Cycleways - How To Waste Money and Annoy Lots of People

Should you build if you can't afford to maintain?
It's very simple.  Build a cycleway then fail to maintain it, clean it or keep it free of parked vehicles.

Some cycleways around here are so covered in rocks (spat out by vehicle tyres), leaves and thorns (from overhanging trees) and floodwater (from blocked drains) that it's actually safer to ride on the road.

This annoys the cyclists, who know there's a perfectly good cycleway nearby.  It annoys the drivers who don't understand why the cyclists are not using the perfectly good cycleway.  And it annoys everyone because of the waste of money.

Should Local Authorities build cycleways if they can't keep their existing ones in decent condition?


Good practice was in evidence when I rode the Sustrans Cycleway 78 from Oban to Corran Ferry and home on Saturday in heavy rain and poor visibility.

Maintenance was due to start soon on a section which is collapsing.  I believe this is Highland Council's area, so top marks.

Some sections however, particularly those which ran alongside the road, were covered in stones spat out by vehicles, and the winter winds had brought down quite a few branches.

On balance though I felt much safer than had I been tangling with traffic.

There were only a two short sections where I had to go on the main road; shortly after Oban to Connel and a 2mile section around Duror - the bit where the two Local Authority boundaries meet.

Incidentally, that new Pearl Izumi jacket was superb and the shoe covers fairly good when it came to keeping me dry in the downpour.  I'll write more about them in future posts.

There are other bits of cycleway which fare less well.  When I next ride those I'll post photos, but for now the Oban to Ballachulish section of route 78 gets a thumbs up from me.

Oban to Corran Ferry and home