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Manchester Airport's 10 year plan announced for £1 billion improvements

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me123

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I am quite sure that a number of taxi companies exist in the area around Knutsford who would take you to a hospital in the circumstances that you describe above. They would call directly at your home address...no need to hobble to the nearest bus stop.

Given some of the horrendous bike crashes I've seen, you may be looking to dial 999 if you've been struck by a vehicle, although you may need someone else to do that for you...

One of the issues with cycling to airports, though, is that the approach roads are not always cycle friendly. Take Glasgow Airport - the main approach is from the M8 motorway. Similarly from Edinburgh, you've got the A8 dual carriageway (with a motorway at one end and a bypass at the other). Even Aberdeen sees the cyclist negotiating the busy A96 roundabouts and driving through a busy industrial estate. I'm pleased to see East Midlands have put some thought into it, but it's still not the norm.

I cannot think of a major airport which has good cyclone infrastructure that would allow people to realistically travel by bike. And there is realistically little demand. Most people traveling to airports (passengers) are going away for at least one night, so it's impractical to carry a suitcase on a bike. Why would Manchester Airport want to spend money on bike racks and cycle paths when it doesn't benefit their customers? I think it's more realistic to improve the public transport links, which would benefit employees and customers (even for 4am starts - airports can be surprisingly busy at 4am!). I recently took the 4am 727 bus to Aberdeen airport, and it's amazingly well used; mostly with workers at that time of day.
 
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Xenophon PCDGS

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Given some of the horrendous bike crashes I've seen, you may be looking to dial 999 if you've been struck by a vehicle, although you may need someone else to do that for you...

One of the issues with cycling to airports, though, is that the approach roads are not always cycle friendly. Take Glasgow Airport - the main approach is from the M8 motorway. Similarly from Edinburgh, you've got the A8 dual carriageway (with a motorway at one end and a bypass at the other). Even Aberdeen sees the cyclist negotiating the busy A96 roundabouts and driving through a busy industrial estate. I'm pleased to see East Midlands have put some thought into it, but it's still not the norm.

I cannot think of a major airport which has good cyclone infrastructure that would allow people to realistically travel by bike. And there is realistically little demand. Most people travelling to airports (passengers) are going away for at least one night, so it's impractical to carry a suitcase on a bike. Why would Manchester Airport want to spend money on bike racks and cycle paths when it doesn't benefit their customers? I think it's more realistic to improve the public transport links, which would benefit employees and customers (even for AM starts - airports can be surprisingly busy at 4am!). I recently took the 4am 727 bus to Aberdeen airport, and it's amazingly well used; mostly with workers at that time of day.

Whilst appreciating all the hard work that you have gone to in order to produce this posting, there appears to have been a misunderstanding. The matter of cycling only occurred when the matter of employed airport workers was being discussed, not that of the prospective airline passengers.

However, I am quite intrigued by your mention of good cyclone infrastructure at the airport and wonder if this concerns those "once in a millennium" matters, as whilst Manchester Airport does receive a wide-ranging pattern of weather to deal with, cyclones are something exterior to this normal meteorological pattern expected....:D
 
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radamfi

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The Dutch are by far the world experts in cycling. Bikes have roughly 30% modal share of all trips nationwide. There is good infrastructure to Amsterdam airport and I have cycled on it. You can also charge your electric bike at the airport bike racks. But the proportion of workers going the whole way by bike is low by Dutch standards because the distances involved are typically rather long. A lot, however, cycle to the station to get the train to the airport. It is also quite common for people to cycle to the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport. Route 300 between Haarlem, Amsterdam airport and Amsterdam Zuid-Oost uses one of the longest dedicated busways in the world and that route has sizeable bike racks at many stops.
 
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pemma

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I don't think the issue is how jcollins would get to hospital - more how he or she might get around afterwards if unable to walk.

Indeed. If you need to get to a hospital and can't get there yourself there's ambulances. However, if you're told a broken ankle might take 2 months for something you've broken to recover then you need a way of getting around for 2 months which doesn't involve driving/cycling or much walking.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Indeed. If you need to get to a hospital and can't get there yourself there's ambulances. However, if you're told a broken ankle might take 2 months for something you've broken to recover then you need a way of getting around for 2 months which doesn't involve driving/cycling or much walking.

With your mention earlier in the thread of service 300 Town Centre service and the final part of your posting above that mentions..."or much walking", how far would you have to walk from your home to the nearest bus stop in a situation such as you describe?

Can you imagine me at the age of 70 in a post-stroke situation walking two miles or so along narrow country lanes before the nearest bus stop was reached....and that is only imagining that scenario when there is heavy driving rain, not the sultry warm sunny weather that has been with us from early morning onwards today...<(
 

ivanhoe

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Manchester Airport could learn a lot from its 'daughter' Airport at East Midlands, in respect of provision of bus services. Geographically, EM Airport would normally require a car or taxi to get there but the development of Skylink over the past three years has given the cities of Leicester, Derby and Nottingham as well as towns and villages such as Loughborough and Castle Donnington a 24 hour commercial service, run by Trent Barton and its local companies. I know Leicester- Loughborough-East Midlands-Castle Donnington-Derby is a great success with upto 3 services an hour during the day and every hour during the night. If little old East Midlands can do it, surely the Great Capital of the Northern Powerhouse can do it. The key to the success of the service is that it also provides an express service from Loughbough to Leicester, thus omitting some villages. It has also given the village of Kegworth( Just by junction 24 of the M1 ,) a great service to both EMA , Derby, Loughbough and Leicester. This requires a partnership and some subsidy to start off these services but they were quickly 100% commercial. Three Counties, therefore working together. Can GMPTE think outside of their large box, I wonder ?
 

telstarbox

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On the cycling point, 5km (3 miles) is a realistic catchment for people cycling to work, although I'm aware that many commuter cyclists do longer distances than this.
 

pemma

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On the cycling point, 5km (3 miles) is a realistic catchment for people cycling to work, although I'm aware that many commuter cyclists do longer distances than this.

Indeed. However, there isn't always a suitable cycling route between A and B. My local council (Cheshire East) decided on some rural roads street lights could be turned off to save money which angered cycling groups.

I also think these days the average length of commute is well over 3 miles. I imagine an average would be somewhere around 10.
 

jopsuk

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On the cycling point, 5km (3 miles) is a realistic catchment for people cycling to work, although I'm aware that many commuter cyclists do longer distances than this.

The Dutch consider 10km/6miles to be reasonable- half an hour at a perfectly leisurely 20km/h / 12mph on a sensible upright bike.

The average distance for a UK commute is under ten miles, and even that number is massively skewed upwards by London commuting.
 

pemma

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The average distance for a UK commute is under ten miles, and even that number is massively skewed upwards by London commuting.

Just found some analysis from Census Data:

The average distance commuted to work in England and Wales increased from 13.4 km in 2001 to 15.0 km in 2011. This is estimated using only workers making a regular commute between their enumeration address and their workplace address.

On average workers resident in the East of England (17 km) had the longest commutes while working residents in London had the shortest commutes (11 km).

In both 2001 and 2011, males commuted further than females. In 2001, 39% of males and 25% of females commuted more than 10 km. By 2011, the rates of commuting such distances had increased to 42% for males and 30% for females.

With the exception of those living in London, workers in managerial and professional occupations were more likely to commute 20 km or more. The difference with other occupation groups was not so noticeable for London residents, where skilled trade workers were most likely to commute 20 km or more.

Full-time workers commuted longer distances in 2011 than their part-time counterparts. While 55% of part-time workers commuted less than 5 km, 38% of full-time workers did the same.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/censu...us-analysis---distance-travelled-to-work.html

The 15km average is 9.4 miles, the longer East of England average commute of 17km is 10.6 miles while the shorter London average commute is 6.9 miles. (London meaning average commute of people who are resident in Greater London not people who work in London.)
 
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radamfi

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WatcherZero:2219049 said:
Dutch aren't known for their hills though.

Not that many Dutch people cycle for long distances to work. However, the Dutch are building more direct cycle paths between towns, typically beside congested motorways, to encourage more longer distance bike use.

Electric bikes sell very well in the Netherlands and Germany and make hills irrelevant. Increased distance is easier now because of electric bikes and some Dutch people use them for commuting. Stupidly, there is a stigma against electric bikes in the UK.
 

WatcherZero

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Theres another reason for that though, high usage of cycles in Bristol is related to its proximity to West Country leisure cycling. Council has also fiddled the figures, for example it claims that cycling has increased 104% over a decade on Gloucester Road (2000-2013). True data shows that this is only true if you use arbitrary start dates for comparison, if you use 2001 rather than the 2000 the council uses you find its a very different story.

Glos%20Rd%20vehicle%20counts%202000-13.jpg
 
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