Roads you can ride on, but really shouldn’t

[Windle]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1v7rr43vvo.amp

It made me wonder how many cyclist skeletons they would find. The alternative route west from Bowes is quite difficult and fairly unsuited for road bikes.
Yet I do no expect any change there from that £1.4billion spend.

They really should make the old rail line from Bowes to Barras usable. It would cost a tiny portion of that billion plus.
When single carriageway it was comparitively safe to ride. Dualling puts too many roads out of bounds to cyclists.

That would make an absolutely cracking bike path, although maybe not in the winter .

 

[Lone Wolf]

You can always play run the gauntlet on the A4063 between Maesteg and Bridgend. Always good for speeding BMW and Audi drivers 😂

 

[Windle]

You can always play run the gauntlet on the A4063 between Maesteg and Bridgend. Always good for speeding BMW and Audi drivers 😂

Looks like there would be room for a cycle path alongside it though.

 

[Windle]

One of the most cheek clenching bits of road I remember was when I did Dunn Fell in 2009. Nice quiet lanes for most of the route, but I'd parked in Warcop (not wanting to ride from home as I wasn't doing any big rides then). Just under a mile of the narrowest, twistiest part of the A66 from Warcop to the turn off up the little lane that heads north up to the army ranges. Uphill as well, on a single carriageway road with solid white lines down the middle, 50 mph limit then and full of lorries .
Even being used to road riding that was a bit sweaty. If I ever do it again I'll be starting from somewhere else.

 

[albion]

One of the most cheek clenching bits of road I remember was when I did Dunn Fell in 2009. Nice quiet lanes for most of the route, but I'd parked in Warcop (not wanting to ride from home as I wasn't doing any big rides then). Just under a mile of the narrowest, twistiest part of the A66 from Warcop to the turn off up the little lane that heads north up to the army ranges. Uphill as well, on a single carriageway road with solid white lines down the middle, 50 mph limit then and full of lorries .
Even being used to road riding that was a bit sweaty. If I ever do it again I'll be starting from somewhere else.

Yes, it is the nightmare section there. I have even done some footpaths, with great difficulty to avoid the A66, last doable in about 1979.
The zero shoulder sections are extreme scary, of which that is I believe.

I used to cycle to Dufton quite a bit, which always created that major predicament. Ebikes I guess help though why that section of old rail line from Warcop to Appleby is still undeveloped for active travel quite baffles me.

 

[Alex321]

You can always play run the gauntlet on the A4063 between Maesteg and Bridgend. Always good for speeding BMW and Audi drivers 😂

I haven't actually ridden that road, but it doesn't look any worse than several in the area that I do ride fairly regularly. E.g the A473 between Talbot Green and Pencoed. Or the B4265/B4270 between Rhoose/Llantwit Major/Cowbridge (Not sure why those are B roads, given the traffic levels and size of the roads, they should be A roads).

 

[Lone Wolf]

Looks like there would be room for a cycle path alongside it though.

There was a plan for that, but that got put on the back burner, caught fire, and that was the end of that.

 

[HLaB]

No idea why the last bit of A8 before the M8 isn't restricted.
It's basically a motorway, but since it would cost big money to get rid of the roundabouts it remains A8.
A few restricted road signs wouldn't cost much and it would avoid tourists wandering in as they head towards Glasgow

The bypassed the A8 section with a Motorway section years ago (2017).

https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/new-m8-missing-link-set-to-open/

 

[sheddy]

There's a few local roadworks coming up next month so I will *need* to investigate the quality of each road closure

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

There's a few local roadworks coming up next month so I will *need* to investigate the quality of each road closure

On which point - some roads become worth avoiding due to traffic light controlled roadworks that only allow time for cars to go through

there is always (often anyway) some idiot who will move forward as soon as "his" light goes green even though you are still in the narrow lane and wearing hi-vis, reflective stuff and showing 2 front lights

 

[Windle]

There was a plan for that, but that got put on the back burner, caught fire, and that was the end of that.

'T was ever thus, plans for cycle lanes bear remarkable resemblance to the lives of those baby turtles in wildlife programmes, the ones that hatch in the sand and try desperately to make their way to the sea, mostly ending up squashed, stuck upside down or eaten by seagulls.
There'll have to be more built eventually though, as the country is rapidly running out of room for people to get around by motorised means.

 

[Alex321]

'T was ever thus, plans for cycle lanes bear remarkable resemblance to the lives of those baby turtles in wildlife programmes, the ones that hatch in the sand and try desperately to make their way to the sea, mostly ending up squashed, stuck upside down or eaten by seagulls.
There'll have to be more built eventually though, as the country is rapidly running out of room for people to get around by motorised means.

TBH, I was slightly surprised at that one having been burned, as there have been a fair number of new cycle paths alongside roads in the area over recent years. The busiest parts of the A473 between Pencoed and Bridgend and between Llantrisant and Tonteg, plus the A48 coming into Bridgend from the South are examples.

 

[Mike_P]

North Yorkshire have an incredible habit of announcing they are going to make cycling improvements only to drop them later. The last scheme in Harrogate they achieved was used by them as an excuse to fell trees. That felling was not actually reqired for the cycle path but for highway carriageway widening they did at the same time. A two lane and a bit wide road at a junction that you would expect to lose the bit to allow for the cycle path becoming full three lanes wide.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

The new Mersey Tidal scheme should make for an interesting cycle ride - no cars just bikes and walkers

IF it happens - because it has been "under consideration" since I was old enough to notice things in the news - which was over 50 years ago!

 

[Alex321]

The new Mersey Tidal scheme should make for an interesting cycle ride - no cars just bikes and walkers

IF it happens - because it has been "under consideration" since I was old enough to notice things in the news - which was over 50 years ago!

That is what they have done with the Cardiff Bay barrage. Two lanes of cyclists, one for walkers. Plus other pedestrian paths on the "inland side"