I think there must be a large disconnect in the UK between people who cycle and people who design road infrastructure. It's especially evident here in Cardiff, a city which by all accounts should be an amazing cycling city; largely flat, open, low-ish traffic, nice parks etc. But it's surprisingly terrible, either due to budget constraints or incompetence. I don't ride here any more, as I've found the risk just isn't worthwhile.
One of the most entertaining examples might well be this road, which is perfectly straight and about a mile long. It is perfect for cycling, and to any reasonably sensible person, an easy road to build a cycle lane on: https://goo.gl/maps/8FjYE67SCfM2
But see if you can spy where they actually built it. Not on the side of the road next to the railway, which is 1 mile of unbroken flat land with no junctions. That's where I'd build it (and you probably would too).
No, instead they built it outside the front entrance of the apartments that line the other side of the road, broken every 100 yards by a junction, with a fence directly across the cycle lane. So cyclists have to merge in and out of pedestrians, wait at junctions, and they're directly outside the front entrance of buildings, making residents cross the cycle path to get to the pavement.
The UK is such a land of contrasts. Are we pro cycling? Anti cycling? The record shows that we provided the world with its finest cyclists over the past decade, but the experience as a cyclist on the roads is not pleasant.
Are we pro-car? Anti-car? Driving is usually miserable anywhere but the hinterland, and yet we supply the world with almost all its F1 cars.
The answers seem so obvious and yet we struggle to bring about change. This is the land of Newton, Maxwell, Hawking for God's sake! Why is this land of progress yet so stunted in ambition? It confuses me.
Quite a few of team sky/team gb is from the same youth club in wales, Wiggins started as a track cyclist and froome never lived in the U.K. The yates' started cycling - according to Wikipedia - as a result of their dad getting HIT by a car. So a lot of the great UK cyclists have their roots in track - which was heavily supported (£££) before the 2012 olympics and served as the foundation for further investment by team sky - the richest team in cycling. GB's success in cycling defo doesn't correlate with cycleability of her roads.
People have a code of ethics about the correct way to behave on the roads. And the most aggressive nutty drivers tend to believe they are following those unwritten rules. And anyone who breaks that code is rude and selfish.
Actually British roads are a chaotic free-for-all. Some users tend to cooperate for their own benefit (cars) at the expense of other users (pedestrians and cyclists). This creates a culture that gives preferential treatment to motorists based on misplaced politeness. People hate to be seen as rude and selfish so they just go along with it. The only way to change that is to redefine what counts as rude behaviour. Driving cars in busy city centres would be a good start.
Racing vehicles (let's include bikes with that) are not really comparable with a daily commute though? If you assume that most bikes and cars are just trying to get to work or the grocery store the stark contrast seems a bit more muted.
I don't think it's just cycle infrastructure. In the UK we seem unable to do all infrastructure, it's not an engineering problem because as another comment has pointed out we have world class scientists and engineers, it must be a political and management problem. Compared to countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, we seem to just bodge our infrastructure rather than properly design it.
I think a large part of the problem comes from not having enough people with science/engineering backgrounds at high levels within politics, the civil service and local authorities. There is also the fact that science/engineering lacks respect and prestige in the UK.
In Nottingham our planning department seems obsessed with traffic lights. Positively anti-roundabout. They get rid of them whenever they can and litter every road with tons of traffic lights. I think at one point we counted 12 traffic lights between our flat and the train station, a 5 minute drive away without all the traffic lights.
There's even one roundabout that they turned into a traffic light hell and it keeps getting redesigned slightly because it sucks, but that just means for the last 10 years there's almost always some sort of works on it yet the west end of Woolaton road is just a constant traffic jam in rush hour:
That two planning departments in the same country can have such fundamentally different philosophies, that there's no consensus and still no consensus 20 years since I moved, boggles my mind.
One of the most entertaining examples might well be this road, which is perfectly straight and about a mile long. It is perfect for cycling, and to any reasonably sensible person, an easy road to build a cycle lane on: https://goo.gl/maps/8FjYE67SCfM2
But see if you can spy where they actually built it. Not on the side of the road next to the railway, which is 1 mile of unbroken flat land with no junctions. That's where I'd build it (and you probably would too).
No, instead they built it outside the front entrance of the apartments that line the other side of the road, broken every 100 yards by a junction, with a fence directly across the cycle lane. So cyclists have to merge in and out of pedestrians, wait at junctions, and they're directly outside the front entrance of buildings, making residents cross the cycle path to get to the pavement.
And don't even get me started on this magnificent idiocy: https://goo.gl/maps/8EBCSXXJHcP2