Places in Britain with a good cycle lane infrastructure

[Threegreenbirds]

I loved the Netherlands and how it is do easy to get around by bike. I really wish the Britain could embrace this.

We are considering a move, is there anywhere in Britain with a good cycle lane system so we can ditch the cars and feel safe on the roads?

That's cars slowing cars. Not bikes slowing cars. Your grudge is with the other cars on the road. Except that's a bit hypocritical, isn't it?

And yes, reducing the amount of private car traffic is absolutely the goal of the London travel authorities and the goal of all city authorities. It is necessary and inevitable. Don't start telling me that all the traffic on the Embankment is people with disabilities who can't travel any other way. We both know it isn't. If people who don't have mobility impairments want to improve travel for people who do, the best thing they can do is... not drive.

@donkra it absolutely is bikes slowing cars. When there were two full lanes available the bikes could be in one lane & buses in another. Now all the buses are stuck crawling behind the bikes. That cannot be good for emissions.
I am sure that all the disabled / pregnant / elderly people who depend on vehicular travel to get about will be delighted to know that their options will be increasingly limited.

This also disproportionately affects the poorer who cannot afford to live near a tube station & who rely on the bus network.

Surely the answer is freely flowing lower emission transport options, not a return to the horse & cart.

@Q2C4
freely flowing lower emission transport options
what exactly is that?

we absolutely need less cars. Switching to electric is not the future, congestion will be just as bad. Of course there will be some people who need cars however a significant proportion of people need to make the switch to bike, public transport or walk.

However cyclists don’t really want to be fighting with buses for space, where possible they need and prefer their own fully separated lanes.

@StillWantingADog exactly, which is why the changes in central London make no sense. Bikes are being forced into the paths of buses.

Bring on nuclear fusion - then we can have abundant (effectively unlimited) power supplies from sea water with no problematic by products!

The cycle superhighway in London is pretty good!

Jesus, the moaning motorists on this thread...?
The OP wanted to hear about cities/areas that have great cycling options. If you don't like cyclists and want a whinge, go and start your own thread about that.

It's not just the speed limit decrease. Certainly where I live in London, some of the cycle superhighways were created by removing one lane of the A roads. So that means a two lane A road is now a one lane A road PLUS speed limits have been reduced to 20mph. Consequently the traffic is gridlocked most of the time.

Nuclear fusion would be a disaster if we use it to fuel cars, as it will remove one of the major incentives to get rid of cars in cities! Electric cars cause congestion in just the same way as petrol cars.

And 50% of car journeys in the UK are under 2 miles. Plenty of scope for Dutch style cycling here - the only difference is the Dutch decided in the 1970s to prioritise cycling and are now reaping the benefits.

Prioritising car useage is a big fuck you to the poorest in society, who are the least likely to own cars and the most likely to die from diseases caused by pollution.

Then traffic is the problem, and should find alternative methods, for which there are many. Even Amazon is using cargo bikes for delivery in central London.

Unless there is some reason why there is a magic force field that keeps cars away, that only works in Dutch cities?

@manontroppo if we could have pollution free cars we could adapt roads accordingly to accommodate. However, as you'll have gathered from my previous posts if you've had a chance to read them, I'm not a car driver, i'm a bus fan.

Yes, I wS going to say Stevenage. My sister first moved there 40+ years ago and it was impressive even then.

Lots of folk mentioning London so I'll throw my oar in.... Outer London is dire for cyclists (SW especially). There is a higher than average number of SUVs charging down narrow roads; buses trying to squeeze through, and the cyclist most definitely comes last here. I think the vast number of cars is driven in part by poor public transport and inadequate cycling infrastructure but the council doesn't seem interested in improving things. The congestion is terrible so I don't know how that sits with govt Net Zero plans.

@Badbadbunny ivhsve literally never been anywhere in the Netherlands (and I’ve been all over very frequently), including quite rural areas, where the cycle lanes aren’t well frequented.

Not sure that’s quite true - we went to the Netherlands on holiday and in 2 weeks witnessed many near misses between cyclists and 2 actual crashes, one of which was really nasty - not sure if the emergency services were called but it wouldn’t have surprised me.

What we noticed about cycling in the Netherlands was that is was localised. More cycling in the towns and cities but little or nothing on the main roads connecting them which was just as car-centric as here. My friend is from the Netherlands and is both horrified and amazed that people will cycle here on busy main roads - she said they just don’t over there, they know their limits. Public transport over there is far better too, so it’s a real alternative option.

I would second Cambridge - easy to cycle round.

I live in Zone 3 London, and there have been cycling 'superhighway' lanes put in that stretch from the center to the outskirts of London, so my teenagers can now cycle around relatively safely.

ULEZ has also meant that slowly the air is getting less lethal, which is fantastic.

There were people protesting both of these in force - I only hope that Sadiq Khan holds his nerve and carries on with more of this, as he's getting a huge amount of stick even from his own party. London (including the motorists, though a lot of them are against anything that stops them using their cars as much as they want) needs this.

So yes, London is much better for cyclists now.