300 miles of secret UK cycle paths have been discovered [audio]

[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-...

[molf]

I was very confused while looking at the images, this one in particular: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/~/article-4487592/index.html#i-4f...

"They [the cycleways] were rediscovered by a historian using Google Street View"

It is hard for me to image this to be anything else but a cycle lane. As a Dutch person, it is hilarious to me that it takes a historian to identify them. For comparison, this is what a cycle lane looks like in the Netherlands (and they are absolutely everywhere): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vrijligg...

"At the time, the Ministry of Transport was working on plans to create a Dutch-inspired cycleways all over the country"

[swampthinker]

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

[din-9]

The Mail article of course ripped off as usual; check the timestamps against the Guardian article posted earlier that same day.

edit: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/may/0...

[mirimir]

This provides much better information!

[hownottowrite]

Ref: Kickstarter campaign mentioned at the end of the clip: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carltonreid/lets-rescue...

[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...

[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

[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.

[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.

[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...]

[kennydude]

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

[mobiletelephone]

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

[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

[algesten]

I think there is also a revive of cycling as transport. Stockholm have seen a sharp rise in cycle commuters the last few years.

As people become more aware of both health and environmental issues, the tendency to choose the bike increase.

[maxerickson]

Knowing that they exist can be helpful in opening the routes back up for use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_way_in_England_and_W...

[dang]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14388430 and marked it off-topic.

[tomp]

Wait so killing babies in general is ok (liberal bias is pro-abortion), just killing gay babies is weong?!

In any case, I don't think your comment belong on HN