Oops! Must learn to read maps and remember routes....

[CrinklyLion]

So, a couple of weeks ago I set off and cycled to a site for work that I'd normally bus to.  About 3annahalf miles, all fine, not a very pleasant road but do-able.  I mentioned this to a friend, who said 'why not use the cycle path?'  There's a cycle path? Oh, one that goes within 2 minutes of my house and drops you onto relatively quiet road a couple of miles from my destination... that could work!  It adds a mile or so to the route, but that's not a problem if it's a pleasant ride.

So this morning I set off, armed with a vague notion of where I was going after a brief look at google maps and the sustrans site.  Except I got to a junction with a sign that told me to go left.  I though it seemed a bit odd, but believed the sign - I think this was my mistake.  A mile or so later the cycle path ends.  With no signage, in the middle of a housing estate.  There ensued a bit of 'hmmm, that way is vaguely the right direction'/'I can hear the dual carriageway over there and need to get to the other side of it'/'bus stop! What does the timetable say about where buses go from here?' style navigation.  A bit of google mappage tells me that I apparently cycled about 9 miles to work this morning!  Good job I set off early

[Redlight]

Sounds pretty typical of the average "cycle route" and one of the reasons why I tend not to use them.  Admitted, there are a few that are actually quite enjoyable rides in themselves but most seem to meander through back streets, housing estates, industrial estates etc. and add both time and distance to your journey.  Add in the lack of signage and you can understand why a lot of people try it once then give up.

[CrinklyLion]

Well, if I'd actually gone the way I was supposed to it would have been under 5 miles... so it was only the signage that was really a problem!

It was actually a very pleasant ride, apart from the 5 minutes that I was behind a bin lorry.  Bit of A road, bit of not too bad shared use path, bit of housing estate, few miles of lovely smooth and pretty if slightly narrow country road and only one daft juntion with an idiotic cycle route that I didn't know would be idiotic.

I actually got to work in a very good mood   

[Kim]

One of the major issues with cycle routes (at least when I attempt to follow them) seems to be strategic vandalism of the signage.  The local ruffians will rotate the few decent signs around their posts, with, as they say, hilarious consequences.

On a related note, I was pleasantly surprised that the NCN4 route through Bath was so well signposted the other week (to the point that I didn't need to refer to my GPS route at all).  Someone did a good job there.

[nuttycyclist]

Your problem was that you tried a cycle route 

[CrinklyLion]

Your problem was that you tried a cycle route 

I'm just struggling to see it as a problem   I accidentally did 4 or 5 miles extra on my detour, it was fairly pleasant cycling for the most part, I got to work about half an hour later than I'd planned and therefore did less free overtime... s'all good, really!

[Tewdric]

The official cycle route finding ninja-test is getting onto the Avonmouth M5 bridge, approaching from the south!

[Morrisette]

The official cycle route finding ninja-test is getting onto the Avonmouth M5 bridge, approaching from the south!

Or the mysterious 'Quy tunnel' in Cambridgeshire....went past it on the bus for six years before realising it was there!

[RichForrest]

Is that the one with "Route 51" signs on it   

[drossall]

It's great if you've got time and you don't mind a wander. However, if I'm actually trying to get somewhere in an unfamilar area, I would never trust a cycle path. They always dump you in an unfamiliar place with no onward signage, and it's not usually because of vandalism. If it was only vandalism, they'd paint the directions on the paths...

I remarked somewhere else that the designers just fail to apply road principles. When you drive from Watford to Rugby, you do not look for signs to St Albans, followed by Harpenden, followed by Luton, followed by Ampthill, and so on, and you would not be impressed at being dumped in a playpark, however nice, somewhere near Milton Keynes, and left to find your own onward route.

There are no signs in Watford to Rugby, so in fact you look for signs to "Birmingham" or "Leicester" or "the North" for most of your journey, even though you have no intention of going as far as any of those places.

In the same way, the only feasible way to signpost a cycle path is to point to the next town. Whether you actually believe that anyone wants to ride that far has nothing whatever to do with it. It's a direction indicator, not a compulsion to go all the way there. I'm at a loss to explain why, instead, councils signpost only the next village or destination, when they know that doesn't work on the road*.

In practical terms, then, riding across Milton Keynes is impossible because signs only ever go to the next destination, some minor area of the town that you have never heard of, when they should go to Aylesbury, Bedford and Luton. If they did that, you'd have half a chance of getting across town to Phil Corley's bike shop.

The cycle paths of MK must be full of the ghosts of visiting cyclists, still hunting for a sign, any sign, that actually points to Bradwell, where the youth hostel is located. Those signs do exist, but no sign in MK points to anywhere more than a mile away, so when you find them you are so close that you don't really need them any more.

Other towns are just the same in my experience.

To be fair, they also signpost "Town Centre", but not of course, the way back, unless you started out from very close to Town Centre.

[teethgrinder]

In practical terms, then, riding across Milton Keynes is impossible because signs only ever go to the next destination, some minor area of the town that you have never heard of, when they should go to Aylesbury, Bedford and Luton. If they did that, you'd have half a chance of getting across town to Phil Corley's bike shop.

The cycle paths of MK must be full of the ghosts of visiting cyclists, still hunting for a sign, any sign, that actually points to Bradwell, where the youth hostel is located. Those signs do exist, but no sign in MK points to anywhere more than a mile away, so when you find them you are so close that you don't really need them any more.

Milton Keynes is a maze. The roads are OK, if you are used to the grid system. The Redways are a muddled maze though. There are about 250 miles of Redway. Some are pretty good, but a lot of them are pretty bad. But they are very tricky to navigate.
If you need directions in Milton Keynes, let me know.
I live within a mile of the Youth Hostel and Phil Corley's. Oh, and the concrete cows.

[drossall]

I just use the road. That's a doddle...

[hellymedic]

Which Watford? 

[drossall]

Well, if you were following road signs, navigating from Watford, Northants to Rugby via St Albans would be very unlikely. However, if you had only cycle path signs to go by, I'd believe anything...

[Speshact]

One of the major issues with cycle routes (at least when I attempt to follow them) seems to be strategic vandalism of the signage.  The local ruffians will rotate the few decent signs around their posts, with, as they say, hilarious consequences.

Each time in my recent experience of stropping to councils about signs and road markings pointing the wrong way (in Westminster, Lambeth and St Austell) the ruffians have  been the contractors for cocking up the implementation and the council for paying them without checking the work has been done properly.

[RichForrest]

The other side of this is the cyclists that they are trying to get on bikes would say why is there a sign for Watford/Luton/St Albans etc in MK I only want to go to Woughton!
If you were going from Watford to Rugby by back roads though you wouldn't see a sign for Rugby until you were very close anyway. It's only on the long distance roads that have long distance signage   

[Hot Flatus]

The official cycle route finding ninja-test is getting onto the Avonmouth M5 bridge, approaching from the south!

I usually resort to Google earth satellite view for such challenges.

[drossall]

Rich - that's not really the point.

Roads have signs to major long-distance destinations and to lesser local ones. You follow the long-distance ones not to get to those places, but to get near enough to find the local signs that you actually want.

If, for example, the MK paths were signed like that, you'd have signs to Aylesbury and to the next village. To get to Phil Corley's, you'd follow signs to Aylesbury until you saw signs to Stacey Bushes, in just the same way as you drive towards Leicester until you see a sign to Rugby.

Only having signs to Leicester and Birmingham would be just as stupid as only having signs to the next village.