h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice work, MVP!

I have a great cycle path for most of the distance between home to work, but it's 15 miles long, which is a wee bit lengthy for a daily commute. What does work well is a combination of train and cycle: ride to the station, the trains are fast and have special carriages for cyclists, then ride from the city station to work.

Only problem is, the trains aren't allowed to carry bikes before 9.30 I can understand that they need the space for commuters but it's annoying all the same.

They have a rule like that here too on the S-bahn. No bikes at peak times. It's hardly encouring people to cycle is it?

A lot of people do cycle here and use a mixture of local transport and their bike. There are a lot of well mantained cycle lanes here but we have the same problems of motorists/cyclists/pedestrians not looking out for each other.

Our apartment block even has a special "bike garage" which is well used.

Thanks, Bea.

Special carriages for cyclists? You're lucky! Round where I live there's just a space near the toilets where a couple of bikes can be strapped. When I used to commute up to London, the train was often so crowded that people were standing in the cycle space, so I can understand the cycle ban. It's led to a sudden increase in the number of folding bikes.