Your say / cycling
‘It is nonsense to say Bristol is one of the best places in the UK for cycling’
Every so often, the results of a survey with questionable methodology appear in the inbox of journalists and is duly reported without question.
I admit that on occasion, I have been guilty of publishing this nonsense, the latest of which by a bike insurance company claims that Bristol is the second best city in the UK for cyclists.
It is nonsense because it is so palpably untrue.
is needed now More than ever
I cycle hundreds of miles across Bristol every month and scarcely a day goes by when my life is not put in danger because of the fact that I get from A to B on two wheels.
This is not to say that our city does not have some good cycling infrastructure. Just take a ride down the segregated cycle lanes on Baldwin Street, Prince Street or Whitehouse Street for examples of what can be achieved by good planning.
We are also spoiled in Bristol by having the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, which has even had a recent glow-up.
And it is great to see a new cycle lane currently being built on Bristol Bridge and the so-called Old Market gap being made less, umm, gappy.
But sadly, these examples are still far too rare. ‘Bike lane bingo’ stickers made by Bristol artist Rtiiika sum up the situation well, with too many bike lanes ending suddenly, blocked by parked vehicles or even having trees in them.
If our bike lanes are this shoddy, no wonder it is sometimes safer to cycle on the roads.
View this post on Instagram
There is also the ongoing debacle of the Nelson Street contraflow cycle lane which was built with a lay-by in the middle of it and closed just over a week after it opened in May 2022.
The latest update is that the city council is hoping to introduce a permanent loading place.
Meanwhile, the cycle lane remains embarrassingly fenced off and a mini jungle of weeds grows up from between the paving slabs.
The Nelson Street cycle lane was closed only a week after it opened in May 2022 and remains fenced off – photo: Martin Booth
At least they tried – which is more to be said of most roads.
And don’t get me started on the virtually invisible cycle lanes through the centre constantly pitting cyclists against oblivious pedestrians, or the abject uselessness of those floppy plastic ‘wands’ on Upper Maudlin Street and Perry Road which are about as much use for protecting cyclists as a line of white paint.
My eight-year-old daughter and I cycle together to school every morning but we are incredibly lucky that we do not have to share the road with cars on any part of our journey of just over one mile.
Like our daily journey between the city centre and Hotwells, there are plenty of examples of routes where cycling across Bristol is a delight.
These should be celebrated but they are most definitely not the norm; and until they are, we should question any celebration of Bristol being one of the best places in the UK to cycle.
This is an opinion piece by Martin Booth, the Editor of Bristol24/7, who has all of his best ideas while cycling
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
- Three-quarters of people do not feel safe cycling in Bristol
- Bristol needs a ‘comprehensive’ network of protected cycle lanes
- Hundreds of people very politely demand safer cycling
- ‘Enabling people to walk, wheel and cycle safely should be the priority’
Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
