Bike Commuting - Cardiff City Center to Radyr

Filmed on an afternoon's cycle home after a day in the office. The aim of the video is to show how easy it now is to cycle around Cardiff. Over the last year the council has put in pop-up cycle lanes, a number of which have recently been converted into permanent segregated lanes across the city. Five main cycleways are being pushed through — more on that in another post — and though some aren't yet fully connected, it's only a matter of time before they are and offer a genuinely safe space to ride.

This route takes you from the city centre to the outskirts of Cardiff in around 30 minutes. The elevation gain is no more than 80–85m, so it's fairly gentle — except for the final stretch into Danescourt, where I end up pushing the bike because the gearing just isn't low enough for the hill. My bike is an old city bike I've had for about 20 years, fitted with the classic three-speed Sturmey Archer hub, which probably wouldn't survive me pumping hard up that slope anyway.

Future posts will look at some of these cycle lanes in more detail. The most accessible routes so far are the ones heading in and out of the city centre. New cross-city routes may come in time, but for now the focus is on making the lanes into town safe, protected, and welcoming.