Sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone sees cycling as a positive thing. From my point of view the thought of opening up an area of woodland to mountain biking is an excellent idea. It gives people places to ride, gets them out of the house and doing exercise and probably, as the cycling industry grows, brings business to an area.
However, that’s not a view that it seems is shared by everyone. In Plymouth there is an ongoing discussion about whether to do exactly that.
It seems to me that people probably already ride bikes there, otherwise there would have been no interest in using the woods, and that by building better trails those mountain bikers will be more likely to stick to them, making other paths easier to keep safe for walkers. I know plenty of places where developing an organised trail system has reduced the conflict between land users. Everyone wins as there is more fun stuff to ride and so no need to be terrorising other people who are there. Also, mountain bikers tend to have a bit of pride in their local trails so look after them in a way they might not when they’re using the land a bit less formally.
Hopefully there soon will be more urban woodland mountain biking in Plymouth.
A
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