CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

"Let's rescue Britain's forgotten 1930s protected cycleways"

(16 posts)

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  1. Stickman
    Member

    Kickstarter project from the ever-fascinating Carlton Reid:

    In the 1930s, Britain's Ministry of Transport commissioned the building of 500-miles of protected cycleways. Between 1934 and 1940 at least 280-miles of these innovative cycleways were actually built, usually both sides of the new "arterial roads" springing up all over the country.

    Some of these cycleways still exist, but they are not today understood to be cycle infrastructure: they should be rededicated. Others are buried under a couple of inches of soil: they could be excavated.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carltonreid/lets-rescue-britains-forgotten-1930s-protected-cyc/description

    Posted 6 years ago #

  2. PS
    Member

    Anyone any idea where exactly the "A1/Longniddry" section identified on the map is? Presumably it's next to the old A1...

    Posted 6 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    Inc Longniddry

    https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1yoi-eZVATatYQfhMiKh4PpaSQro&hl=en&ll=53.740408485742506%2C-2.1884652999999616&z=6

    Posted 6 years ago #

  4. SimonS
    Member

    North side of the A198 dual carriageway to the west of the village?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  5. Arellcat
    Moderator

    No doubt about it. Check out the 1958/59 1:2500 map west of Longniddry on the A198:

    https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/343136/675209/12/100954

    I had no idea!

    Posted 6 years ago #

  6. PS
    Member

    Looks like that has already been lost to the dual carriageway, then?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  7. jonty
    Member

    Not quite: https://goo.gl/maps/RMFSG2At2uJ2

    Bit close though...

    Posted 6 years ago #

  8. ih
    Member

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/may/09/how-80-forgotten-1930s-cycleways-could-transform-uk-cycling

    Posted 6 years ago #

  9. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    Is the Longniddry one the path paralleling the dual carriageway eastbound? If so, it's horribly bumpy to ride.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  10. amir
    Member

    It certainly is very bumy - ever since they resurfaced it a year or so ago. I did make a comment but I didn't follow up. Obviously nothing done about but a very poor job. I use the dual carriageway or more likely avoid completely.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  11. SRD
    Moderator

    I've only ever ridden it with the kids, so we stayed on the path but it is, as you say, horribly bumpy and incomfortable to ride.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  12. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I've cycled that path only once, and it just about turned me incomfortable too.

    Why is it so difficult to create a cycling surface free of undulations, when you can drive on a motorway and marvel at the smoothness*? The Broomhouse cycle expressway is very rippley in places, but the Stenhouse section is as good as anything I've encountered**.

    * Apart from the A90 north of Perth
    ** Burnt out motorbikes notwithstanding

    Posted 6 years ago #

  13. Stickman
    Member

    Why is it so difficult to create a cycling surface free of undulations, when you can drive on a motorway and marvel at the smoothness*?

    The section from Pinkhill to Balgreen was beautifully smooth when opened but is already breaking up with tree roots.

    New bit of M8 is (currently) perfect.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  14. threefromleith
    Member

    @arellcat I play a lovely game of 'Slalom Cycling' along the Bankhead section of the path, sweeping left & right to avoid the rippled, bumpy surfaces patchworking the original, much smoother surface.*

    Such a pity they always manage to ruin a good cycling surface when they have to dig bits up & reinstate them.

    *I can only do this around 6.20 - 6.30am-ish, when there's usually no-one else around on the path. Other times I have to let the bike take a pounding!

    Posted 6 years ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052zgp6

    Posted 6 years ago #

  16. Blueth
    Member

    I seem to remember a fair bit beside the A8 etc when we drove to Hamilton decades ago.

    Posted 6 years ago #

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