Doesn't matter whether you've just spent a king's ransom on a flash new bike or your pride and joy is vintage rust - you'll still want to know where to go!.
All of these routes are local so you can ride from home and take your bike on the bus or train if needed.
It's all on your doorstep.
Where can you ride?
Roads - thanks to the negotiations by Cycle Touring Club nearly 100 years ago, most roads are usuable.
Bikepaths (sometimes dual use with walkers so be courteous, give way and use a bell) and Cycle routes - many new ones thanks to the work of Sustrans, city and county councils and 1000's of volunteers.
Bridleways - usually shown on an OS map as a green dashed line. Beware this is a bit sensitive- despite the Countryside Act 1968
which set out to open bridleway access to horse riders and cyclists, some areas (especially routes which are not regularly
used) are subject to contention by land owners. Status can change but politeness works wonders.
"B.O.A.T.S" - Byways open to all traffic. Another area on confusion -see your OS map and check with land owners
for permissions if neccessary.
Worcester City District
PDF maps courtesy of Worcestershire County Council - (these will take a few minutes to
load on a 56kbs dial-up modem). More maps will be added as routes develop.
Click here to download a Worcester City bike map (pdf file) which shows all the "official" bikepaths.
East-west x-city bike route: Tricky one this!
Using the Canal towpath The traffic free route is simply to pick up the National Cycle Route 45 along
the canal towpath. This can be picked up from Warndon villages at the North East of the City by crossing Berkeley Way
and following the signs through to the canal/offerton lane or alternatively at the intersection of the canal and
Blackpole Road (B4550). Then you can wizz into the city as far as Sidbury. If you want to get to the Sabrina bridge from the
canal, there is a cycle route off to the right just before you go under the bridge which is the Lowesmoor road.
This gets you to Foregate Street, then you'll need to walk through the alleyway by the cinema and pick up the new
cycle route that cuts across Castle street (via Shaw St) and then down on to Pitchcroft- take a left and wind round to
Granstand road to meet Sabrina and the world beyond!
Tolladine Road / Newtown Road
No traffic free routes for these main spokes of the wheel! so just take it easy with the traffic - see Commuting
for more information.
However - if you fancy a little detour you can pick up the bike path past the New hospital, cut through Nunnery Wood,
through to Prestwich Avenue, along Redfern Avenue, right at the end of Redfern and down through Perry Wood
(steep, often muddy and not an official route but good fun anyway),
cross the Medway Road over to the bottom of Newtown road and pick up the Tallow hill bike path (phew!).
Going west into St Johns and beyond
Immediately after leaving the Sabrina bridge, turn right, cross over the Hylton road at the crossing and nip up the steep path
(next to Holywell Cottage) and onto Oldbury road. At the end of the Oldbury road you can pick up the Bridleway that heads out
to Crown East (use OS MAP Explorer 204 for details).
Worcester Circuit
Other than the canal acting as a NE to Central route, the other major traffic free route at present is the SW route along Hams Way,
Temeside Way and Broomhall Way. This starts at Rushwick and goes to the Norton Road where you can pick up the National Cycle Network route 46 to Pershore.
North-South x-city centre.
Much better....either coming down along the Pitchcroft bike path or the canal you can pick up South Quay, Mill Street and Diglis road
to pick up the NCN Route 46 to Pershore.
As routes are created, we'll add to suit. Ask your local councillor and MP to lobby for more - these things don't happen by themselves!!!
Just outside the city
Droitwich: go to Sustrans where you can find the NCN 45 route from Worcester to Droitwich.
Wyre Forest: go to Sustrans where you can find how the NCN route from the Wyre Forest to Worcester is developing.
Kempsey & Pershore: Download NCN Route 46 bike map (pdf file)which links the city to Pershore.
Crowle & Tibberton: getting to Crowle is not not traffic free but you can get there via the canal towpath and Tibberton, via the B4636 from Newtown road,
via the A422 from Nunnery Wood (busy main road) and via the bridleway off the B4636 heading cross country to Withy Wells, across the
A4538 (Pershore Lane) and narrow lanes through Bredicot to Crowle (very scenic!).
Rushwick: via Broomhall Way, Temeside Way and Hams way bike path.
Ombersley: No traffic free route, choice of dual carriage way or via the lanes north of Claines (again see OS Explorer map 204).
A bit further A tea and cake stop is always a good incentive!
Click here to download a Malvern Hills bike map (pdf file) which shows all the "official" bikepaths.
Click here to access the Ordnance Survey "Get a map" service for a Wyre Forest map which shows all the forest tracks and bridleways.
Click here to go to Sustrans where you will find a whole world of routes for people.
Check out commuting.
Footpaths and pavements cannot be ridden on, however many "out of the way" footpaths in recent years are only used by
cyclists. 20+ years ago these paths were regularly used by walkers but many people now choose to use the car instead
of walking a few hundred yards. General rule of thumb is footpaths and pavements are for children only (under 10).
