“The cycle path runs parallel to the Oxford Ring Road. It is a good cycle path for avoiding a very busy road. The cycle path then joins Iffley road, where the council have recently painted a cycle lane on. But cars often come off the roundabout at quite a high speed. At the end of the cycle path, you have to take great care joining the road, as it is quite narrow.”

If only the council would extend the cycle path a little, they could make it a much better transition to the on road cycle-path.

Nine years later

Nine years later, the council have done it! They have extended the cycle path along the grass verge. When the new cycle path ends, it is safer for entering the road. it is wider, and at this point, there is a cycle path painted on the road.

It makes for a seamless transfer from the cycle path which goes around the ring road and onto Iffley Road.

Sometimes as cycle bloggers, we make fun of short cycle lanes which don’t really go anywhere.

But, this one in Oxford is an example of a short cycle path which makes a positive difference.

Of course, I still think there is room to keep the cycle path going along the grass verge so you don’t have to go on the road. This might encourage more people to cycle if it is segregated lane – rather than integrated with road. But, then beyond the end of this picture, there is a junction where you would have to rejoin the road anyway.

It’s nice to be able to complement improved cycle provision – even if it is only a modest improvement.

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All my cycling has been on my commuting bike within the Oxford ring road. It is mainly a commute into town. It has slowly grown from a 2.5-mile commute to a 4.0 mile commute (which makes around 8 miles a day). The extra 1.5 mile has made a big difference to the enjoyment of the cycling and benefits to fitness.

Firstly, I took a detour to avoid the main roads and to be able to cycle on the excellent river towpath. It’s all flat, no traffic and wide enough. It also has fantastic views over Christ Church Meadow.

However, the flat cycle path wasn’t quite enough. Almost unconsciously I found myself taking a detour up two short hills (around Rose Hill). The roads are very quiet and off the beaten track.

The first hill is called Tree Lane and then there is a descent down a bumpy private road. Then around the corner in Iffley Village, there is another hill called Adderbury Lane.

This is a road to nowhere. In fact, it even has a very convenient roundabout at the top – perfect for a mini timetrial course. Each hill takes about a minute and a half, with one minute of descent in between.

The extra leg takes three to four minutes and gives a good high-intensity workout. It’s not full pelt like the old hill climbing training of old. But, it gets the heart going and it has a big effect on mood and fitness. It is just enough to get the benefits of exercise, without over-doing it for the troublesome hip.

I looked on Strava and no one in the history of Strava has done such a counter-intutive route It makes no sense if the object is to get from A to B. However, I really enjoy this three/four minutes of exercise. I didn’t really set out to do this route, it just kind of happened almost subconsciously.

On the way back, I do the same loop in reverse. I often have a pannier bag full of shopping. I’m wearing ordinary clothes and the commuting bike feels old, slow and creaky. But, it feels great.

It is like ‘old habits die hard’ – the commute mirrors on a much smaller scale my previous training rides – where invariably I would  be looking to ride every possible hill in the vicinity – even if it meant doing a U-turn at the top of the hill.

After writing this article, I googled ‘3-minute high-intensity exercise’ and found some articles which suggest there is scientific backing to this idea.

• Can three minutes of exercise a week help you get fit? at BBC

So I guess the point of this post – is what hill could you tack on to your daily commute?

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I’ve been a big fan of clip-on mudguards for many years. However, they do have a habit of breaking after several years of use. Parking bikes in Oxford is a bit rough and tumble, so these flexible mudguards tend to get a bit battered.

With my rear mudguard snapped in half, it was a good excuse to upgrade to the latest model – Race Blade Pro XL.

The main issue for clip-on mudguards is – can I get them to stay in a good position without them starting to rub the tyres or part of the frame? The front mudguard is often a testing challenge because on my old racing bike (Trek  1000 from the 1990s) has quite a small clearance between wheel and front fork.

This model of Race Blade XL comes with a small Allen key to adjust the settings of direction and length of the mudguard. This allows for considerable adjustment and a good degree of accuracy in adjusting the mudguards. It is also quite secure as you can tighten up the bolts quite tight. The other part of getting the setup right is fixing the bracket to the front fork and rear stays. It comes with one strong rubber gripper.

Aweakness is that the mudguard clips don’t quite fit the rear stays or fork. It does not fit flush, but grips either side. I looked in the manual and there was a very small picture suggesting you can adjust it. But for the life of me, I couldn’t see how to do it. It looks rigid and not able to change. However, although aesthetically it is a little disappointing, it doesn’t really matter, as the grip is strong enough not to move – even though it doesn’t fit quite properly. I ride over rough cobbles and bikes paths with no discernable movement.

I parked my bike in town and it seems the Race Blade XL is quite popular. Another user had same issue of not quite fitting rear stays.

After a few days of use, I have had the odd rubbing of mudguard on the front wheel, but some further adjustments and it seems no problems.

The clearance at the back is quite good – you can see the flap adds considerable distance.

The drawback to these easy to fit mudguards is that there is no protection from brake to the down tube. This means you get some spray towards the down tube and your trousers. But, for riding in a pack of cyclists, they are very good.

WIth a RRP of £49.99, they are quite pricey, but I have seen them on sale for £29.99 – a considerable reduction from the RRP.

Conclusion

They are a good buy. They are easy to fit and provide excellent coverage. You won’t get any snide comments riding in a pack. They also seem a good upgrade on the similar model I bought several years ago.

SKS Race Blade Pro at Evans

SKS Race Blade Pro at Wiggle

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The path used to get very muddy in winter, making it unattractive as a place to cycle. Also, it used to be about two people wide. The council have widened the path by a couple of feet (making it effectively three people wide). They have also laid a new surface – tarmac with loose chippings.

Both improvements make a big difference. The chippings are not slippy (unless perhaps you were racing), but they do slow you down by 1 or 2 mph compared to smooth tarmac. But, given it is a shared path, that is a good thing. The extra two feet makes a big difference. As you can now pass a couple on the path without them having to move. The extra space is great for both cyclists, pedestrians, dog walkers and rowing coaches who cycle slowly along the path looking at the river and not where they are going.

I am trying to do more cycling, but usually don’t feel like a ‘proper ride’ So I have been getting more miles in by relying on cycling into town and around Oxford. I have started cycling to Iffley lock – which is in the opposite direction to town, but you then get an interrupted run along the river path all the way to Abingdon Road. It has increased the commute from 2.5 miles to 4.0 miles, but it hardly takes any longer. The shortest route has quite a few crossings and traffic lights. The longer way on the path is much less interrupted. I go at a steady pace on the path, but it is quicker because you aren’t waiting for minutes at lights and junctions. It’s not rocket science, but when we measure the time of a journey, we tend to look closely at a distance rather than average speed.

In this age of austerity, it is great the council are able to pay for a project like this. It is a relatively small investment but has made a big improvement in the quality of commuting. The biggest advantage of course is that you can cycle without any traffic. Sometimes you need to slow at pinch points – for when crews bring out boats to the river or if there are many people on the path, but I’m not in a rush and happy to go slow.

Views from the cycle path

The other side of the river

St Mary’s Church and Radcliffe Camera

Mid winter and frost.

Autumn at the Head of the River.

Related

• How to plan cycle routes
• Cycle lanes

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Since I have not pumped up my tyres for several weeks, I decided this must be the source of my slowness. So I thought I would make use of a public-spirited free bike pump on Magdalen Bridge.

It’s an excellent idea to provide free air. As you can often need a bike pump in town. Anyway, I attached the tyre, but all it succeeded in doing was letting all the air out. Unfortunately, it didn’t work at pumping air back in – so I was left with a flat tyre. Public goods, free at the point of use is a great concept – even if leaves you stranded in town. You half expect to see a bike pump with requires a credit card payment for 50 seconds use.

So I had to walk all the way to the other end of town to the ever generous Bike Zone who kindly lent a pump, which enabled me to get home.

If you’ve wondered why I have only written five cycling blogs this year, this episode of a non-working public bike pump is about as interesting as my cycling experiences have been.

It seems my cycling friends are managing epic rides. Team-mate Vilas Silverton cycled 5,000km+ across the continent of Australia. Michael Broadwith did a short ride too.

I did toy with writing about procycling, but the bandwidth expended for Chris Froome’s adverse analytic finding which was dropped – has always been much more than enough already. I think the episode could be summed up by C.Prudhomme’s “All that for this?”

I am still doing a bit of exercises (egoscue) to try and cure the long-standing hip problem. I have also found some yoga exercises called the “Fountain of Youth“. It is supposed to keep your body young so if I ever get round to racing as a veteran I will have the body of a 30 year old, marvellous!

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It is 30 degrees plus here in Oxford. It is also exam season with many students making their way to exams on the High Street. Some cycle in sub-fusc to save a few minutes for extra revision. I always remember cycling to exams. Walking from LMH was too far.

Last minute revision or getting a good luck text?

Good to see Oxford Professor’s on their bicycles, but I don’t know what Drag2Zero would make of those cycling clothes.

young, old and students.

High Street

Queens Lane, at least buses are not allowed down here.

A low speed swerve. 

Early morning heat.

Sometimes you snatch fragments of conversations from passing students. “I hope translation question doesn’t come up. If translation comes up, I’m stuffed!”

Huge traffic jams meant the bus traffic was anything but quick.

It’s quicker by bike.

M&S bag for signalling right.

Broad Street.

Cycling away from exams.

All sorts.

Cyclist.

Pink carnation for an exam in the middle.

Turning right.

A rare cyclist with a helmet.

Sunglasses.

You can’t really see, but this student is holding mortar board in hand.

You’re not allowed to wear your mortar board until after you pass exams, but you have to take it with you.

Not sure I recommend this mode of travel.

Turning right.

High Street.

Related

Oxford Photos

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One of my favourite spots for taking photos of cyclists in Oxford is on Broad Street, in particular this crossroads by the Bodleian library. The reason is that through traffic is prohibited so over 50% + of traffic are cyclists.

There are a few delivery lorries, so it’s not quite a cyclist paradise, but compared to your average inner city road it is quite peaceful.

It is interesting to just listen. Sometimes a few minutes can go by without any vehicular traffic, and you just hear the whir of bicycle wheels –   very civilised!

Previously the junction was controlled by traffic lights, though traffic lights felt a little over-bearing given the nature of the traffic on the road.

It could lead to queues of cyclists, (which did make quite good photos)

Now the experiment is to get rid of traffic lights and just rely on people using their common sense. It hasn’t even been marked into a proper roundabout.

Generally, it seems to work OK. Occasionally some vans approach with too much speed, but generally it feels fairly safe. Without any lights, it puts the emphasis on the road user to check everything is OK before proceeding.

It’s interesting to see the difference in philosophy. One road campaigner (whose name I forget) said the most successful road design was to reduce the number of signs, markings e.t.c. because then road users felt they were in more of a pedestrian area and therefore drove more carefully as a result. If everything is marked out and signed, you feel like a train running on tracks. I know some cycle lanes which makes drives think as long as they stay out of cycle lanes they can overtake as close as possible.

Anyway back to Broad Street junction, these are some photos from past few days, to give a flavour of the junction.

The only incident I’ve seen was this tourist walking out onto road without looking – nearly knocking off this cyclist. I was impressed this particular cyclist was very tolerant and patient, she didn’t even get cross. Unfortunately, tourists standing in the middle of the road or walking in the road – oblivious to any surroundings – is an occupational hazard of cycling in Oxford. It is best to accept it, be a little patient and go around them. Even ringing a bell doesn’t make any difference!

Overall I do prefer the new arrangement. It requires 20mph speed zones and just makes drivers and cyclists think a little more. It’s also good because often you wanted to filter left through a red traffic light because there was no good reason to wait.

Related

• A guide to cycle lanes

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The two cyclists were joining up with a big group, meeting in centre of Oxford who were going for a long ride. That was my training for the day – 2 miles at a 16mph. I have a race tomorrow at Burrington Combe, though I’m not looking forward to it because I’m unfit and still carrying an injury.

It’s good to see so many cyclists meet up for Saturday training.

Only 8 days until the National Hill Climb Championship in Matlock. Next week, I shall continue with my three month tapering plan. I’m now glad it’s a short hill. Should be all over in three minutes. Hope I don’t get caught by my minute man.

The post A free ride into town appeared first on Cycling uphill.

• By 2031, Transport for London estimate a 60% increase in congestion in the capital (link)
• UK Gov (2015 report) state they predict road congestion to increase between 19% to 55% growth between 2010 and 2040.

The UK (especially in South) has a high population density. Building new roads is either not possible or undesirable because of the desire to protect remaining green spaces. With limited supply of roads, rising demand for travel – both car and HGV use will see congestion rise significantly.

Costs of congestion

Already, the UK economy experiences high social costs from congestion. These include

• Longer journey times, which has both economic and time cost for business and consumers.
• Air pollution from burning fuel in jams.
• Lost business for city centre shops who see customers put off travelling due to congestion.

Congestion and growth of cycling

• The growth of cycling in London is at least partly driven by gridlock on London roads. For commuters weighing up different options for travel to work, the higher the time lost through traffic jams, the more attractive the alternative cycling is.
• Congestion at peak times in Oxford is a big incentive to cycle into work. This is helped by a a limited and patchy offering of cycle lanes. (I wouldn’t call it a network as that would imply it is fully integrated). But, in some places it is just enough to help cyclists avoid the worst congestion.

In a sense congestion does became self-regulating. As time taken to drive in city centres increases, the more people will be tempted to seek alternative ways. Though if there aren’t reasonable alternatives, you can end up with serious gridlock, like you can see in some cities.

Cycling has its own congestion

I suppose if cycle rates increase so much, it has it’s own congestion. But, generally this is much less serious because of less space taken up.

Does cycling cause congestion itself?

I remember hearing a Top Gear commentator complain that cyclists increase congestion because they are slower moving and motorists have to travel slower.

I seriously doubt this. If nothing else look at the pictures of Oxford at peak hour and imagine every cyclist in a car and the relative more space they would take up. See space taken by cyclists. If every Oxford cyclist drove a car, I’m sure the city would have really bad gridlock at peak hours.

Bicycles take up much less space and are much easier to overtake than other cars. Cars rarely take more than a few seconds to overtake a cyclist (I know because it happens every day). Even if you have to wait 10 seconds to over take a bike, you can soon catch up the back of other traffic on the road. As a motorist I can’t say my journey has ever had any serious delay because of cyclists.

Will congestion always lead to increase in cycling?

• Congestion is no guarantee that you will see a growth in cycling. Some of the cities with the worst levels of congestion – e.g Mumbai, Beijing have seen falling rates of cycling because there is a lack of suitable infrastructure for cyclists. It is possible that congestion which makes cycling feel less safe.
• There is terrible congestion in New York, but would I feel safe cycling on America’s six lane roads with the way Americans drive? It’s a tough choice.

Problems of higher traffic level

For a city commuter, higher congestion is providing an incentive to take up cycling. Even city planners are starting to take more seriously the need for alternatives to the car, and are given greater consideration to cyclists in cities.

However, a downside in the growth of traffic levels is that in rural areas, increasing traffic volumes are making cycling less attractive. The higher traffic levels are not enough to cause gridlock in the cities, but they are enough to change the traffic density of roads.

There was a time on the traditional Sunday club run where you would rarely come across cars, but now higher traffic levels have increased the problem of motorists and cyclists sharing the road. Impatient cars seeking to overtake. Cyclists riding two abreast will be more of a flash point with increasing traffic levels.

Racing. As a racing cyclist, I’m always very conscious of traffic levels. In fact time trials are governed by a rule that if traffic levels increase above a certain density then the course cannot be used. Rising traffic levels will lead to roads being unsuitable, or at least not suitable on Saturday afternoon. You do feel the future for cycle races is everything early on a Sunday morning.

Not the end of the world

As a cyclist you do become quite sensitive to traffic levels. The cycling idyll would be virtually car free roads, which are safer and more pleasant to cycle on. However, when you get out on the roads, it’s not always so bad cycling in higher traffic levels than you would like.

There are still parts of the UK, where traffic levels are very light. Even in Oxfordshire some minor roads can be quite quiet through the day.

Related

• My annual grumble that fuel duty should be increased – Economics Blog
• Congestion in the bicycle lanes

The post Congestion and cycling appeared first on Cycling uphill.

Spotted in London. Two cycle paths next to each other.

Take your choice. Share the pavement with pedestrians and dogs on leads, or share the road with taxis and lorries passing close by.

Neither seem particularly appealing from this photo.

I tend to avoid shared cycle paths on pavements because

• I like to cycle relatively fast. On shared pavements, you feel out of place going above 10 mph.
• You often get pedestrians in the middle of shared pavements, and they rarely have a sympathetic view of cyclists.
• The path on the left looks a little dodgy in the wet navigating the change of surfaces. At least they haven’t built a lampost in the middle of the cycle path.
  
• Crap Cycle Lanes at Amazon.uk
• The main reason I avoid shared cycle paths are all the junctions which go through the cycle path. I’d never trust a vehicle to respect the cycle path. So effectively you have to give way all the time. You can see what I mean on Botley Road.

Still some people may much prefer this to the road, so it might encourage some people to start cycling who otherwise wouldn’t feel safe on the road.

It’s easy to complain

It’s easy to complain and wish we had something perfect. You can imagine some town planner saying – we provide two cycle paths and they still complain!

Perhaps one merged together separated from the road would be best. Not sure how much protection a blue foot of paint and a white line are.

Better than no cycle paths.

Still better than nothing. It’s harder for people to say cyclists don’t deserve to be on road / pavement, when you have cycle paths.

Related

• A guide to cycle paths
• A good cycle path

p.s. thanks to parents for photo from London.

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