Forum menu
Just arrived (by car 😳 ) in Cambridge for a course for work.
So this is what cycle friendly towns could look like! 😯
Shame I couldn't afford to relocate over here.
Grew up there. Pretty much the worst town in the uk for mountainbiking
I'll see your Cambridge and raise you Market Deeping! 🙄
+1 winston, nice place but dull as ditchwater for mtb, so for that reason Im oot
Lol, you should see it at times between lectures when the students are in. Talk about safety in numbers. The infrastructure is pretty good from some outlying villages and the Park & Ride facilities, and in town it's designed to be not-car-friendly.
But yes, no mountains!
Not just no mountains but no bridleways, clay soil that never drains and its way too far from the sea
Good pubs though - many pleasant evenings spent in the Live and Let Live
Some pretty terrifying standards of riding to be seen, and lights* appear to be optional.
*both kinds
Cambridge is as bad if not worse than London for bikers jumping lights and causing havoc. Especially running pedestrians over across the green!
You should try taking your car test in Cambridge. Clearly the cyclist were the reason I failed my first one!
There is also the Guided busway, essentially our own private race track (although not all that private).
What's mountain biking? I forget!
MoreCashThanDash - Member
I'll see your Cambridge and raise you Market Deeping!
I'll see your Market Deeping and raise you Deeping St James..... 😀
Small world this place (used to live in Market Deeping)....
Just because there are a lot of cyclists in Cambridge, I wouldn't exactly say it was cycle friendly.
A lot of the 'cyclists' take a very relaxed view of the Highway Code and tend to get the drivers quite riled up.
Well I worked their for 7years and the cycled occasionally. The company was bought by a Californian company who couldn't get their head around the fact the +75% of employees cycled to work. Including the CEO who didn't have a car!
as an ex-student I can vouch for the appalling cycling skillz
Esp after clogging up addenbrookes A&E one night when in search of a Gardi-burger* at 2am, cycled pissed into a lampost 😳
Ive been gone a long time, but I doubt it's any more cycling friendly. Cambridge just puts up with having hoards of cyclists using the roads in spite of any town planning, not because of it.
* food of the gods at 2am. The greasiest, cheesiest, monster burger ever conceived.
Stoner, Gardi's is still the ideal post beer food.
Lived in Cambridge now for 3 years. I'd say its not particularly cycle friendly from a planning / infrastructure p.o.v, but just has a massive amount of utilitarian bike use (i.e. people just getting from a to b), on a scale unlike anywhere else I've seen in the UK. This means most people who drive in the city also ride a bike, or their kids / other half / parents rides a bike, so there's a bit more acceptance and, dare I say it, consideration, for 2 wheels. If we go anywhere in the city as a family, chances are we'll go by bike, and so will our friends, and my parents in law. Not because we're all right on sandal-wearing tofu-eating car haterz, just because its how people get around in the city, and always have done, and I love that about the place. Yes, you get your fair share of d1cks without lights, or jumping lights, or riding on the pavement, but not sure if its proportionally more than else where, and of course you get the sort that like to moan to the local paper about those 'irresponsible bicyclists who pay no road tax' (usually from the Tory villages around the city). You should see our school run in the morning - its a bling-fest of exotic dutch import child-carrying machines.
And yes, unfortunately if you live in Cambridge you better forget about MTB - its a rare treat for me now after having years of doorstep trails in Bristol, so I've been dragged to the darkside...
And Gardi's is pure filth - perfect after a few beers in the Pint Shop.
Small world indeed, brought up in Market Deeping, first house I bought was in Deeping St James.
Moving to Sussex and then Derbyshire demonstrated that i am best suited to flat rides 🙄
Theres thetford, woburn and chicksands, and you could drive to Peaks, or Chilterns.
Cambridge - full of [s]cyclists[/s] people on bikes FTFY
My cycling Utopia has it's downsides I've discovered. Shocking red light jumping, especially at pedestrian crossings, no lights at night, undertaking left turning vehicles where there are bicycle lanes.
Back to Nottinghams normal chaos tomorrow!
MCTD, it's hell on earth if you are another road user. I see it from both sides as I have to go in by car sometimes for work and by bike sometimes for fun/ease of travelling. Theft is another _HUGE_ problem, so forget about keeping a decent bike in the city and actually using it for commuting. I used to play "spot the decent bike" round town, but gave up after a while. Just buy a 10 quid cheapy from eBay and use that.
Work-wise it's good though. I like it here and I con't even work in the city.
Just got back from a week working in Cambridge, local cyclists are terrifying in their complete lack of fear for their life from large metal objects.
Although I will say this does seem to have caused the local car drivers to be a little more cautious.
The bike path -> roundabout transitions are all insane though, much too close to the roundabout to safely make a right hand turn. Whatever town planner designed them needs a good boot to the delicates.
The town planner (if one ever existed) probably died a long while ago. Cambridge grew rather than got planned. Like a rash. Or an infection.
[i]rocket - Member
And yes, unfortunately if you live in Cambridge you better forget about MTB - its a rare treat for me now after having years of doorstep trails in Bristol, so I've been dragged to the darkside..[/i]
I moved from Cambridge to Ely last year and going to one of the best mtb citys to the fens was a shock. Thetford's only 30mins away and Woburn an hour and whilst they would be fine for riding from the door they aren't exciting enough for me to drive there regularly.
Students account for a large majority of the reckless cycling in Cambridge, it was the same in Bristol.
Believe it or not there is quite an active MTB following in Cambridge. CAMMTB ride twice a week from the Town Centre, generally riding 25-30 miles on the highways & byways of Cambridgeshire with a pub stop somewhere. On a well planned route we can even get 1200ft. of climbing in-hardly the Alps I know but it does add a bit of variety!
The mud though, it can be a bit gruesome in Winter.
Have to agree with the reckless cycling though. The best time is when the language students arrive , hire their bikes for the season & then proceed to cause absolute carnage-scary stuff watching a gaggle of them at a major junction.