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Coate Water

Cycling out to Coate Water is an ideal short family ride, with a café and plenty of short paths when you get there. Cycling is permitted on both the western and eastern edges of the lake; the path on the eastern side forms part of National Cycle Network route 45, linking to Old Town and central Swindon. Follow the blue NCN signs to find your way to the park.

Bike a close second in Swindon’s Wacky Races

Remember Wacky Races, the ’60s cartoon series where a dozen different drivers competed to win the title? Swindon commuters restaged the event on 10th September – but this time, each with a different form of transport.

The challenge was to be the fastest from the Asda superstore on Thamesdown Drive to the town centre railway station. There were five participants: local taxi driver Sarah Day, Sustrans’ Amy Martin on her bike, car driver Chris Pailor, runner (and local newspaper scribe) Darran Reynolds, and Ellie Corcoran on a bus.

The result was nail-bitingly close, with taxi-driver Sarah pipping cyclist Amy to the line by one second – which Amy attributed to the time taken locking up her bike. But as Claire Fleming from Swindon Borough Council pointed out, it’s not just about the time:

“Yes, the taxi was quickest, but it would be the most expensive way of commuting, whereas the cyclist arrived a second later and travelled for free. Even the bus user, who took the longest to reach the finish line, had the most productive commute, taking advantage of the free wifi to catch up with news sites on her mobile.”

Getting in and out of town

Unfortunately, Swindon’s bike paths largely give out at the town limits, forcing cyclists onto the busy roads. In particular, the roads to Wootton Bassett, Shrivenham and Highworth are busy, narrow and unwelcoming. We can’t recommend these to the novice cyclist, and we salute those who do cycle that way.

If this is your chosen commute, make sure you’re well armed with lights and hi-vis, ride assertively, and keep up the pressure for a safe alternative. Sustrans and Swindon Borough Council have improved a short length of the A361 north to South Marston Business Park, making a little bit of the Highworth journey less hair-raising, and they’re also planning a safe route to Wootton Bassett – though at £1m it won’t come cheap. For now you can take a circuitous, slightly quieter route to WB.

Swindon is a railway town, and the High-Speed Trains used for almost all its services each have space for six bikes (at the end of carriage A, at the country end of the platform). The first stops in each direction are Chippenham, Didcot, and Kemble (for Cirencester).

South Marston Industrial Estate

Getting to this industrial park in the north-east of Swindon, one of the town’s largest employment sites, is unfortunately much harder than it ought to be. There’s a new cycle path for the last leg of the journey, built alongside the busy A361, and a handy pair of cut-throughs between Kingsdown and Stratton St Margaret.

However, there’s no easy way across the railway, only a narrow, stepped footbridge where you’ll need to lift your bike. As for a continuation to Highworth, we can but dream!

Canal path (east)

Many wouldn’t guess that the cycle path heading north-east from the Magic Roundabout was once the Wilts & Berks Canal, but one surviving old bridge gives it away. This route provides a useful alternative to the unpleasant, busy Drakes Way dual carriageway, leading to the Greenbridge roundabout. You can continue from there along the Oxford Road, though frankly the repeated interruptions from side-roads get rather wearing.

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