r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	Scunnered20
Comment	Been meaning to reply to a couple of your points here for a few days, and just getting round to it! > I need to walk 15 mins to the train into Queen street, or maybe 7 for a bus to somewhere in town, never used it to know where it goes. Unless I misunderstand the situation, this doesn't sound so bad? A 15 minute walk for the train could be shorter, but it's not that bad is it? And do you mean a 7 minute walk for a bus? That's hardly anything! Maybe I misunderstand. >Netherlands and Denmark. 2 countries that are significantly flatter than Glasgow/UK. I hear this all the time and it's a bit of a red herring. We have hills, but no one is planning to build our cycling network on hills. Much of our existing road infrastructure, particularly the wide, flat main roads in Glasgow are built to avoid hills. This is normal in cities all over the world and goes way way back in time to early days of laying out our road networks. Transit corridors tend to follow as flat a path as possible for economy of movement. [If you look at the plans for the future city network of cycle lanes in Glasgow, the vast, vast majority are planned for relatively flat roads](https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=29054). > Not in as much of a rush as us brits always seem to be... It all depends on exactly where you are and is not true of absolutely every situation, but for journeys within 2-3 miles of a city's core, whether Glasgow or almost any other city, cycling really does tend to be much faster than any other mode. This is something that doesn't seem to be widely understood or appreciated by people who don't cycle for transport - and I'll be honest and say it really surprised me how much quicker cycling is than taking the bus or even driving into town when I started! For example, I find I can reliably predict the length of my cycle commute down to the minute or so (usually it's 18 mins) from my front door to office. It never really deviates from this. Meanwhile an equivalent bus trip could be anything between 25 and 45 mins or longer if traffic is really bad. Driving can also vary hugely depending on traffic, from 20 mins to 45 mins. I find the reason for this is down to the fact that so much of the journey is segregated from other traffic. Sure there are occasional traffic lights that I have to wait in just like cars and buses, but these are few and far between, because the rest of the route is made up of a path through a park, quiet side streets, and segregated cycle lanes that bypass traffic completely. My point here is that this stuff (the infrastructure to support cycling) really does make a difference to people's journeys, especially if you connect it up. It makes cycling a doddle, and the more places that the infrastructure can take you across the city, the more appealing it is to do it.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/10q5za7/hate_towards_cyclists_on_social_media/j76s7l0/
Created	Sat 4th Feb 2023 2:50pm
Status	normal ()

Been meaning to reply to a couple of your points here for a few days, and just getting round to it!

> I need to walk 15 mins to the train into Queen street, or maybe 7 for a bus to somewhere in town, never used it to know where it goes.

Unless I misunderstand the situation, this doesn't sound so bad? A 15 minute walk for the train could be shorter, but it's not that bad is it? And do you mean a 7 minute walk for a bus? That's hardly anything! Maybe I misunderstand.

>Netherlands and Denmark. 2 countries that are significantly flatter than Glasgow/UK.

I hear this all the time and it's a bit of a red herring. We have hills, but no one is planning to build our cycling network on hills. Much of our existing road infrastructure, particularly the wide, flat main roads in Glasgow are built to avoid hills. This is normal in cities all over the world and goes way way back in time to early days of laying out our road networks. Transit corridors tend to follow as flat a path as possible for economy of movement. [If you look at the plans for the future city network of cycle lanes in Glasgow, the vast, vast majority are planned for relatively flat roads](https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=29054).

> Not in as much of a rush as us brits always seem to be...

It all depends on exactly where you are and is not true of absolutely every situation, but for journeys within 2-3 miles of a city's core, whether Glasgow or almost any other city, cycling really does tend to be much faster than any other mode. This is something that doesn't seem to be widely understood or appreciated by people who don't cycle for transport - and I'll be honest and say it really surprised me how much quicker cycling is than taking the bus or even driving into town when I started!

For example, I find I can reliably predict the length of my cycle commute down to the minute or so (usually it's 18 mins) from my front door to office. It never really deviates from this. Meanwhile an equivalent bus trip could be anything between 25 and 45 mins or longer if traffic is really bad. Driving can also vary hugely depending on traffic, from 20 mins to 45 mins.

I find the reason for this is down to the fact that so much of the journey is segregated from other traffic. Sure there are occasional traffic lights that I have to wait in just like cars and buses, but these are few and far between, because the rest of the route is made up of a path through a park, quiet side streets, and segregated cycle lanes that bypass traffic completely.

My point here is that this stuff (the infrastructure to support cycling) really does make a difference to people's journeys, especially if you connect it up. It makes cycling a doddle, and the more places that the infrastructure can take you across the city, the more appealing it is to do it.