Britain's Forgotten Bike Highways

I think there must be a large disconnect in the UK between people who cycle and people who design road infrastructure. It&#x27;s especially evident here in Cardiff, a city which by all accounts should be an amazing cycling city; largely flat, open, low-ish traffic, nice parks etc. But it&#x27;s surprisingly terrible, either due to budget constraints or incompetence. I don&#x27;t ride here any more, as I&#x27;ve found the risk just isn&#x27;t worthwhile.<p>One of the most entertaining examples might well be this road, which is perfectly straight and about a mile long. It is perfect for cycling, and to any reasonably sensible person, an easy road to build a cycle lane on: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;8FjYE67SCfM2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;8FjYE67SCfM2</a><p>But see if you can spy where they actually built it. Not on the side of the road next to the railway, which is 1 mile of unbroken flat land with no junctions. That&#x27;s where I&#x27;d build it (and you probably would too).<p>No, instead they built it outside the front entrance of the apartments that line the other side of the road, broken every 100 yards by a junction, with a fence directly across the cycle lane. So cyclists have to merge in and out of pedestrians, wait at junctions, and they&#x27;re directly outside the front entrance of buildings, making residents cross the cycle path to get to the pavement.<p>And don&#x27;t even get me started on this magnificent idiocy: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;8EBCSXXJHcP2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;8EBCSXXJHcP2</a>

&gt; “At the time, the feeling among cycling groups was, ‘We deserve our place on the road. We don&#x27;t want to be relegated to a secondary system,’”<p>This matches a lot of my experience in Britain. When there&#x27;s a cycle lane alongside a road drivers will often get aggressive about you cycling in the main roadway, even when (as is so often the case) the cycle lane is unsafe or unsuitable.<p>IMO we should focus less on distinct cycling routes, and more on making road junctions safer for cyclists.

I really hope that the bicycle makes a comeback that we can attribute to increased urbanisation. It makes so much sense as a mode of transport in and around cities.

&quot;Uncovering and reusing these old tracks could prove far cheaper than constructing new lanes.&quot;<p>- I guess that seems key to me. Those lanes are nearly 90 years old. How much cheaper would they be vs new ones? And is that savings (10%, 30%?) really the thing that&#x27;s holding back adding a nationwide biking network?

In Lansing the community is building out a network of bike trails but its patchy.<p>Detroit has gotten very aggressive creating dedicated lanes taken off not so busy roads and using old railroad right of ways. You can go almost anywhere in the downtown area by bike. There are even rentals available.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;detroitgreenways.org&#x2F;bike-map-and-parking&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;detroitgreenways.org&#x2F;bike-map-and-parking&#x2F;</a><p>Some of the trails that slice through industrial areas even feature artwork like the famed DeQuindre cut<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.traillink.com&#x2F;trail&#x2F;dequindre-cut-greenway&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.traillink.com&#x2F;trail&#x2F;dequindre-cut-greenway&#x2F;</a>

I didn&#x27;t know much about bicycle paths in the Netherlands in the 1930s, so I googled around a bit. It turns out that creating an organization of people campaigning for bicycle paths, like the Kickstarter described in the article, is a quintessentially Dutch thing to do. In the early 20th century, bicycle path associations popped up all over the country, some just campaigning, others also (partially) funding paths. In the 1950s interest waned, as constructing bicycle paths was seen more as a duty of the government. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nl.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rijwielpadvereniging" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nl.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rijwielpadvereniging</a> (Dutch)

Sustrans (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sustrans.org.uk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sustrans.org.uk</a>) has built, and is continuing to expand, a wonderful cycle network across the UK.

The BayTrail is a similar project for San Francisco Bay area: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;baytrail.org&#x2F;baytrailmap.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;baytrail.org&#x2F;baytrailmap.html</a><p>Around the US there are tens of thousands of miles of trails that have been converted from railways. Rails-to-Trails is one nonprofit that focuses on converting unused railways: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.railstotrails.org&#x2F;about&#x2F;about-us&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.railstotrails.org&#x2F;about&#x2F;about-us&#x2F;</a>

In the Seattle area, we have many railroad corridors still there. But in the push to create light rail, they&#x27;ve been completely ignored, creating new right-of-ways nearby at incredible cost.<p>Some of them still have (unused) rusting tracks still sitting on them.<p>It&#x27;s especially baffling as the area has horrific traffic gridlock that is expected to get much, much worse due to the city&#x27;s prosperity.

In the north east of England, the old railway tracks were pulled up and turned into footpaths, I use one of these to cycle into work every day.