Cycling is faster than the train?

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Mick F
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Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Mick F »

Mrs Mick F and me went away for the night (Saturday) to a very nice pub B+B in North Devon at Umberleigh.
Rising Sun http://www.risingsuninnumberleigh.co.uk/
Excellent, much beer dunk and stuffed ourselves with food. :D

Any road up, I cycled there - 52miles - whilst Mrs Mick F let the train take the strain, from here in Gunnislake to Umberleigh via Plymouth and Exeter. Total of three trains, and cost a whopping £12 return. :wink:
She made it to Umberleigh (only a hundred yards or so from the pub) fifteen minutes before I got there.

Mind you, I took a rather hilly route! Grief! :shock:
One bit of road - B3227 - had a 25% downhill immediately followed by a 20% uphill. :shock:
Followed by another one, all in the space of less than two miles!
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Atheri ... 36.03,,0,0

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Atheri ... 27,,0,0.32

Screen shot 2014-09-22 at 10.03.02.png


Needless to say, cycling back on Sunday, I took a different route by heading south down the Taw Valley. 12miles of flat roads. I made it home 40mins before Mrs Mick F.

A great 100miles, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. She got some knitting done on the train, and I cycled happily in the Devon sunshine. :D
Mick F. Cornwall
axel_knutt
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by axel_knutt »

From here to Basildon is 20 miles. It takes 1h47m and four separate trains to get there by rail, plus another 15 min walk at each end. I've done the journey four times now, and on three of those occasions a train has been cancelled, which adds about another hour.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by al_yrpal »

This is how to get motorists out of cars. If cycle commuters regularly blog about how its faster to get to work by bike and keep hammering that message, some people will abandon cars (hopefully)

Al
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Flinders
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Flinders »

Is that the Umberleigh with the point-to-point course? What's the scenery like there?
SleepyJoe
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by SleepyJoe »

MikeF

I recognise that road!
I used to work in Torrington (slightly further to the left of your maps)
& have cycled back on the Atherington road once!
I hit 50mph going down into Langbridgeford, but it was a long, slow climb out the other side.

It also reminds me that I have plans to cycle that same route in the opposite direction sometime- a plan for half term?

Mark
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by SleepyJoe »

Sorry, I also forgot to mention a local chap who raced the Tarka Line train from Exeter to Barnstaple during the summer- and won at an average speed of 27mph (no chance for me then)
Link to local paper here

http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/Gear ... story.html

Mark
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Merry_Wanderer »

It's 4.5 miles from my home to Loughborough Rail Station (train to Nottingham) which takes me 22 to 23 minutes on my Brompton 6 speed. No hills like Mick F's thankfully!

For the past 3 commutes I have left the village at the same as a VW Transporter van. He soon overtook me but then got caught in traffic. I used the 'cycle path' alongside the A6 and the A6 itself and on the first commute that I saw him I was surprised that I saw him turn off into the VW dealers in Loughborough just as I cycled past after just short of 4 miles.

According to my cycle computer I average just over 11 mph for the journey. Not exactly fast for a bike but for a car / van that's a pretty good incentive to leave the car at home and cycle!
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Mick F
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Mick F »

Flinders wrote:Is that the Umberleigh with the point-to-point course? What's the scenery like there?
Dunno about the point-to-point course, it seems to be mainly fishing there.

Scenery is gentle rolling hills, trees, and farmland - quite peaceful and beautiful. The Tarka Line follows the Taw Valley as does the A377.

Sitting in the front garden of the pub, there were many passing cyclists, so it must be a popular area to cycle through. The pub is right in front of a T junction A377 Barnstaple/Exeter and the B3227 to South Molton. Cyclists went straight on or turned off in equal measure.
Mick F. Cornwall
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Merry_Wanderer wrote:It's 4.5 miles from my home to Loughborough Rail Station (train to Nottingham) which takes me 22 to 23 minutes on my Brompton 6 speed. No hills like Mick F's thankfully!

For the past 3 commutes I have left the village at the same as a VW Transporter van. He soon overtook me but then got caught in traffic. I used the 'cycle path' alongside the A6 and the A6 itself and on the first commute that I saw him I was surprised that I saw him turn off into the VW dealers in Loughborough just as I cycled past after just short of 4 miles.

According to my cycle computer I average just over 11 mph for the journey. Not exactly fast for a bike but for a car / van that's a pretty good incentive to leave the car at home and cycle!

I used to do the same over 10 miles, although I'd normally pass the (liveried van) about 1/2 mile from my destination, with the van in a queue until I'd arrived...
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Grandad
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Grandad »

My serious cycling started the first year at secondary school. 20 minute walk to station,off at the very next station and 20 minute walk to school. Bike gave extra time in bed!

In 1966 before the M5 reached the West Country we did as MickF did, Wolvehampton to Barnstaple by bike and train. No, I didn't beat the train but with an early start we arrived within 15 minutes of each other.

The return journey was a Saturday at the end of a Bank Holiday week and the A38 was the usual stop/start all the way to Bristol. As I joined it I noticed a Don Everall coach, the local Wolverhampton company. I kept passing it at the holdups until it finally got away in Bristol.
Last edited by Grandad on 22 Sep 2014, 9:36pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mark1978
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Mark1978 »

al_yrpal wrote:This is how to get motorists out of cars. If cycle commuters regularly blog about how its faster to get to work by bike and keep hammering that message, some people will abandon cars (hopefully)

Al


Not really, unless you're headed into a city centre most of the time the car will beat the train. There are exceptions of course!
The Mechanic
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by The Mechanic »

Are we comparing like with like here. I don't think so. Unless there is a direct train from A to B then you can't compare it to a bike being ridden from A to B unless it follows the same route as the train, i.e. via the same places as the three train journeys.

When I was at school, I took a 21 mile train journey every morning followed by a 10 minute walk to get to school. It took 31 minutes on the train (assuming no holdups) therefore 41 minutes all together. I could not ride that far in that time even in those days, when I was a reasonable TTer.
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

When I worked in Burton-on-Trent, if I were taking the train to the northwest, I'd regularly cycle to Tutbury & Hatton station (5 or 6 miles) rather than getting the train from Burton. Not only was it just as quick as taking the train all the way from Burton, it was often much cheaper - £18 vs £42 on one journey I regularly took. And there was something quite fun about supporting the little branch line through Tutbury...
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karlt
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by karlt »

I work in Sheffield, live near Chesterfield. On bike, takes 55min door to door (15 miles), about 52min moving time.

If I ride to Chesterfield station (only two miles away) then ride from Sheffield to work (3.5 miles) it takes 1hr.
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mjr
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Re: Cycling is faster than the train?

Post by mjr »

Mark1978 wrote:Not really, unless you're headed into a city centre most of the time the car will beat the train. There are exceptions of course!

But the car won't often beat the bike, not at commuting time, even in a fairly small market town.

This was the basis of the "commuter challenge" that we used to run in Bike Week and since then, cycling has gotten quicker with a few new sections of cycleway bypass opening, while car times have pretty much held constant with new motorists appearing to fill any spaces added by road widening and traffic management signs (the things that tell you how to reach empty parking spaces quickest).

In my local case, I've timed an clear-roads evening car drive into King's Lynn at 21 to 23 minutes, which is only slightly faster than my 19 to 26 minute cycling in (it depends mainly whether the wind helps or hinders on the exposed flat sections). It doesn't take much time in a traffic queue or walking to/from a less-than-ideal car park to make the car slower than cycling. This is slightly unfair: I moved here because it has a good cycle link to town; but only slightly: the drive is all A roads except the last few metres and the majority is 40mph limit.
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