The role of cycling in transport

I am one of those who cannot cycle. I tried when I was younger, but have a poor sense of balance and could never keep the bike upright for more than 1-2 seconds.
I suppose an adult tricycle might have been one (expensive) solution, but at that time, local buses were so good that I never really needed to cycle.

Ianno87 said:

Here in Cambridge (where the proportion of trips made by bike is very high), ...

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As a car driver I remember my last visit to Cambridge with a sense of fear; fear that I would accidentally collide with one of the many cyclists. And yet, when I was a student there, cycling didn't worry me at all, and I did it for all of my 3 years.
I've now lived in Milton Keynes for nearly 40 years, and I now feel that the cycle/pedestrian Redways local to my area (Great Linford, Neath Hill, Stantonbury) are much less used by cyclists than they were ~15-20 years ago. That was when I got punctures from glass bottles smashed below the underpass bridges, and found that away from the housing estates, the cycle tracks were very bumpy as a result of tree roots raising the asphalt. Time for the Tour de France to visit MK and get the Redways properly sorted!

Bikeman78 said:

We think she flew straight over the top of it.

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In a cycle accident this is most probably going to result in the best outcome - while "flying over the top" you'll probably slow and hit the floor with little more force than if you'd simply fallen off.

OTOH, hit a bus or lorry with its slab front and it's probably curtains.

eMeS said:

As a car driver I remember my last visit to Cambridge with a sense of fear; fear that I would accidentally collide with one of the many cyclists. And yet, when I was a student there, cycling didn't worry me at all, and I did it for all of my 3 years.
I've now lived in Milton Keynes for nearly 40 years, and I now feel that the cycle/pedestrian Redways local to my area (Great Linford, Neath Hill, Stantonbury) are much less used by cyclists than they were ~15-20 years ago.

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That's quite interesting, as over in Bletchley I see just as much cycling as before, if not more, and the racks in front of MKC station are a curious bit of Dutchness in the UK. One thing of note is that many of the cyclists are Eastern Europeans to/from work in the warehouses etc - what that does mean is that you get curious standoffs between British people who ride on the left and others who forget that you should! (The Redways are intended to be treated as a traffic-free country lane - cycle on the left, walk on the right, don't block the whole width by either mode).

One of the big advantage of the Redways is the possibility of "free range kids", for what it's worth. It was Merseyrail that gave me that mobility as a kid, but cycling wasn't great (though helpfully the A59 from Aughton most of the way to Aintree has Dutch/Redway style cycle lanes on both sides and long has had). In MK public transport is decidely iffy but kids can walk and cycle without crossing roads to almost anywhere. There's also that living in a 1970s bit of Bletchley my house fronts onto a footpath/cycle path (not a Redway but used for both in practice) and kids play out like they did in the 1950s - must have been a great place to grow up.

That was when I got punctures from glass bottles smashed below the underpass bridges, and found that away from the housing estates, the cycle tracks were very bumpy as a result of tree roots raising the asphalt. Time for the Tour de France to visit MK and get the Redways properly sorted!

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A lot of work has been done on them in recent years and much of the subsidence and tree root issues have been dealt with. The glass is dealt with, as noted above, by the use of Schwalbe Marathon Plus or Continental Ultra Gatorskin tyres - fit either of them and you simply will not get punctures ever.

Bletchleyite said:

In a cycle accident this is most probably going to result in the best outcome - while "flying over the top" you'll probably slow and hit the floor with little more force than if you'd simply fallen off.

OTOH, hit a bus or lorry with its slab front and it's probably curtains.

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The problem with flying over the top is that it’s pot luck where one lands. When it happened to me after a woman in a car pulled out from a left-hand side turn, I landed smack bang in the middle of the oncoming traffic lane. Fortunately it was Sunday morning (on what is normally quite a busy road); had there been a bus or truck coming the other way at the time I suspect I wouldn’t be writing this now. As it happens I was fortunate and walked away with only minor cuts and scrapes. Pleasingly it made a right mess of the front of her car, although the thing was already covered in dents and scrapes.

radamfi said:

Weather is a common perceived issue but in reality the British climate is actually favourable for cycling as it rarely gets too hot or too warm. Rainfall is usually light. The country with the most cycling in the world has a very similar climate to the UK. Even there there is a perception that it rains a lot, so this website has recorded how often it has rained on a daily commute for over 10 years:

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You make a great point and I very much agree with it. When I first started commuting by bike I expected the weather to be an issue but I remember at the time being told by a friend who'd cycled to work for years that the number of properly wet days is actually quite small. I found that they were correct and over the year there's usually only a handful of days it's so wet I don't take the bike, you can often avoid rain showers and light rain isn't an issue. At least with rain and colder weather you can deal with it by wearing suitable clothing but when it's too hot there's not much you can do once you're down to shorts and a top, you get quickly sweaty and it can be quite draining as well. People are surprised I cycle through the winter but at times it's a lot easier than cycling in the summer as you don't heat up and can adjust layers as needed.

I thought the turbocharger in my car was failing in addition to it having a DPF which wasn't suitable for short trips, I usually walked placed but I needed to get back and forth home quickly to walk a new puppy so I went for a bike. I'd never liked cycling when I was younger but I'd always bought mountain bikes as they were the fashion which was a mistake as the higher weight and big knobbly tyres make them poor for on road choice. I was advised not to buy a hybrid and instead go for a road or mountain bike this time around but a hybrid seemed exactly what I wanted, reasonably fast rolling wheels, hub gears to avoid derailleur issues, a carbon belt instead of a chain, full metal mudguards rack and a comfy riding position. It was ideal for cycling every day particularly through the winter and one of the main reasons I stuck with cycling.

Now I don't know what I'd do without my bikes as there's no better way to clear my head and I've taken part in many events I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be able to do.