interesting factlet of the day) but no-one uses it as it so busy - but also as it ends at a roundabout with the A27

You could get under the A27 on the canal towpath but that leads you to the one way hell around the railway and bus stations. And there are a couple of bridges that leave you on the edge of town.

Meanwhile the council build off-road, shared facilities like mad. Centurian Way, the off-road path to the Witterings and now one to Selsey is being built.

The trouble is these are mixed-use, often off road and not direct.

I suppose they are directly targetting the tourist pootling market which is a shame as Chichester, although small, is an old fashioned county Town that people commute into rather than a typical South-East town where people commute out of.

Luckily I can walk to work in 15 minutes or cycle in about 5 missing out the one way system (he says smuggly)


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## mangaman (6 Apr 2012)

gaz said:


> Croydon council is building a cycle hub at East Croydon station.


 
Out of interest Gaz, what do they mean by a cycle hub?

Is it something useful?


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## mcshroom (6 Apr 2012)

Nothing much round here (my 'local' borough council covers an area about a third of the size of Greater London). In fact I couldn't even find any policy stuff on their website at all. We have some decent segregated rail paths, but the vast majority of cycle provision in Copeland is designed for tourists. The back roads are all perfectly commutable (when the council aren't gravelling them) so there's not a lot of need for infrastructure, although it is weird that we don't seem to have a single ASL in the whole borough.


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## gaz (6 Apr 2012)

mangaman said:


> Out of interest Gaz, what do they mean by a cycle hub?
> 
> Is it something useful?


Going by other hubs, it is a place where you can securely store your bicycle, hire bicycles, get repairs, buy cycling products and get guidance around town and about cycling.


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## PurplePoodle (7 Apr 2012)

I remeber awhile ago there was a campaign about cycling here and giving cyclists space but seems to have died out.. Where I live is apparently a walkers welcome town so maybe they don't want cyclists anymore!


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## Bigsharn (8 Apr 2012)

bikepete said:


> What's your town/city doing?
> Going backwards is what:
> FWIW I was one of the 106 who wrote in to try to save it.


 
Me too... I went on the newly "updated" Blossom Street the other day...


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## Norm (8 Apr 2012)

I don't get your last subtitle at all, Sharn, where you say "And my favourite bit..." The road lane _includes_ the cycle lane.


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## rusky (8 Apr 2012)

> The council first carried out a wide consultation with residents about proposals for cycle and pedestrian facilities on the Old Shoreham Road in 2009 (view plans from the 2009 survey) and 66% of respondents felt that cycle facilities were needed. At the time a decision was made by councillors not to proceed due to concerns around cycle user safety.


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## rusky (8 Apr 2012)

This is what they are in the process of doing..

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/downloads/bhcc/roads/Consultation_plans.pdf


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## Bigsharn (9 Apr 2012)

Norm said:


> I don't get your last subtitle at all, Sharn, where you say "And my favourite bit..." The road lane _includes_ the cycle lane.


 
It's the width that made me laugh. They expect a bendybus to be able to fit through that incredibly narrow bit at the start of the lane (This is the route most college-goers use, so at peak times is incredibly busy)


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## Norm (9 Apr 2012)

You miss my point, Sharn. The width of the vehicle lane includes the entire width of the cycle lane so the road lane cannot be narrower than the cycle lane.


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## Philk (9 Apr 2012)

Coventry appears to be doing nothing re cycle safety.....if fact theyre creating a number of shared use areas where buses, pedesrians and cyclists can mix.
The first share space was opened next to the old colin campbell pub 4 months ago, so far 1 person has died.


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## Bigsharn (10 Apr 2012)

Norm said:


> You miss my point, Sharn. The width of the vehicle lane includes the entire width of the cycle lane so the road lane cannot be narrower than the cycle lane.


 

Isn't the whole point of a cycle lane, that it's a seperate lane of traffic which motorised vehicles aren't supposed to occupy?


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## Norm (10 Apr 2012)

Bigsharn said:


> Isn't the whole point of a cycle lane, that it's a seperate lane of traffic which motorised vehicles aren't supposed to occupy?


 Nope. There are some like that, with solid lines around them like the Bus Lane at the start of that video, but anyone can enter the "cycle" lane as it has only broken lines.


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## Fran143 (10 Apr 2012)

Ayrshire is doing nothing for cyclists, they gave us a 1 mile cycle lane into town that is used for drivers to park cars!


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## ColinJ (10 Apr 2012)

Philk said:


> Coventry appears to be doing nothing re cycle safety...


They certainly haven't be spending enough on repairing the roads ... I thought it was impossible to find somewhere which made West Yorkshire road surfaces look good but I was wrong - Coventry does that!


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## 400bhp (11 Apr 2012)

Lots going on in and around Manchester in the next few years. I'm hoping they extend the Bridgwater canal path right into the city center. IMO that will encourage a lot more people to consider commuting by bike, even if that's just occasionally.


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## BSRU (11 Apr 2012)

In Swindon, absolutely nothing.
Last thing they did was paint some white lines down the middle of some paths, added some small blue circle signs with a pedestrian and cyclist, hey presto they met a government target.


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## redcard (11 Apr 2012)

BSRU said:


> In Swindon, absolutely nothing.
> Last thing they did was paint some white lines down the middle of some paths, added some small blue circle signs with a pedestrian and cyclist, hey presto they met a government target.



You ungrateful POS!


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## BSRU (11 Apr 2012)

redcard said:


> You ungrateful POS!


Seems a little harsh.


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## jugglingphil (11 Apr 2012)

Nottingham is spending all it's cash on two tram lines.
So there will be even more roads which are incredibly dangerous to cycle along. It wouldn't be so bad if you could take your bike on a tram, but you can't!!!

However we are going to have a festival of cycling in the summer.


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## redcard (11 Apr 2012)

BSRU said:


> Seems a little harsh.



Didn't the sarcasm travel over the Internet?


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## BSRU (11 Apr 2012)

redcard said:


> Didn't the sarcasm travel over the Internet?


Unfortunately internet forums are not great for sarcasm, I assumed you were being sarcastic but you could have been the guy who paints the white lines


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## mumbo jumbo (14 Apr 2012)

My MP's researcher has just bcc'd me an email he has from the Birmingham City Council Chief Exec. At face value what he says seems to be encouraging. I know that the devil is in the detail and I might be horrified at the way some of this money is being spent but it seems it's a start. I particulalry like the reference to cycle training for would be cycle commuters.

One thing the BCC guy conspicuously fails to mention is the investment in road infrastructure generally. BCC have contracted AMEY to overhaul and maintain the roads (I think Sheffield have just done a similar deal?). Many of the roads in my neck of the woods and many more on my commute routes have been properly resurfaced which makes the journey *so much* more pleasant. I can only assume that general road improvement doesn't crosscheck with "cycling" otherwise he should have mentioned it. Anyway, here is a copy-paste of the Chief Exec's letter:

[Edited to remove letter - see Norm's and my further post below]


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## Norm (14 Apr 2012)

I've edited the above to remove a phone number.

However, given that it was BCCd to you, I don't agree with posting the rest of it either.


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## potsy (14 Apr 2012)

My council have closed a section of cycle lane I use quite a bit, this is due to the Metrolink work going on in the area 
You now have to either cycle on the busy main road which can be quite horrendous traffic wise, or cross the 4 lanes to the other side, walk a bit and then cross back over.


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## mumbo jumbo (14 Apr 2012)

Norm said:


> I've edited the above to remove a phone number.
> 
> However, given that it was BCCd to you, I don't agree with posting the rest of it either.


Noted re phone number. Anyway, the email arrived unsolicited from (on behalf of) an elected politician and I expect (because of the way it was sent) it was similarly sent to other constituents who have raised cycling issues with him. I was not asked to keep it confidential. I assumed (but confess I did not check) that all the info included was in the public domain. Because I can't be arsed to check every line of detail, I am deleting the letter from my original post pending receipt of an answer to a reply email to the researcher asking if I can promulgate it.


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## mumbo jumbo (15 Apr 2012)

I now have permission from the researcher to publish the Birmingham City Council Chief Exec's letter. Here it is (again!):

---------------------------------------------------

Dear Ian
I write in response to your email dated 9 February 2012 regarding Cycling in Birmingham. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.
The City Council is of the view that cycling has much to offer the city in terms of relieving congestion, carbon reduction, health promotion and overall 'liveability'. To this end the City Council is now committing more funds and staffing resources to cycling than ever before. During 2011/12 and 2012/13 we will be committing in the region of £2.7M per year to cycling. Partly with the advent of the Bike North Birmingham project, there are now in excess of 20 members of city council or partner organisation staff working on City Council led full cycling initiatives.
Last year we published the 'Bike Birmingham' cycling strategy which sets out a wide range of infrastructural and promotional measures to encourage cycling for both daily and leisure purposes. Both the Transportation and Leisure and Sports divisions of the City Council are working with a range of partners such as British Cycling, Sustrans and the health sector to deliver the strategy.
Currently our focus is the Bike North Birmingham (BNB) project in Erdington and Sutton Coldfield that builds upon the routes we have been developing with Sustrans and their Connect2 programme for several years. BNB will be spending in excess of £6M between now and 2015 on new cycling infrastructure and intensive programmes of cycling promotion within schools and workplaces and at local centres and stations. A high profile BNB launch is planned for May this year. Several BNB Cycle Hire and ride 'hubs' are being set up, adding to those being set up in partnership with British Cycling under the BeActive by Bike banner elsewhere in the city.
'Bikeability' cycle training for both children and adults continues to grow; BNB has dedicated Bikeability officers delivering training to schoolchildren, would be commuters and those wanting to cycle for leisure. For the third year running Birmingham will feature a mass Sky Ride this summer, along with its accompanying programme of 70+ smaller rides. On the sports side, we have been successful in bringing the World BMX championships to the NIA in May. An international standard BMX track has been constructed in Perry Barr as the community legacy of this event.
Through the Pedestrian and Cycling Task Force and the Cycling Forum we continue to liaise and consult with cyclists and user groups with the aim of working together to improve cycling in Birmingham.
I trust that this response persuades you of our commitment to improving cycling in Birmingham and encouraging more residents and visitors to take to two wheels.
Yours sincerely
Stephen Hughes
Chief Executive
Birmingham City Council

Ian Hughes
Researcher to Roger Godsiff MP


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## dellzeqq (20 Apr 2012)

I went to York this week. And thought 'be careful what you wish for'. An incomprehensible mess of cycle paths incompetently signed, and a town centre permanently choked with traffic. Following little blue signs to York Station I lost one path when it went up and over a footbridge and took another that went down a pedestrian ramp with two 180 degree bends in it and then across a car park. Following (discontinuous) signs to Heslington across some super-expensive bridge and down some wigglywindy paths led me to two cattle grids - I'd have been far better off just taking the A1079 out of town, and would have done if the signs on the roads didn't content themselves with saying A64 Ring Road to the exclusion of all else. (And yes, the map given to me by the Information lot dissolved in the rain within seconds).

Give me London any time - TfL have their failings, but they know how to put up a signpost, and the superhighways are heaven by comparison with York's cycle paths. I blame Sustrans.


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## Richard Mann (20 Apr 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> I went to York this week. And thought 'be careful what you wish for'. An incomprehensible mess of cycle paths incompetently signed, and a town centre permanently choked with traffic. Following little blue signs to York Station I lost one path when it went up and over a footbridge and took another that went down a pedestrian ramp with two 180 degree bends in it and then across a car park. Following (discontinuous) signs to Heslington across some super-expensive bridge and down some wigglywindy paths led me to two cattle grids - I'd have been far better off just taking the A1079 out of town, and would have done if the signs on the roads didn't content themselves with saying A64 Ring Road to the exclusion of all else. (And yes, the map given to me by the Information lot dissolved in the rain within seconds).
> 
> Give me London any time - TfL have their failings, but they know how to put up a signpost, and the superhighways are heaven by comparison with York's cycle paths. I blame Sustrans.


 
I long ago concluded that cyclists need market segmentation - as best treatment of main roads as you can, and a separate set of routes if your priority is avoiding traffic. As I've mapped at: http://www.transportparadise.co.uk/cyclemap/


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## subaqua (20 Apr 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Our council imposed a 20 mph speed limit in the town centre and motorists complained bitterly about it!
> 
> If you take a look at the kind of road in question you will see that apparently those drivers think it is okay to drive at 30+ mph down twisty, turny, narrow roads on steep descents with parked vehicles narrowing the carriageway further!


 Gloriuos socialist borough of Waltham forest voted in a blanket 20mph restriction on residential streets last night, and the order fopr one way streets to be used the wrong way by cyclists l;ast night. £100K is the figure they have to spend. so in real terms feckall gets done.


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## Manifietso (24 Apr 2012)

> What's your town/city doing?
> 
> Going backwards is what:


 
York is a great city for pedestrians, and so it should be. I understand it ranks #3 in terms of bike modal split too. I was there a few weeks ago and was planning on hiring a bike (which you can do at the station, another box ticked) but ended up just staying in centre and getting bus out to New Earswick (another box ticked, car free streets long before cars took over).



> Coventry appears to be doing nothing re cycle safety.....if fact theyre creating a number of shared use areas where buses, pedesrians and cyclists can mix.
> The first share space was opened next to the old colin campbell pub 4 months ago, so far 1 person has died.


 
If only they had looked 35km to the east, we'd be in business! Bike lanes not bandwagons please!



> The City Council is of the view that cycling has much to offer the city in terms of relieving congestion, carbon reduction, health promotion and overall 'liveability'. To this end the City Council is now committing more funds and staffing resources to cycling than ever before. During 2011/12 and 2012/13 we will be committing in the region of £2.7M per year to cycling.


 
So that works out at a whopping £2.70 per person - about the same as a short taxi ride from the station. Centro's own LTP has admitted that Birmingham is well behind the national average in terms of cycling levels, and it is the one thing where Coventry can say we are doing better, even if not by much!



> Partly with the advent of the Bike North Birmingham project, there are now in excess of 20 members of city council or partner organisation staff working on City Council led full cycling initiatives.


 
I wonder what the Dutch equivalent would be for a similar city - say Rotterdam? Also, they can plug BNB all they like, it is only one area of the city. Need to start from the centre (see another rant on this re: parking) and work out.



> Give me London any time - TfL have their failings, but they know how to put up a signpost, and the superhighways are heaven by comparison with York's cycle paths. I blame Sustrans.


 
So it's not just me that is getting extremely p*d off with Sustrans?


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## wiggydiggy (25 Jan 2013)

*Leeds*

Seems to flit between absolutely nothing and some very good ideas that are flawed on implementation e.g. new bus lanes have opened which although offer good routes into the city share space with 40mph+ buses on that horrible 'red grit' surface so not ideal. Other dangerous (for non vehicles) junctions have had very good segregated facilities put in (Sheepscar exchange is a good example) yet others feature zero provision. The recent cold weather has highlighted that cycle lanes feature bottom of the list when it comes to gritting*.*

I think there are worse places to cycle, and it could do more, but on the whole its been dragged kicking and screaming towards becoming a true cycling city. A long way to go though....


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