not only in light of the terrible accident in bristol, but in general, do you go out of your way to avoid traffic?
over the last couple of years, on my commute, i stay off the road as much as possible and even ride on the pavement at certain hotspots.

Yes depending on where I’m riding bit sometimes there’s no getting by it. Especially with some dodgy cycle lanes. I prefer to ride as part of traffic, hold my positioni on the road – where I seem suitable and safe, and at the speed or faster if possible in slower traffic.

Yeah, to a degree. On my commute in to work I ride towpaths, back streets and snickets to avoid the worst areas. On the way home I ride back up the canal even further as I’m going slower on the uphill sections which means more interactions with imbeciles in motor vehicles. It’s often muddy and it’s definitely a bit slower than the road, but it’s much more pleasant and less stressful.

I avoid traffic where possible. Living in a semi-rural area I use pavements a lot. Travel for miles on them without passing anyone. On the road bike I’ll take long detours through hilly back lanes, and use back streets in urban areas.

Yes, I would even rather get to Uni at 5am and avoid rush hour! I hate commuting by bike but if I stop then the few tossers who disregard cyclists safety have won.

I miss my 18 mile off road commute, that was all kinds of bliss first thing in the morning.

Having been knocked off twice on the road, I now assume that every single driver is a total myopic idiot who is actively trying to kill me.

I ride as much as I can off-road, and make extensive use of bridleways and canal towpaths. I always tend to stick to quieter roads, and I’ll happily add an extra few miles on to a route in order to stay off busy roads. On my commute I have to cross one particularly (unavoidable) busy intersection. I get off my bike and walk across the pedestrain crossings rather than risk riding in the traffic. It terrifies me!!!

i could travel to my work in just over 10 miles – i choose to do 15 to avoid traffic as much as possible – and still i got knocked off.

been mainly commuting XC since before xmas, did ride in on main roads this morning due to lateness and ice

On the road bike I’ll take long detours through hilly back lanes, and use back streets in urban areas

never sure how smart a move this is, wider busy slower moving main roads vs narrow roads often with worse sight lines and less traffic but possibly higher speeds. Hmmm, probably less stressful day to day with fewer drivers pissing you off with stupid stuff but are you swapping to less frequent but higher consequence “issues”

I don’t seek traffic (that would be weird), and will take back roads and what not where possible, but I’m not vastly phased by riding in traffic. I feel more comfortable riding in a city centre than on a rural dual carriageway, which really does strike me as mental.

yes and no

If there’s a remotely sensible option then yes, more often than not I take the 7 and a bit mile route instead of the just under 6mile route ‘cos it’s far better.

but even then there are sections where there’s not much choice.
One bit I hate I’d love to get off the road but it’s the only sensible option. There’s a narrow path with blue cycle route signs but it’s got a driveway every 20 meters and a side road every 100m and is full of ped’s, mums and kids going to school, commuters heading to the train station and old dears going to the village shop. So I take the road which has those bloody islands that pinch the traffic up every 300m. I hate it but I might as well walk that mile otherwise.

Far too many times I’ve had cars squeeze through at an uncomfortable distance/speed by one of those islands. Touch wood not actually been hit yet! I know it worries my wife though, and me too a bit.

yep. after getting knocked off and being off the bike for 3 months and off commuting for 6 i took a longer but quieter route to work as i didn’t have the strength going up the hills/ at the lights etc.

i’m still doing the longer route 2 years later!

People often ask why i take the long route, drivers accept my answer of “to avoid traffic” a lot more at face value than cyclists who often are confused/ question my reasons.

Yes, I do. Mainly because I’m prone to blowing my top at the slightest provocation, so for everybodies sake I try to keep off the main roads/away from known conflict points as much as possible. Didn’t quite work this morning, but hey-ho 😕

I avoid traffic by not riding on the road at all. Even off road rides that have road sections in them I find unpleasant. Having been ‘clipped’ by a car when I was 16, I’ve never been mad keen to get back on the roads and the regular horror stories I read on here do nothing to encourage a change of heart.

Its sad, but its almost at a point where road cyclists should ‘expect’ an incident rather than not. This is not right of course but using a smidgeon of common sense would tell us all that with millions of idiots driving cars (aggression, steamed up windows, on the mobile etc etc), there’s a likelihood that you’ll meet one of them one day…

the traffic islands dont worry me as much as junctions and driveways – folks that use the cycle lane as an extra giveway line to muscle thier way into traffic boil my piss- i fitted a horn and just blast them now when they do it.

i was taken out at a junction by a car crossing oncoming traffic to turn right.

the traffic islands i find if i occupy the center of the availible space they cannot squeeze in and are forced to slow down. might not be happy but its my safety not theirs.

On the road bike I’ll take long detours through hilly back lanes, and use back streets in urban areas

never sure how smart a move this is, wider busy slower moving main roads vs narrow roads often with worse sight lines and less traffic but possibly higher speeds. Hmmm, probably less stressful day to day with fewer drivers pissing you off with stupid stuff but are you swapping to less frequent but higher consequence “issues”

I don’t think so. The cars I see on the back roads are few and far between. And by back roads, I mean back roads. Not your average B-road (I avoid them like the plague). And with so little traffic I can pay attention to every car that passes, taking any necesarry action. Something you can’t do when there are dozens passing you each minute.

statistics i read were 4% of journeys made by adults are done on bicycle yet they account for more than 35000 hospitalized injurys out of a 75000 total hospitalized injurys on our roads…..

depends where you are – i sometimes have to go to aldi on the way home and it necessitates some back road ratruns to get to my house and i have had more near misses at high speed on those roads than anywhere else….. think audi drivers doing 80/90 on roads with blind bends and crests assuming they are the only drivers on the road as they noramlly are…..

cb, you are right, when i have to use road sections, it is like i am just waiting for something bad to happen, and this puts me off using roads.

there is a section I avoid in the mornings as its a pain in the butt and it nearly always makes me want to pull someone from their car and bludgeon them to death in front of the other traffic. it’s a narrow bit of road on a shallow bend near 2 schools, to make things worst the road surface is terrible.

it’s best I avoided for everyone involved.

apart from that I generally ride where the hell I want

do you go out of your way to avoid traffic

yes even in central london there are often alternative routes that are quieter or traffic (car) free.

The only road riding I do is about a mile along a suburban A-road to the trails and back.

It’s mental.

There are pedestrian refuges every few hundred metres and traffic always squeezes past where the road narrows the feckers can’t modulate their speed even for just a few seconds. The ones that do stay back give me such a wide berth they nearly collide with traffic coming the other way.

It seems anything out of the ordinary aka another car throws these people into a tailspin and I’m best off out of it, so I ride on the pavement now.

I hate riding in traffic now.

Yup,I do an extra 4 miles each way to avoid traffic and get nicer views .
It also adds more forest trails ,which makes it much more enjoyable.Win win 🙂

And i thought it was only me that was cared shirtless on the road.. 🙄
Recently moved to SW London from Leeds and drivers seem to give you more room but, Yes, i often go xc t avoid roadwork..

Yesish, not really a road rider – but happy to back lane bimble, but always plan routes so that any road sections are quiet/non dangerous (*or VERY limited busy road exposure – ie crossing only etc), and will use pavement wherever possible and appropriate (quiet/rural etc)

depends on the ride – if for leisure / training then i’ll go out of my way to avoid traffic.

If for a commute / utility then there is not much in the way of quieter / alternative roads. However i will take a few detours to miss dodgy junctions or roads with surfaces so poor that they are a danger cycling on.

I’m in Bristol. I used to commute down the A38 but the buses, lorries, vans, cars, motorbikes and other cyclists kept getting in my way. Not to mention the 31 sets of traffic lights and assorted pedestrian crossings in a 3 mile journey.

I now use side streets and bike paths. My journey is all together more pleasant and not at all stressful.

I hate riding in traffic so much that I am traffic…I drive to and from work and go for a ride on quiet roads when i get home

Yes, in Coventry at the moment. I live in the centre so when I want a road ride I mix pavement, bus lanes and cycle lanes to get out of the city and then there’s miles of countryside with only a few cars now and again.

I’m a country boy so I don’t like riding with traffic. I do everything I can to avoid most of it.

I go out earlier to avoid rush hour traffic, take longer routes away from main roads, and an even longer route going home to avoid the place I was knocked off 6 1/2 years ago – I used to love taking trails home but they’re now so mud infested that it’d be impossible (impassible!)

it does seem that all the safety measures that the government have put in have made the road a worse place to be tbh. if we are not in our expected slot then your fair game it seems.

often i opt for the road as its much much safer than the cycle paths/lanes with the number of junctions that they cross and are not gritted/ploughed…. or they have put in sharp corners to “keep it interesting” but then you get abuse for not using the cycle path. – for example the A92 cycle path – it is lethal. Id much rather ride the A92 (and i did every other day for 2 years without hitch except the 2 times the copshop pulled me for using the road)

statistics i read were 4% of journeys made by adults are done on bicycle yet they account for more than 35000 hospitalized injurys out of a 75000 total hospitalized injurys on our roads

Wow. Have you got a source for that? (Not questioning it, I’d like to be able to use it myself, it’ll help with shouting at my MP.)

Yes and no.
I don’t avoid any roads on my daily commute (butt there’s cycle paths along it that I do avoid because I think they are more dangerous). But I don’t extend it to add more road miles for the fun of it.

Yes, but generally, i’ll happily cycle on roads, i’m fairly comfortable in traffic(but will happily give way if needed even if i have right of way, I’m definitely not the type that thinks I own the road, cars and lorries don’t respect self importance!). Also when it gets busy etc at crossroads, odd junctions or bits that i sense some danger. I’ll jump on the pavement no bother, don’t see anything wrong with it.

My self-preservation comes before any nonsense laws about not cycling on pavements. plus it’s not the issue up here that it seems to be down in england, even the polis cycle on pavements up here.

And for the record, I see no need to stop at every red light either. just make sure ye check there are no polis about!

and i did every other day for 2 years without hitch except the 2 times the copshop pulled me for using the road)

Reminds me when I used to ride through Runcorn on a buslane completely separate from the roads, down the back of the industrial estates, several times I got stopped by the police who just couldn’t see why I was avoiding traffic.
Funny thing with Runcorn was there were quite a few segregated cycle lanes, that would have been fine if the council had taken any care and swept the glass off them. As they didn’t, if I used the cycle lanes it would result in 2 or 3 punctures a week.
Between the punctures, the police moaning, and the pain of routing safely over the Runcorn bridge, I gave up on commuting after a while.

If i could i would. but the route i take to work means there is very little choice about the route.

16-17miles, one A road, one A trunk road (part of which i can avoid by using ungritted ice covered lanes.)

I could use a slightly longer route which would change part of the trunk road into an A road. or into a fast B road.

If i am riding in my spare time i try and avoid the fast roads because they aren’t that much fun.

mint imperial i dont have a link but ill go search it was a thread on here linking to one of the big broadsheets – i think maybe the guardian

I tend to avoid road riding at rush hour or school-run times. Main roads or usually-quiet lanes, not a nice time to be out. Just too many distracted + stressed-out people who need re-testing. I used to commute 3-4 miles each way on a main rat-race track (30-40 zones only) but the number of incidents for such a short ride was ridiculous, ie compared to a few hours of road riding at the weekend. Trains and cycle routes now thankfully.

I tailor my journeys to avoid busy roads where possible.

Can’t stand traffic. I seem to feel more in danger than ever and find certain combinations of heavy traffic/dodgy road layouts/times of day stressful which goes against the whole self propulsion chilled vibe that i favor.

I don’t think so. The cars I see on the back roads are few and far between.

Fair enough I was thinking of trail rat’s audi/speeding/blind bends example.

using a smidgeon of common sense would tell us all that with millions of idiots driving cars (aggression, steamed up windows, on the mobile etc etc), there’s a likelihood that you’ll meet one of them one day

and with that logic you could convince yourself never to leave the house (those car drivers also kill pedestrians and other motorists not just cyclists), until you read the “at home” accident statistics, then you go and live in a cave in the highlands.

I hate riding in traffic so much that I am traffic…I drive to and from work

and the sad thing is there’s lots more like you.

I hate riding in traffic so much that I am traffic…I drive to and from work
and the sad thing is there’s lots more like you.

and the only solution is to get more people riding so there are less cars.

And apart from cars, every other reason for not cycling is quite easy to solve.