Best and worst drivers

Posted by Jon Sparks Apr 30, 2007

As promised, here are a few thoughts about the best and worst places to cycle, based on my personal experience. Obviously driver behaviour isn’t the only issue but following on from my last it’s the obvious place to start. I haven’t cycled everywhere by any means, so this is a very partial list - you can help make it more comprehensive.

Best drivers in Europe: Finland. Lovely country, too; I’ll do an article on cycling there very soon.

The Netherlands is also excellent but cycling provision there is so good that you can spend most of your time on dedicated cycle tracks and not mix with cars at all. The same is true, I believe, of Denmark. Finland is a much larger country and there are good cycle networks around the main cities but elsewhere you share the roads.

Highly Commended: Austria. And I’m sure Switzerland is too, but haven’t ridden there enough to say for sure.

Worst in Europe: Greece, without a doubt. My on-bike experience is borne out by a friend we cycled with there, who subsequently hired a car and was appalled by the amount of tail-gating, reckless overtaking and so on that he saw. But then, he lives in Switzerland.

Most disappointing: France. Disappointing, because you’d expect the home of the Tour de France to be tuned in to bikes, but the fact is that the average French person doesn’t cycle any more than the average Brit (in other words, pathetically little) and they’re nearly as over-dependent on their cars as we are. The saving grace in France is that it’s a much bigger country and there are lots of uncrowded roads so the overall experience is pleasanter than in Britain even if the standard of driving is no better.

Best region in Britain: Joint winners here:

Dumfries and Galloway. (South-west Scotland). Probably nothing to do with the fact that it’s where the bicycle was invented, just that there are lots of quiet roads and nobody seems to be in too much of a hurry (apart from one blue Renault Megane Scenic driver who should lose their license immediately...).

The Western Isles (Outer Hebrides): quiet roads and people who are as courteous behind the wheel as they are in the rest of their lives. It’s also a fabulously beautiful region so overall, as long as you have the wind behind you, it has to be the best place in Britain to cycle. (I hear there are some out of this world mountain bike tracks on Harris too). But bring your own bike: if Barra’s anything to go by, the Western Isles have the worst hire bikes you’ll ever encounter.

Best in the Rest of the World: Nova Scotia. Not only did drivers not carve me up, I had to get used to them actually giving way to me when i was coming out of a side road or turning across traffic. (Funny thing, the landscape’s a lot like Finland too...)