UK's flattest city?

rick_chasey

Dav1 wrote:

cambridge is flatter then norwich.

Norwich has a few short sharp climbs, a few small hills around ringland and some more climbs in the river yare vally around whitlingham broad.

For cambridge it stopps being flat around 10 miles south towards saffron walden.

How about ely? I expect it will be somewhere in the fens.

Ely Cathedral is on a massive* hill, hence it being in Ely....

In and around Ely is flat, but then again, since Ely is so small, the Cathedral hill makes up a sizable portion of it. Edit: Apart from that one tiny little hamlet to the north, which also seems to be on a little hill.

* by Dutch standards.

rolf_f

Avanti Roman wrote:

Manchester is pretty much flat - not many hills around Leeds either. Sheffield is more like Bristol.

Avanti Roman wrote:

There may be plenty of hills surrounding Leeds but I can tell you from experience having lived there for several yoears there aren't many big hills in the city itself.

Are you insane?!!! Leeds? Flat? Please see sig - that's 1500 feet per day commuting. Next you'll be saying San Francisco is flat For reference - whether you've lived here or not, there are lots of hills in the city of Leeds (ie within the out ring road). As to what counts as 'big' - I don't think many cities at all have 'big' hills in them. Leeds certainly isn't at the flatter end o the range.

Perhaps you lived here during the Carboniferous period when it was flat!

Hull is pretty flat though.

Avanti Roman

Rolf F wrote:

Avanti Roman wrote:

Manchester is pretty much flat - not many hills around Leeds either. Sheffield is more like Bristol.

Avanti Roman wrote:

There may be plenty of hills surrounding Leeds but I can tell you from experience having lived there for several yoears there aren't many big hills in the city itself.

Are you insane?!!! Leeds? Flat? Please see sig - that's 1500 feet per day commuting. Next you'll be saying San Francisco is flat For reference - whether you've lived here or not, there are lots of hills in the city of Leeds (ie within the out ring road). As to what counts as 'big' - I don't think many cities at all have 'big' hills in them. Leeds certainly isn't at the flatter end o the range.

Perhaps you lived here during the Carboniferous period when it was flat!

Hull is pretty flat though.

I didn't exactly say it was flat - I just meant that comparitively speaking, it isn't as hilly as Sheffield or Bristol (lived in both these areas too) - sorry if I've offended anyone, I certainly don't want you cursing me under your breath as you toil away on you daily commute!

risi

suzyb wrote:

Is there any of these mapping sites that will give you details of specific sections of a route. Let you zoom in so you can see how long a specific climb is.

Both bikehike & ridewithgps allow you to select a section of the elevation profile which will then highlight the corresponding part of the route on the map.

rolf_f

Avanti Roman wrote:

I certainly don't want you cursing me under your breath as you toil away on you daily commute!

Too late - that's exactly what I will do as I toil my way up the continuous 3 mile climb to Stanningley top

Actually, Bristol isn't really much hillier than Leeds - if you plot a ten mile commute through Leeds and Bristol you'll tend to come up with similar overall climbs - it just looks it because the hills are closer in. Not sure about Sheffield though.

Still, if the Bristolians want to prove how hard they are, they can join in the 1000 feet commute mini league on SCS

tiny_pens

I would be surprised to see greater than 5m rise or fall over the whole of Portsmouth. Even Portsmouth mountain struggles to exceed the height of the motorway flyover :-)

Fairly consistent breeze to make up for the lack of hills though.

PBo

Stuey01 wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

Is there a nice free way to find out how much ascent/descent on a route (without me having to go and ride the bugger). I am sort of tempted to try a route that doesn't involve Archway Hill, but am not keen on Muswell Hill :-)

bikehike - google it.

or - mapmyride

where are you trying to get to/from?

Porgy

The City of London is pretty much completely flat. But Greater London has hills aplenty - in the north, south and southeast.

What about Exeter - I don't remember it being particularly hilly.

Is Swindon a city? It's pretty flat too.

andyb78

Avanti Roman wrote:

topher9 wrote:

'not many hills around Leeds either'

i can tell you from first hand experience - there are a lot of hills around Leeds.

There may be plenty of hills surrounding Leeds but I can tell you from experience having lived there for several yoears there aren't many big hills in the city itself.

Ermm... Kirkstall Road up to Burleigh?

Splottboy

Newark on Trent, Notts. Remember it as being flat in 1981 as a student.

But I was drunk an awful lot...

supersonic

Except for a couple of hills, York is relatively flat.

I'd say Sheffield is the hilliest - from about 100ft ASL in the East, to 1800ft in west, and a lot if undulations in between!

lfoggy

I cycled around Cambridge every day for 15 years and the steepest hill I encountered was the humpback bridge over Mill Road !

nwallace

Dundee can be relativley flat if you are going East/West. North/South is totally different.

supersonic

This is my favourite Sheffield Hill - just make sure those brakes work ;-)

dav1

lfoggy wrote:

I cycled around Cambridge every day for 15 years and the steepest hill I encountered was the humpback bridge over Mill Road !

Cycled this many times. Gets you thinking "hey its a hil... No wait, a bridge."

On the pluys side you absolutly fly through cambridge with the generous cycle lanes.

fenboy369

Cambridge is a damn site flatter than Ely. Anybody else from Ely on here? I work in Cambridge so ride there too.
Ely has Fore Hill and Back Hill (bet they had to think hard about that one ) that dwarf any climb in Cambridge. Apart from bridges there isnt anything in Cambridge that doesnt count as more than a slope. :roll:

bd12mz

Porgy wrote:

The City of London is pretty much completely flat. But Greater London has hills aplenty - in the north, south and southeast.

What about Exeter - I don't remember it being particularly hilly.

Is Swindon a city? It's pretty flat too.

Swindon is a town and I worked there for a while.

really like it tbh and it's only problem is that it always seemed to be blowing a gale!
literally Swindon!

Splottboy

During WWII, Coventry...

Splottboy

During WWII, Coventry...

Stone Glider

We were in Cardiff last weekend and that is fairly flat. Hilly on the outskirts but the main part is on an alluvial plain. (A Level Geography at Penarth County Grammar School) The Bay Area seems very cycle friendly.

Splottboy

Now you're talking butt. Splott being the Capital of Cardiff.
Yeah, the docks is flat, but head North towards Caerphilly and it gets meaty.

If you live in Penarth, it's Pen-arth...( Posh see, look you, there's lovely.)
If you come from Cardiff, it's Penaarrrrrth.

rusty656

Peterborough is the flattest without a shadow of doubt its crap if you have a mountain bike like me a couple of my routes start below sea level BEAT THAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

easyboy

In Southampton if a rabbit sticks its head out of its burrow you lose your mobile signal

rick_chasey

Dav1 wrote:

lfoggy wrote:

I cycled around Cambridge every day for 15 years and the steepest hill I encountered was the humpback bridge over Mill Road !

Cycled this many times. Gets you thinking "hey its a hil... No wait, a bridge."

On the pluys side you absolutly fly through cambridge with the generous cycle lanes.

Cycling in Cambridge is horrible. As are the cycle lanes.

The only flying you do is over car bonnets in Cambridge - as someone who was brought up there.

No idea where you cycle but it's certianly not the centre of Cambridge!

hamstrich

Rick Chasey wrote:

Dav1 wrote:

lfoggy wrote:

I cycled around Cambridge every day for 15 years and the steepest hill I encountered was the humpback bridge over Mill Road !

Cycled this many times. Gets you thinking "hey its a hil... No wait, a bridge."

On the pluys side you absolutly fly through cambridge with the generous cycle lanes.

Cycling in Cambridge is horrible. As are the cycle lanes.

The only flying you do is over car bonnets in Cambridge - as someone who was brought up there.

No idea where you cycle but it's certianly not the centre of Cambridge!

Not sure I agree... cyclists in Cambridge are just so numerous that drivers there tend to be more aware of us on the road. In the 4 1/2 years I've lived there I've had no motor vehicle incidents, and I've only heard of one cyclist fatality, which seems like a pretty low figure when you consider the tens of thousands of bike journeys that must be made every day in the city.

rick_chasey

hamstrich wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Dav1 wrote:

lfoggy wrote:

I cycled around Cambridge every day for 15 years and the steepest hill I encountered was the humpback bridge over Mill Road !

Cycled this many times. Gets you thinking "hey its a hil... No wait, a bridge."

On the pluys side you absolutly fly through cambridge with the generous cycle lanes.

Cycling in Cambridge is horrible. As are the cycle lanes.

The only flying you do is over car bonnets in Cambridge - as someone who was brought up there.

No idea where you cycle but it's certianly not the centre of Cambridge!

Not sure I agree... cyclists in Cambridge are just so numerous that drivers there tend to be more aware of us on the road. In the 4 1/2 years I've lived there I've had no motor vehicle incidents, and I've only heard of one cyclist fatality, which seems like a pretty low figure when you consider the tens of thousands of bike journeys that must be made every day in the city.

:shock:

We were told at sixth form that Cambridge has more deaths per mile cycled than London.

From my experience that sounds about right. Roads far too narrow to have both cars and bicycles, plenty of bikes, a big town vs gown thing going on with bikes.

I've been involved in a hit and run by the Catholic church which broke my pelvis , I've been pushed off my bike by a guy leaning out of his window passing in a car on huntingdon road, I've been punched off my bike on histon road, witnessed my friend get totally taken out by a car in front of me twice on kings hedges road, and incur daily hassle from bus drivers.

I've heard plenty of stories too from lecturers at the Uni who regularly get knocked off by busses, often in and around bridge street and even on castle hill.

Given the threat to my health, it's not like I go looking for trouble. I avoid gestures, never jump lights, always use lights in the winter, and always look to avoid the confrontation.


Where in Cambs you live then?

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, there are plenty more to add to the list.

My sister was nudged off her bike by a bus by the catholic church, only for the driver to gesture for her to get out of the way.

I horribly still remember coming out of my drive only to see a policewomen mopping up blood from a killed student who got hit on his bike by a lorry turning left.

I nowadays only count a hit and run when I am actually injurred as a result.

Nor am I a particularly bad cyclist - I rode the Pyrenees last year pretty well, and regularly race - my bike handling skills are hardly at fault here.

Brian224

I lived in Hull as a student and took a driving test there. Cars used to queue to use a railway bridge for the hill start!

30 Years since Iv'e been there, but I still remember the wind off of the Humber estuary, so maybe the thread should be looking for flat and windless.

All the best

Brian

[/u]

Mithras

Peterborough..our steepest hills are pedestrian road bridges.

shouldbeinbed

fenboy369 wrote:

Cambridge is a damn site flatter than Ely. Anybody else from Ely on here? I work in Cambridge so ride there too.
Ely has Fore Hill and Back Hill (bet they had to think hard about that one ) that dwarf any climb in Cambridge. Apart from bridges there isnt anything in Cambridge that doesnt count as more than a slope. :roll:

I think thats a given, going by the fact that Ely's Sunday name is the Isle of Ely. as in an island surrounded by flat.


Manchester is the same in reverse, the very compact city centre and a few miles to the south down to the airport sit on a plain and are good and flat but it's surrounded on all sides by hills, south into cheshire being the gentler side to play. more than a mile to the north in any direction and it gets lumpy and your average is well upward.

From my old house 7 miles north I could stand at my back door and watch the planes on final approach at eye level and had a lovely view of which way Joddrell Bank dead opposite 40 miles away was pointing

hamstrich

Rick Chasey wrote:

:shock:

We were told at sixth form that Cambridge has more deaths per mile cycled than London.

From my experience that sounds about right. Roads far too narrow to have both cars and bicycles, plenty of bikes, a big town vs gown thing going on with bikes.

I've been involved in a hit and run by the Catholic church which broke my pelvis , I've been pushed off my bike by a guy leaning out of his window passing in a car on huntingdon road, I've been punched off my bike on histon road, witnessed my friend get totally taken out by a car in front of me twice on kings hedges road, and incur daily hassle from bus drivers.

I've heard plenty of stories too from lecturers at the Uni who regularly get knocked off by busses, often in and around bridge street and even on castle hill.

Given the threat to my health, it's not like I go looking for trouble. I avoid gestures, never jump lights, always use lights in the winter, and always look to avoid the confrontation.


Where in Cambs you live then?

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, there are plenty more to add to the list.

My sister was nudged off her bike by a bus by the catholic church, only for the driver to gesture for her to get out of the way.

I horribly still remember coming out of my drive only to see a policewomen mopping up blood from a killed student who got hit on his bike by a lorry turning left.

I nowadays only count a hit and run when I am actually injurred as a result.

Nor am I a particularly bad cyclist - I rode the Pyrenees last year pretty well, and regularly race - my bike handling skills are hardly at fault here.

Sheesh, that's pretty shocking. I would say it sounds like you've had some bad luck - but maybe me it's who's been lucky to avoid any incidents so far.

I've lived in a few places in the city but they've all been pretty central - right in the middle when I was at uni, then up on Huntingdon Road last year, and just off Chesterton Road this year. I suppose that cycling in the traffic-restricted central area is a whole different kettle of fish from the busy commuter roads such as Histon Rd, which has perhaps the worst cycle lane I've ever encountered.