The Dearth of Cycle Maps

Planning for the Atomic Ride has made me realise what a dearth of good cycle maps there are in the UK. I don't mean the well meaning maps produced by Sustrans, or local councils to try and encourage families to do a five mile tour of local sites of interest. I mean real, useable, everyday maps that highlight all the roads that are good for cyclists: that are quiet, well-tarmacked and (preferably) non-hilly.

When we went to Belgium last summer it was like a cycle map nirvana. Large scale maps were available with roads classified according to cycling provision, whether it be on road or off road, busy or quiet, beautiful or beastly - or both.

I went along to Waterstones and asked what they had. There was, of course Ordnance Survey, but I'd need an extra trailer to carry all the maps we'd need between the north of Scotland and south of England. Otherwise it was 'Cycle Rides to Pubs in Kent', or similar. There was one that claimed to be a cycle planner for the whole of the UK, but was no bigger than a standard OS map, which meant that they could only really fit in the motorways and trunk roads. Hmm.

In the end I went down the road to the more down at heel 'The Works' remainder bookshop. There they had a large scale ring bound motoring atlas. Whilst it didn't have special cycling routes, it did have all minor roads, and made some effort to show where the hills were. It also showed speed cameras, but something tells me we won't be too bothered by the speed police. And it was only £1.99.

I took it home and carefully ripped out and kept only those pages that detailed the parts of the country we'd be going through. So long Cumbria! Goodbye, Western Isles! Arriverderci Cornwall! Auf Weidersen Wales! I've ended up with a Blue Peter-style bespoke cycling atlas. I just hope that we don't get lost too close to the edge of any of the pages...