
300 miles of secret UK cycle paths have been discovered [audio] - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052zgp6
======
wonderous
Here's a text-based article, "How hundreds of miles of lost UK cycleways from
the 1930s have been rediscovered using Google Street View"

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4487592/Lost-...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4487592/Lost-
UK-cycleways-Google-Street-View.html)

~~~
swampthinker
The Daily Mail providing better information than the BBC, I never would've
guess it.

~~~
PJDK
For all it's many faults their policy of long descriptive headlines followed
by bullet point summaries is a model I wish all news sites followed!

Given their success I'm not sure why more don't.

~~~
IshKebab
And photos large enough to actually see. Very sad that the Daily Mail is
leading the way here.

~~~
logicallee
Perhaps real information is harder to source than fake info, and real news is
too scant to benefit from that format. Also why papers bury the lead. (To make
you read their hard work.) As an exercise go to the BBC and edit the first
three articles you find into that format - you will see why they don't want to
do it.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I.e. the interests of the readers are in conflict with interests of the paper.

Frankly, if they want to bury the lede to make me read their hard work, then
I'll gladly _not_ read the article at all, unless forced to (rare these days).

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hownottowrite
Ref: Kickstarter campaign mentioned at the end of the clip:
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carltonreid/lets-
rescue...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carltonreid/lets-rescue-
britains-forgotten-1930s-protected-cyc)

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pbhjpbhj
There must be quite a lot of data from cyclists carrying GPS devices that
could establish, I imagine, a map of almost all cycle-able routes in the UK
quite readily? Has anyone compiled this data or made an effort in that
direction, fitbit _et al._?

~~~
reportingsjr
Strava puts out a heatmap every year. It does include other outdoor activities
like running though.

[http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-120.90000/38.36000/blue/b...](http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-120.90000/38.36000/blue/bike)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Wow, that's excellent - interesting to see some of the "running" routes that
don't have any cycle-data (one near me is a golf course).

It would be nice to zoom in some more, but I think even at the max zoom level
I could get to I can make out some homes of Strava users, which might - for
example - make targetted burglary an issue. Some error data is clearly present
too, like shadowing of roads where there are systematic errors.

Thanks for the link.

~~~
kingosticks
You can set a an area around your house to be excluded from your public data
to avoid this. I hope that extends to heat maps too, I've never actually
checked that.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
I can confirm that it does. I live on a private drive, but set my exclusion
zone to less than the distance to the public street, and I am the only regular
Strava user in the neighborhood. The area near my house is black, and it
lights​ up at approximately the spot I would expect!

I can see a number of my favorite routes highlighted, which is interesting!
Also, up north in the national forest middle of nowhere, I can see my favorite
logging road dimly glowing. I don't think anyone else uses it!

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kristianc
Post-war austerity and 'modernization' also put paid to Britain's extensive
pre-war rail network, which Britain is struggling to replace at great cost
today.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts)

~~~
dflock
Double ironic that some of these disused railway lines - with fantastic rights
of way directly from town centre to town centre - have been turned into cycle
tracks.

~~~
lhopki01
Where has this happened?

~~~
ZenoArrow
It has happened near where I live (South West UK). Here are two examples:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_and_Bath_Railway_Path](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_and_Bath_Railway_Path)

[http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/colliers-
way](http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/colliers-way)

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ralphie02
Good find! 3 more days before the kickstarter ends and I just submitted my
first pledge!! I truly believe in a more efficient (cheaper?) means of
transportation. The more big city/country to expand cycling, the better.

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Animats
Might not be too realistic. This path [3] has to be buried under the A3.

[[https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1yoi-
eZVATatYQfhMiK...](https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1yoi-
eZVATatYQfhMiKh4PpaSQro&hl=en&ll=51.517286343207076%2C0.021517348491897792&z=19)]

~~~
kennydude
Nice, the routes in Billingham are there. Even though they're a little worn,
they are fairly well used

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mobiletelephone
How significant can these routes be given that they were lost?

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ZenoArrow
As was mentioned in the audio clip, the usefulness of the routes depends on
the surrounding cycle network. Since these cycle paths were built, the cycle
network in the UK has grown, so some of the routes could prove more
immediately useful now than they were in the 1930s.

To give you an idea of the scale of the current UK cycle network:

[http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map](http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map)

~~~
mrob
That's a misleading map. The majority of NCN routes are just ordinary roads.
Just because somebody put a few signs up doesn't make them safer than other
similar roads. They're often narrow, overgrown at the sides, and full of
potholes. In most cases I'd rather cycle in urban areas. At least there the
traffic is slower and more predictable. And the off-road routes are frequently
impassible for all but mountain bikes because of mud.

~~~
maxerickson
Don't miss [http://cycle.travel/](http://cycle.travel/) which uses
OpenStreetMap data to build bike friendly routes (accounting for surfaces and
traffic and hills and so on).

Made by HN user Doctor_Fegg.

~~~
zczc
Or similar osm-based [http://www.bbbike.org/](http://www.bbbike.org/) with
more international coverage

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
They do different things - bbbike is for route-planning within select cities,
cycle.travel aims to do whole-country networks so you can ask for (say) NYC to
SF and get a route back in seconds.

