they must have not stayed over night or they'd wouldnt have had a bike come morning 🙁

I'd always assumed (possibly wrongly) that Cycling Plus was based in Bristol?

Its based in Bath, close enough!

assuming you're a thief.

As far as I can see….. lots of initiatives, still nothing physical on the ground to go 'wow' about yet….

i live in bristol and its a joke at bristol being a cycling city. Traffic is bad, road rage and road hoggers still there. Not many cycling lanes and zones.

Soooo…
If Cycling + says so, Is Bristol laterally stiff but vertically compliant?. Does Bristol corner like its on rails?
We have to be told 🙂

I live in Bristol too. I've seen nothing change since it became a 'cycling city', not a jot.

There are more commuters on bikes, which is nice to see, but the numbers had been steadily increasing for years, there certainly seems to be no marked explosion thanks to the Cycling City cash.

Can't see any on-road cycling provision improvements. They could do with spending a bit filling the potholes in, that'd help all road users, rather than more of the already prolific and useless 'cycle lanes'.

No idea if the free school kids cycle training is having much effect, I've certainly seen no kids on bikes other thanthe usual suspects mooching about on BMXs.

Bristol is pretty poor but I suppose 'best' is a relative term. Where is better?

I live in Bristol too. I've seen nothing change since it became a 'cycling city', not a jot.

There have been a handful of new groundworks (OK, so closing half of Prince Street Bridge was a bit weird, but it's quite a bold concession to cyclists), free Rollapaluza, the LED sign boards round the city now say "give cyclists room", loads of banners promoting cycling, you can hire "hour bikes" at a few locations, and best of all they got the ball rolling for the 1SW project in Bristol by funding the preliminary study.

As for Bristol being the best place in the UK for cycling, I wouldn't rate the trails against somewhere like Hebden Bridge or Fort William, but it's a nice city, fewer bike thieves than London, and near loads of other great places to ride.

I've never cycled in Bristol so can't compare, however Edinburgh isn't too bad. It does have some crap roadside cycle paths and some road surfaces are poor, however it also has some good cycle paths on old railway paths and beside the canal. There are also quite a few greenways, which cause a lot of traffic congestion but are good if you're on the bike.

closing half of Prince Street Bridge was a bit weird, but it's quite a bold concession to cyclists

I read this was in preparation for it being on the new bendy bus route.

I drive around a lot of big cities and I must admit Bristol has more cyclists out and around than most others.

I always laugh when I remember Dudley councils response about it being to hilly to bother with cycle lanes, when I look at Bristol it seems just as hilly to me.

they got the ball rolling for the 1SW project in Bristol by funding the preliminary study.

Which is just totally splendid and super if you live in the centre, South or West of the city. If you live in the fairly well populated North and East of the city, erm, sorry mate – 1SW appears to only be the South and West of Bristol.

I'd disagree with you epicsteve, on the reasons for Edinburghs (relative) cycling-friendlyness.
The main reason isn't greenways or any cyclelane but average traffic speeds. The fact that the city is at near-logjam means that anyone on a two wheeled vehicle can maintain road position and filter with ease.

Not a city, but I live in Livingston and it is great for cycling 🙂

Not a city, but I live in Livingston and it is great for cycling

I used to cycle commute to Livingston and it's not bad, although there were quite a few of the cycle paths that had more than their fair share of broken glass etc.

TooTall, I live about 5 miles east of Bristol at the moment – practically in Bath – and I can still ride to the trails in 40 minutes. I'ver also got two BMX tracks, a skatepark, a wood with some cheeky steeps and a plethora of natural riding within a mile or so. Not bad for a big sprawly city.

Milton Keynes. 250 miles of proper cycleways. Great off-road nearby at Woburn. Great road riding nearby out to the west. Great LBS (Phil Corleys). Great clubs. Until my workplace was relocated to Luton (grr) I didn't need a car.

Bristol has good access to Ashton Gate that is pretty good for a post work thrash. In pure road terms inner London must be best – sheer numbers of riders at all times of day and night, on all roads make it so IMO. Lots of advanced stop lines, bus lanes, permeability, and I can't stress it enough, critical mass of riders that is where real security comes from.

Edinburgh and Sheffield score well I gather but some big towns / cities have very poor cycling participation.

I laughed when I saw Manchester high up. It's the worst cycling city ever, perhaps after London. It's close to more great cycling than anywhere else but as far as the city itself goes, it's a nightmare.

Newcastle should be top in my experience. I'm seriously impressed with the wealth of cycling facilities and the way cyclists are treated by drivers, which is the true metric against which this thing should have been measured,

Mr Agreeable – Member
TooTall, I live about 5 miles east of Bristol at the moment – practically in Bath – and I can still ride to the trails in 40 minutes. I'ver also got two BMX tracks, a skatepark, a wood with some cheeky steeps and a plethora of natural riding within a mile or so. Not bad for a big sprawly city.

If BMX tracks, skateparks and cheeky steeps are so satisfying, why do you put so much effort in to Ashton etc?
I am just frustrated at the focus upon a small geographical area and the complete neglect of the rest of Bristol for trail development. I can't bring myself to drive through the heart of the 2nd worst city in England for congestion so I can ride the developed area – it defies logic. At my place of work I do my damndest to promote cycling as more than just a commute and a more rounded approach to trail development around Bristol would help that.

Well for part of the initiative they diverted the cycle path at the end of my road across two pavements and a road, unfortunately it is still signed to use the road at the bottom of my close which is a narrow country lane, joining can be a frikkin nightmare during the week, stony faced miserable commuters with no road sense all over the place who seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that people with cars may just live there.

Mr Agreeable
OK, so closing half of Prince Street Bridge was a bit weird, but it's quite a bold concession to cyclists

Sorry Anty, I think the Princes street bridge was actually closed for pedestrian benefit more than cycles. At least this is what someone who works for the council highways department told me…

best city cycling initiative IMO would be to fund a bunch of cyclists (maybe pcsos if you wanted to penalise anyone later ?) to ride around cities with forward & rear-facing video running and then do "something useful"* with the results

*(no real idea what could actually be done but something "legal" would be my preference – including enforcement of red lights FOR ALL users)

And/or make all local council members with a responsibility for traffic (and a few senior coppers maybe) cycle round the city at rush hour once a month

Tootall, without wishing to sound like a cynical husk of human being, it's unrealistic to expect every large population to be served with a full-blown official mountain biking facility. So many conditions need to be met, you've got to show demand, tick the boxes from an environmental point of view, and find somewhere that is willing to let you carry out an activity which is widely regarded as degrading any landscape it takes place on, with some justification. The Ashton Court trails are pretty much unique in the UK as a half-decent mountain bike trail that's near to a big city, which is just one reason why myself and many other volunteers have put so much effort into keeping them going over the past few years.

If you want people to start dipping a toe in cycling outside of pure utility use, one way is to catch them young with simple low-cost facilities like BMX and pump tracks. In fact I understand there's a new pump track coming to Yate soon. I can see the logic in spending £5k on a short track that's going to get loads of use from the local kidders, rather than £25k on a full-blown trail that's going to become an underused mess as soon as winter arrives – which is kind of the way the TT was heading until the local MTB community picked up on the maintenance.

Well, Edinburgh is the only UK city I have biked in and I can't say that I am too impressed. All those hills are such a pain! They really should do something about that. Take my hometown Rotterdam for example…
😉

Edraket… HTFU!
(thats Herrera The **** Up) to you, BTW) 😉
I'm currently campaigning to have Edinburgh moved, lock, stock, and barrel* to the Andes to produce some proper cycling.

* except for Tynecastle and the trams. They can stay.