Readers react to news that Otley Road is the most dangerous place in Leeds for cyclists

Yorkshire Evening Post reporter - and cyclist - Joe Cooper rode part of the route with Leeds Cycling Campaign member Chris Foren in rush hour during the week to get a sense of what it’s like for those commuting on two wheels.

But what about the experiences of you, our readers? Many of you took to Twitter to comment. Here’s what you’ve been saying:

@GroovyGail57: Cars are always parked on yellow lines outside Mamoods takeaway. So cyclists have to swerve round them, almost pushing them into traffic coming up behind them.

@Mark64709997: Now hang on, a lot of cyclists don’t even have lights on and why don’t they have to pay insurance? They use the road too and if they hit your car who pays? Its not always the driver’s fault, all that money spent on a bike lane and most of them don’t use it.

They also go through red lights at a crossing - if lights are red they go up on the pavement.

@yogagem: Same applies to Whitehall Road - don’t forget south Leeds!

Rob Greenland: Nice one Joe - good to see this getting front page coverage. As you suggest making cycling feel like a realistic option for more people could have so many benefits for all of us, however we get around.

BrynLaw: I’d happily cycle into and around Leeds if I thought I could do it safely. That means not competing with cars/lorries for road space. Separate cycle routes from roads and I’m in.

Sarah Wilson: Moving to Leeds after living in Berlin - a blissfully cycle-friendly city - was a massive shock in terms of getting on my bike. Took me about three months to dare the cycle to/from work and still brick it pretty much every time I cycle over Sheepscar.

Sue Featherstone: Don’t stop at Leeds. Make all of Yorkshire cycle friendly.

Richard Honey: This. Yes. Cycling is not everyone’s favourite mode of transport, or even possible for many older or disabled people but, despite good initiatives from Leeds City Council, until we make serious provision for citywide safer cycling we are colluding in climate change.

AndyG: It’s the most used route into Leeds and yet we still have to cope with huge quarry trucks and the awful pollution.

Otley Road should be the easiest win to make Leeds more cycle friendly. Along with Meanwood Road too, that currently has a cycle track that just ends).

Also @FirstWestYorks are on record saying that electric buses could be rolled out almost immediately...but yet I’m still being gassed on one of the heaviest used bus routes in the city. Where are our electric buses?

Richard Osbond: But it’s hard. Really hard. With very difficult decisions along the way. It needs a clear message from the leaders of the city that:-

1. Car use is crippling the city

2. Air quality is dangerous

3. We have a climate emergency - we must act.

We need to change.

Nic Richardson: Speaking from experience of being one of those incidents... something really needs to be done.

Paul Gowland: Sharing the bus lane doesn’t help; drivers regularly pull out from the left or turn across traffic from the right without looking for anyone in the bus lane.

I’m a driver/cyclist who’s amazed at the state of cycling in a city with air pollution issues.

Ian Watts: I used to live on Otley Road and cycled that route into town - not pleasant. I generally found the public transport in Leeds to be woeful and it still doesn’t seem like the local authority are that interested in improving it.

David Morgan: That road should have been the one they built a proper cycle lane on then instead of the rest of the city routes that nobody uses!

Dave Kelly : I drive that way once a week and it is a dodgy road space. Yes, there is an initial expense to put a cycle route in. However once implemented I would imagine there is minimum cost to maintain cycle lanes as I guess bikes aren’t heavy enough to damage or really wear out the road .