50 Worst Cycle Lanes in Britain

Published by Matt Polaine | Filed under Bicycle, Campaigns, Cycling, Cycling infrastructure, Transport

Well the title of the book is actually ‘Crap Cycle Lanes - 50 Worst cycle Lanes in

Britain‘. While this is a bit of fun, just in time for the Christmas (2007) stocking, there is a serious side. Roughly less than 0.1% of Local Transport Plans’ budget is spent on cycle facilities, and those amounts are for places like Cambridge, it is even less in many other parts of the UK. By comparison, at least five European countries spend 20 times that amount, about 2%, with some spending 5%.Childhood obesity, congested towns and cities, excessive burning of fossil fuel, carbon emissions…the bicycle hits so many of these points I fail to comprehend our culture here in the UK that ‘hates’ cyclists. I don’t use that word lightly. Anyone who cycles regularly will know what I mean. If you don’t, you won’t. It requires considerable ineptitude to bungle cycle provision to this extent with so little budget, but local authority planners and engineers have achieved miracles. The workmanship is just unbelievably bad, and if you are a motorist, you would be really shocked at how bad. For a number of years thousands of cyclists, like myself, have photographed the unbelievable and posted them on ‘crap cyclelane’ websites around the UK.Now Warrington Cycling Campaign has published a book with the top 50 selected from across these websites. Expect a top 50 each year, unless the UK wakes up to the fact that the current approach to cycle provision design is a bad joke at best, but sometimes lethal, as a large road sign, invisible from the back, juts out into a cyclelane near me, right at head height. Cyclists have had to bend it right back to avoid another cyclist having the side of their head impaled on it. What were they thinking?Available from the 10th November 2007, about £5.00.