How dangerous is the Gobowen to Oswestry road?

[Simple Simon 36]

A couple of months ago I was cycling out of Gobowen and a car persistantly sounded its horn until I had moved in to the verge to let it pass, even though there was no traffic coming on the other side and there was plenty of room to overtake!

It got me thinking about people's experiences of using the Gobowen to Oswestry road. I'm thinking about the way it twists and turns, the narrowness of the footpath, the height of the hedges in summer etc.

Please let me know your experiences if you're a cyclist or walker or wheelchair user. I recently received the following email from someone who had a bad experience:

"When we moved to Oswestry in 2008 my daughter went to the nursery at the Orthopaedic hospital. As a Dutch person, a keen cyclistle as it is good for my fitness and the environment, I travelled once on my bike to the nursery over that road. I have never felt so scared in my life as we had a near miss with a car that was driving so fast it didn't take a neat corner and so was on our side as he came around the corner, then he saw us....with nowhere to go.

I think the person in the car got a shock as well but it left me cycling the rest of the journey on the pavement (very narrow at times) and never doing it again afterwards. Which meant that we either had to buy a new car or make use of taxi's or have long waits as the bus service was not at times I needed it."

[caduceus17 0]

I wouldn't dare! Taking your life in your hands there. It's the reason I was interested in the cycle route along the old railway line.

[Geoff 4]

The comments continue about cycling to Oswestry. There is a Cycle/Pedestrian way to Oswestry already. It just needs upgrading and changing to one side of the road once over the A5. The cost and impracticality of a track along the railway is far outweighed by the above suggestion; which could be completed in a matter of weeks. You/we; the cyclists, cannot expect to never encounter a vehicle when out cycling, we have to all be in the same road ststem with improvements as and where possible. Perhaps if some pressure were to be put on the 'council' to sort the existing route this ongoing bleat will go away.