Whereas cycling within the confines of greenfield housing developments may be comparatively safe, it’s another matter once you leave the area and venture out, especially if you want to travel to an out-of-town employment area or retail park, to the station, to the town centre or to a nearby town.
In a land of roundabouts and ring roads, of lorries and impatient commuters, cycling is not pleasant or safe. Country roads are busy and dangerous when cycling.
Some new-build housing areas are fortunate to have a riverside cycle path into town. We visited one near Swindon that did.
But in many cases, cycling into the centre or across town is far from easy. This is because there are few cycle paths and road systems are designed for cars. Segregated cycle lanes are rare outside city areas. No wonder you see cyclists on the pavements.
There needs to be a network of cycle routes in a town that is growing fast, to give people a safe alternative to driving. In England we got the impression that we are very behind Europe in terms of cycling infrastructure, outside of London.
These recently built apartments in Bath are part of a large development specifically around sustainable transport. Although visions and masterplans for urban extensions of towns out into the countryside may make great play of cycling, we found that cycle infrastructure in the wider area was generally limited. Many cyclists do not like to compete with traffic along main roads because of the danger.
