Bradford Cyclists none Existant?

Seen more mobility scooters using them than I have bikes.

 

According to the cycle groups they are telling the council there are hundreds if not thousands needing needing more and more cycle ways.

 

I have a bike that I ride for leisure and I tend to use the cycle way on the canal. There isn't much leisure in cycling up Wakefield Road, I would have to be a semi pro cyclists to get up there.

And there is your issue, Bradford is like a big bowl, there is a large elevation change in most directions. Bradford to Shipley is pretty flat, then on to Saltaire and Bingley and through to Keighley.

Go beyond there and it becomes very hilly.
Thornton, Heaton, wrose, Bolton Junction, Odsal, Eldwick, Long Lee, Great Horton, Eccleshill, Tong, Thornbury, Queensbury, well pretty much the rest of the district is uphill.

To get to my work I would see an elevation change of about 500ft. I would end up in an office with no shower and I would stink, there is no proper transport link to make half the journey.

For most cycling is not an option, public transport isn't even an option and to be told it is, is usually by people who simply won't listen nor want to listen because it is OK for them so it's OK for everyone else.

Cycling works in London because it is flat. It doesn't work here because cycling up wakefield road is not an option.

 

Cyclists who use the public roads and highways should have to have insurance like motorists and motorcycles,

 

I've been up and down Wakefield Road since they built that cycle lane several times, and during those time I have seen 1 cyclist who was actually riding on the pavement. I have never seen anyone actually use the cycle lane which have been setup there. It's no real suprise because it start half way up the bottom end on a steep section of road.

I'm willing to bet that no one who actually approved this and championed it's implementation have ever rode it.

 

Passed a dozen cyclists travelling up Lothersdale Road towards Elslack this morning.

 

Due to the success of the other parts they are starting the next section but have dropped the bit to the BRI due to it being up hill

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/20907505.consultation-cycleway-will-link-city-centre-west-bradford-begins/

 

Define "Success".

I've never seen anyone on the Wakefield Road section of the cycle route probably because like the BRI it is up a massive hill. It is also dangerous driving up Thornton Road in a car, nevermind on a bike. Some of the worst driving I have ever seen has taken place on that road.

 

It was a sarcastic 'success'

 

All it has done is reduce the road to 2 lanes and cause tailbacks especially at the roundabout at the bottom of Wakefield Road. Let's face it who in their right minds would want to cycle around Bradford. You wouldn't want to ride a bike on the dodgems at peel Park would you?

 

There should be an audit done to tell us roughly how many people actually use these cycle lanes into the City centre. I get the need to take traffic off the roads but I can count on two hands the amount of people I've seen using those lanes. For a start the quality of driving in Bradford is horrendous, who in their right mind would take their life in their hands on those roads. Then theres actual routes, unless it's Shipley to Bradford they are all up and down hills. And you find it's a certain working demographic or young lads who usually bike into town centres either for education or work. Bradford isn't like Leeds, it doesn't attract the sort of professions where bike use is prevalent.
Still, they'll find some money that's been rignfenced for more stupid projects, the council is great at such things.

 

When there is a publicity campaign for using public transport or cycling it would never be possible for me to try. How do you get a van full of tradesman equipment to varying sites on a bus. Unfortunately it is not possible to leave equipment on site either due to security. Unless I change vocation I have to continue to sit in queues admiring the empty cycle lanes

 

You don't need an audit, a simple drive up Wakefield road tells you all you need to know. For the use the cycle lanes get, they could be standard car lanes and the cars could pass any cyclists on by using the next lane once of twice a day when required.

 

I thought I'd read somewhere that the money used to pay for these white elephant cycle lanes was ring fenced money from Europe. It could only be used for such schemes, I may be wrong.