Is your town biker friendly?

[GTscootz]

I don't live there any more but Bristol opened up its Bus lanes to bikes/scooters back in the early 90s..

[sad vampire]

Farnborough bus lanes aren't open to bikers, & the traffic wardens have been known to ticket motorbikes & scooters parked in the motorbike parking zones in the car parks (I contacted the council about this & the question of whether it was free to park there or not had to be passed up several levels before someone on high deemed that they are indeed free to park in).

Guildford bus lanes don't allow motorbikes, but the motorbike spaces are free (watch out though as the ones in car parks have a box painted around them that is too short for a maxi-scooter just so you can be ticketed).

[Whatsisname]

It's been debated at county level with noises about improved traffic flows, but so far, Weymouth is the only place in Dorset with biker friendly bus lanes. Most car parks have free designated bike areas (usually odd-shaped corners) rather than actual bays.

[MjW]

My town is biker friendly, but the bikers are very scooter unfriendly.


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[frankiej1949]

Correct me if I am wrong but Manchester does not appear to be biker friendly. I know back in 2012 they were waiting for the study report from London to decide whether or not to allow the use of bus lanes. Apparently though there are very few that are monitored and the rest are left to GM Police to enforce. Fortunately or unfortunately the police seem to be as rare as rocking horse s**t these days

[SpikeOne]

Cheltenham has special parking bays in the centre of town which used to be charged for, but no-one ever paid so they dropped that. They do have ground anchors though, which have special perspex window for putting your ticket in, (which conveniently got smashed beyond use during the first week and have been useless ever since).

Most of the car parks also have either a dedicated bike park area, or a piece of useless tarmac in the corner which can't be used for anything else, so bikes park there. Officially, you're supposed to buy a ticket and put it in your pocket so you have it if you are questioned by a warden, but, again, no-one ever bothers. I do sometimes park in a car space and feel guilty about not putting a ticket on, but hell, that makes up for the times when cars either park in the bike spaces or block you in anyway.

Bus lanes are for taxis and busses only from 7 to 7 and woe betide you if you use them.

One place that is not bike friendly in Cirencester, I turned my back on my bike, (quite literally), for 5 seconds whilst I played with the cash point and found a warden with a ticket in his hands when I turned back. I try to steer clear of Cirencester if I can.

[sad vampire]

Pulled into a few pubs with "no bikers" signs on them during my travels, never refused service, but then again it probably only applies to male bikers. Dunno about hotels, never seen such a sign on any of them, again, I'd ignore the sign & just smile, it always works.

Garages around here started requiring bikers to take helmets off, but I refuse to since it means getting my hair all messed up. Doubt I'd be considered much of a threat anyway.

[spaceprobe]

Do remember that all UK airports offer free bike parking (Heathrow terminal 5 bike area is very nice). You can get a good size wheelie bag on the back of a maxi scooter. On another note some years ago I was staying at a posh 5 star country house hotel. The carpark was lined with a box for each car, so I parked the bike in one. I then happened to be in reception when some old dear starting screaming that there was not a car parking space available because a bike was parked in one and that is was not right. I offered to take her outside to show her the paid for tax disc that was on the bike

[bornagainbiker]

A while back I called Newcastle City Council and they do not allow motorbikes\scooters in their Bus lanes but we do have a few 'No Car Lanes', where as it states everyone is allowed except cars, excluding taxis.

[SOOTYGULL]

In Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and Italy they seem to be scooter/bike friendly in their attitudes, they know we help in reducing congestion etc

Not only that but their trains, trams and buses are all superb and low cost - In germany, I paid just under 6 euros for 24 hours bus and tram travel for a family of four !

In Holland recently the double decker trains had free wifi, tv screens at both ends of the carriages so you could see the name of each station coming up and the buses had tv screens showing the name of each bus stop.

Also the ticket prices were all fixed so no working out the best deal as there was only one deal - the right low fare.

They are all run by the same companies like Arriva that run our buses and trains.

Hold on a minute .... aren't we in Europe as well ?

If so can't we have nice low fares, clean buses, trains and stations like they do ?

Oh no of course, I forgot we won the war didn't we ?