Very few towns in the UK have really good cycling infrastructure, and the idea behind this ride was to go somewhere where we could try some properly designed facilities, and get some ideas about how things could be done differently. There are two towns near London that have an extensive set of dedicated cycle routes – Stevenage is one, but by far the biggest is Milton Keynes.

The town only came into being in 1967, and is the largest new town in Britain. It’s really a combination of several small towns and villages – Bletchley and Stony Stratford  to the South, Wolverton and Newport Pagnell  to the North, plus a new central business district. The roads are laid out in a grid (numbered instead of named), breaking the area into 1km squares - the idea being that no-one was too far away from a road to walk to a bus stop. Each of the grid roads has a segregated cycle track (“redway” in MK speak), and at junctions, the track often drops beneath the road, so there is no need for cyclists to negotiate the junction. The tracks (including underpasses) are wide and well-maintained, and as well as the routes along the roads, there are cycle paths that run independently of the roads, along river or canal sides.

As well as the Redways, there are routes along river and canal-sides, and MK council have produced four “heritage trail” cycle guides – leisure routes, often along river or canal sides, and the ride was based on a couple of these.

From the Central station, we turned south and followed trail C and (except for passing through what seemed like the world’s largest car boot sale), it was a pleasant ride along the canal and then the Ouzel valley. The trail took us to the Open University campus, then via the original village of Milton Keynes, which has a rather nice thatched pub, and then through parks up to Willen lake. Naturally, being a Wheelers’ ride, people were getting hungry, so a lunch stop was called. There’s a pub and a cafe here, and the cafe crew spent a pleasant hour watching people sort-of water-skiing, but using a ski-tow rather than a boat. Looks like fun for the first couple of runs, but you’re a bit limited as to where you can go!

Traffic free below a big road

Looks like the middle of the countryside - but in Milton Keynes (Woughton on the Green)

Another rural scene - one legged geese and windmill at Caldecott Lake

After lunch, a bit of route B (North East), then a bit of route D (North West). On leaving the lake we passed the peace pagoda – built in 1980 and the first one in the western world. On 6th August every year there is a ceremony at the Pagoda to remember the Hiroshima bomb, and lanterns are floated on Willen lake.  Then, the Tree Cathedral. This is based on the floor plan of Norwich cathedral, and different trees are used to represent different parts of the building. It’s a peaceful place, planted in 1986. The tower is formed from four Californian Redwoods, which are already pretty big. MK has a lot of trees – over 20 million according to the parks trust (who plant another 100 every day!)

 The tree cathedral looking down the nave (with and without bikes!

We headed north, on to Newport Pagnell (famous as the original home of Aston Martin and a pretty town centre with the world’s oldest in-use iron bridge). Then west along the old railway path and canal towards Wolverton, where we visited the (not so) Secret Garden. This is a pleasant spot (apart from the occasional Pendolino train whizzing past) built on the site of some grand villas that once housed the managers of Wolverton railway works. On one Sunday each month there is live music (and teas!) and our luck was in. We spent an hour chilling (well, more sun-burning actually) before moving on.

The Secret Garden

Finally, MK’s most famous feature – the Concrete Cows. Beloved of Terry Wogan, but to be honest, looking a bit battered. We stopped for a few pictures, and then headed back south to the station.

Sitting on cows

Cow with head protection

Wheelers interact with cows

The lesser known bicycle sculpture beside the cows

So, did it all work? In many ways, yes. You can cycle around MK safely and confidently, and many of the routes are attractive. I’m sure that if I lived here I’d be out on my bike all the time. However...

It’s difficult to find statistics about what the modal share is, but MK’s traffic plan counts the number of cycles parked in central Milton Keynes as an indicator. It’s hardly increased in the last five years, in contrast to the huge increase in London. Why? There’s an interesting discussion here. The council acknowledge the problem:

“The reliance on the car is predominantly due to the often multi-destination journeys people undertake and the unique grid road layout of the city. Whilst it allows for relatively uncongested and fast journeys around the city, the grid road system dominates the urban, south-west quadrant of the borough. The fast grid roads and meandering road layout within the grids have created difficulties for bus service provision, and per capita usage is much lower than most other towns and cities.”

And it was quite noticeable how few bikes were out on a sunny weekend. Which is a shame, because there’s potential for it to be good – but MK’s problem is that really it is a town designed for travel by cars first, then other means after, and this is exactly what’s happened. One big difference here to Dutch town planning is that the Dutch make it hard to get to the town centre by car and easy by foot or bike – and in MK the car is the easiest option.

Photos by Vivian, Ian and Dave A