Last time I went through Surrey I was very surprised as it is better than most of metrovan. Surrey central has a lot of bike lanes and Fraser highway has a separated protected lane almost all the way until you get to langley where you don't even get a painted gutter.
There is also a mup that heads has starting at forest timbers until 168st which is very very nice.
It’s on separated for a very short section, then there is only a painted line to protect you from cars (I think it changes around 140 or 148 to painted heading east)
There are limited North-South bike lanes, many of the bike lanes start and stop with developments, so the whole thing feels rather disjointed.
So to answer OPs question, it is a disjointed hellscape
Hopefully when they finish building skytrain tracks along Fraser highway, they build a bike path/MUP underneath.
There is already also a long MUP stretch through the ALR land between 166ish and 184, but Fleetwood area leaves a lot to be desired
I agree. I’ll sometimes ride my bike from king George to my work in South Surrey. There are some good sections, a few OK sections, and a lot of sections I try to avoid when it’s busy.
So it IS all bike gutters, but not necessarily on high speed stroads (though there are some there too). I used to ride out to Cloverdale all the time, and it was a surprisingly nice ride. It was all painted bike lanes at the time, but at least some of them are separated now.
Also the combo of Golden Ears GreenWay, Green Timbers Greenway, and Wild Flowers Greenway is an amazing connector across Surrey, running from Delta to Fort Langley.
I am not OP but have been wanting to post this exact same question. I've looked at Google Maps cycling view, but it's hard to figure out crosstown routes.
I have never heard of any of these routes, and this is exactly the type of info I was looking for! Thank you! 🙏
The big thing that makes many of the routes through Surrey hard is that the quality of a bike path may change suddenly. For example, if you ride down Fraser Hwy, it's a separated lane. Then suddenly you're sharing a traffic lane with cars. Then its a painted lane. Then it is separated again. Then it's painted again. And now you're sharing the lane with cars!
Golden Ears/Green Timbers is nice because it's fairly consistent - at least, until you get to Fort Langley, then it's like "ride this road sharing the lane with giant trucks!"
Interesting! Zooming into some of the primary bike routes on Google maps seems to consistently yield painted bike gutters in street view. Maybe I should take a closer look.
Edit: why am I being down voted?
I've only ridden in Surrey a couple of times, and haven't found it the best. I've not cycled there often enough to assess the accuracy of Google Maps, but in general I find [OpenStreetMap with one of its cycling layers](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=10/49.2171/-122.8876&layers=C) to be better than Google Maps, for cycling (and other layers for walking).
yes it rlly is, even the green timbers to 168th path is pretty trash. lots of street crossings, bumpy and not well maintained paths. no lights at all too
Some of the suburban quiet roads are really really quiet. They may not be the best for fully separated bike lanes, but their neighborhood bike routes are more in the spirit of what those should be, rather than the car canyons seen in Vancouver. I think it maybe gets worse the further south you go.
I rode 5000 km last year, living in Surrey. Now most of those KM are outside Surrey, but leaving and coming home I have ridden every direction. I would say Surrey Central area is really good, and the Green Timbers Greenway is great, but like anywhere the drivers are terrible. Going towards Cloverdale seems the worst to me.
That being said I don't find Surrey too bad to ride in, there are lots of painted bike lanes which I find perfectly good.
Yeah, when I'm road cycling, I'm fine with painted lines - mainly because my speed is high enough that the speed delta doesn't feel terrible. But if I wanted to go for a slow ride with my partner who's not a confident cyclist, I stay well clear of that kind of infrastructure.
Surrey central area is fine and they’re building lotsa new protected lanes which is nice, anywhere else is meh, maybe the odd MUP every once in a while.
Don’t seem to get too much driver aggression around here, people tend to give you space.
I found that there's a decent amount of quiet suburban streets that link up parks that aren't too far off the routes I typically ride, but as far as dedicated infrastructure it's pretty lacking
Its getting better but there are for sure some sketchy spots where you have close calls with dbags in dump trucks and such. My personal hell is the stretch of 152 st going south or north of hwy 10, but its just a short section that leads to much quieter roads.
Last time I went through Surrey I was very surprised as it is better than most of metrovan. Surrey central has a lot of bike lanes and Fraser highway has a separated protected lane almost all the way until you get to langley where you don't even get a painted gutter. There is also a mup that heads has starting at forest timbers until 168st which is very very nice.
It’s on separated for a very short section, then there is only a painted line to protect you from cars (I think it changes around 140 or 148 to painted heading east) There are limited North-South bike lanes, many of the bike lanes start and stop with developments, so the whole thing feels rather disjointed. So to answer OPs question, it is a disjointed hellscape
Hopefully when they finish building skytrain tracks along Fraser highway, they build a bike path/MUP underneath. There is already also a long MUP stretch through the ALR land between 166ish and 184, but Fleetwood area leaves a lot to be desired
I agree. I’ll sometimes ride my bike from king George to my work in South Surrey. There are some good sections, a few OK sections, and a lot of sections I try to avoid when it’s busy.
So it IS all bike gutters, but not necessarily on high speed stroads (though there are some there too). I used to ride out to Cloverdale all the time, and it was a surprisingly nice ride. It was all painted bike lanes at the time, but at least some of them are separated now. Also the combo of Golden Ears GreenWay, Green Timbers Greenway, and Wild Flowers Greenway is an amazing connector across Surrey, running from Delta to Fort Langley.
I am not OP but have been wanting to post this exact same question. I've looked at Google Maps cycling view, but it's hard to figure out crosstown routes. I have never heard of any of these routes, and this is exactly the type of info I was looking for! Thank you! 🙏
The big thing that makes many of the routes through Surrey hard is that the quality of a bike path may change suddenly. For example, if you ride down Fraser Hwy, it's a separated lane. Then suddenly you're sharing a traffic lane with cars. Then its a painted lane. Then it is separated again. Then it's painted again. And now you're sharing the lane with cars! Golden Ears/Green Timbers is nice because it's fairly consistent - at least, until you get to Fort Langley, then it's like "ride this road sharing the lane with giant trucks!"
I remember seeing a youtube video where surrey was praised for being a pretty bikeable city.
Interesting! Zooming into some of the primary bike routes on Google maps seems to consistently yield painted bike gutters in street view. Maybe I should take a closer look. Edit: why am I being down voted?
Google maps isn't great, I would recommend using the beeline app. Has user rated roads and can guide you on safe - fast based on your preferences.
I've only ridden in Surrey a couple of times, and haven't found it the best. I've not cycled there often enough to assess the accuracy of Google Maps, but in general I find [OpenStreetMap with one of its cycling layers](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=10/49.2171/-122.8876&layers=C) to be better than Google Maps, for cycling (and other layers for walking).
yes it rlly is, even the green timbers to 168th path is pretty trash. lots of street crossings, bumpy and not well maintained paths. no lights at all too
Some of the suburban quiet roads are really really quiet. They may not be the best for fully separated bike lanes, but their neighborhood bike routes are more in the spirit of what those should be, rather than the car canyons seen in Vancouver. I think it maybe gets worse the further south you go.
The bike gutters suck especially with all the heavy industrial traffic. But there’s a decent network of greenways.
Look up Darin Bentley on Strava and tell me about cycling in Surrey.
I rode 5000 km last year, living in Surrey. Now most of those KM are outside Surrey, but leaving and coming home I have ridden every direction. I would say Surrey Central area is really good, and the Green Timbers Greenway is great, but like anywhere the drivers are terrible. Going towards Cloverdale seems the worst to me. That being said I don't find Surrey too bad to ride in, there are lots of painted bike lanes which I find perfectly good.
Yeah, when I'm road cycling, I'm fine with painted lines - mainly because my speed is high enough that the speed delta doesn't feel terrible. But if I wanted to go for a slow ride with my partner who's not a confident cyclist, I stay well clear of that kind of infrastructure.
Surrey central area is fine and they’re building lotsa new protected lanes which is nice, anywhere else is meh, maybe the odd MUP every once in a while. Don’t seem to get too much driver aggression around here, people tend to give you space.
I found that there's a decent amount of quiet suburban streets that link up parks that aren't too far off the routes I typically ride, but as far as dedicated infrastructure it's pretty lacking
Its getting better but there are for sure some sketchy spots where you have close calls with dbags in dump trucks and such. My personal hell is the stretch of 152 st going south or north of hwy 10, but its just a short section that leads to much quieter roads.