Just watch you don't fall down any big holes around Bellevue on your way to the lake...

Now who was it that said -
'The lady doth protest too much, methinks...' ?

I've just found some Velokarten - Bicycle Maps.

I like the little arrows which show how steep the hill is! Quite satisfying to do a couple of short three arrow bits!

The numbering seems to have altered yet again so if anyone wants to add to their 'set' they should check which areas they want by name and not by number.

When the first biking maps were produced +-1982, they were numbered by regions, 1,2,3,4,5, but these areas were nowhere near each other. Over the years they have added more and tidied things up a bit; Nr. 1 changed from Zürich to Schaffhausen, Nr. 6 swapped from being Graubünden to Bernese Oberland, Nr. 9 was Geneva, then Biel, Nr.4 was Berne then St.Gallen. Sorry about that! Heartbreaking for a mathematician.

I think you can buy the maps at any bookshop and possibly some kiosks too. Maybe even bigger cycle shops have the local ones.

Happy cycling.

Is there any online map printable? So, you just print the area you want to do that day with the desired zoom...Will be nice.
I am always scare to bike in town, with cars, trams and pedestrians.

The official Zurich map for cyclists and pedestrians is called MAP Zurich and costs 19.80 Fr.

For free and online, Googlemaps and map.search.ch is all I know.

From HB to Bellevue it's best to go to Central and then follow the Trams 2 and 4 up Limmatquai. At Bellevue there's a cycling lane on each side of the bridge to Wollishofen.

Don't take Bahnhofstrasse, cycling is not allowed there and a friend of mine once got a fine, so it does happen.

All this is somewhat incredible.

So many instructions and even to buy a 20CHF map just to go from the HB to the Lake ?

c'mon is so straight you can't get lost, unless....

Hey MathNut,

Thanks for kicking this thread off - as another new cyclist in the city I laughed so hard I spilled my tetley tea.
I empathise - as the crow flies it's not a hard trip, the trick is spotting and staying on the cycle lanes - and if anyone is willing to demo getting across Bellevue/Central without getting off like a five year old and clack clacking across the tram lines then I'm there!
I tried to cycle round the lake on Sunday but gave up trying to get from Pfaffikon to Rapperswil following circular signs. Never mind - beautiful anyway!
But chin up - it's a lot easier than trying to find your way around in a car - and at least there ARE cycle lanes!

It can be tricky finding the bicycle paths! (I am almost daily in Zurich.) The bicycle paths were added on later and it was a challenge to disentangle these from pedestrian pavements, tram tracks, etc.

Wherever roads are redesigned, the planners have provided good bike paths.

Now that MathNut no longer lives in Zürich and will hardly be tempted to come from the wilds of her mountain home to the city by bike, Zürich have made new maps with the most up-to-date bike routes through the traffic chaos there. Well, that's what they said in the newspaper this morning.

I've just tried it out by pretending I want to get from Zürich Mainstation to the Frohalpstrasse in Wollishofen where I once visited someone. After I clicked on 'los' - (go, man) the whole map was suddenely covered with green arrows and red stripes and it told me that it could produce neither the direct route nor the most attractive route. Maybe MathNut's move out to the boonies was a good idea and my reputation for messing up computer programmes is obviously still valid.

If anyone else wants to try it out - City Plan Zürich with cycle/pedestrian routes (perhaps)

Move to Ticino, bicyclists do what they want to here.

Tom

I shouldn't have clicked on the 'Velo' box on the right hand side. It shows all the turns for cyclists and the effect is Zürich covered with Christmas Trees and red ribbon. With this function left blank, it calculated a couple of routes for me quite nicely, scenic or shortest for both cyclist and pedestrian. All is forgiven.

no, it is not just you. We recently moved to Adliswil and as it's been so nice, I thought cycling to work would be a great way of learning the area and getting ready for the MTB season.....

So, cycling for Adliswil to Selnau. Easy. Follow the river. Hit Selnau and what the Hell??? Who planned this god awful concoction of idiotic cycle lanes? They make you cycle up one way streets, on the pavement, cross from one side to the other constantly, then the generic "bike" sign appears at a t-junction with paths going all ways... and then when you finally reach HB there is a conrete block directly on the cycle path....

It took me 5 rides to find a decent route.

Today I cycled back from Uetliberg... Cycle sign to Adliswil pointed right. Went right.... no more signs going in my direction, but signs going the other way. Came to a T-juntion, no signs at all... Oh well.

Then hit the main road. (after much guessing) bike sign points me into a car park...

It's great that Zurich tries to be cycle friendly, but I think it was planned by a bike hating devil.

The bike map Nathu linked to is a good one to plan routes along the city if you are not familiar with the roads.

Of the few places I've lived in Zürich is by far the most cycle-friendly, but it did rank near the bottom (3.2) compared to other Swiss towns in a survey done last year, with only Fribourg (3.1) and Neuchâtel (3.2) ranking as low:

http://www.velostaedte.ch/fileadmin/...A4dte_2010.pdf

Aside from Fribourg and Neuchâtel, Lausanne was the only other one ranking under Zurich on its route network, but fared better in other factors.

The best towns for cyclists according to that survey: Winterthur, Burgdorf, Chur and Basel.

Bad news: I broke Zürich law on my folding bike last week.
Good news1: I am not the only one
Good news2: I didn't get fined.

Won't do ever again, promissed. Please don't tell the Basler immigration office, pleeeeeeeeeease.

As for the way to the lake, these are the route I normally take, from Museumstrasse on the north exit of the station (it goes halfway around the station first, so just remove the first hop if taking from the east/south exits of the station):

To the west side (Enge/Wollishofen/Kilchberg): East on Museumstrasse, right to Bahnhofquai, right again through Bahnhofplatz, left to Löwenstrasse, on to Talstrasse all the way to Bürkliplatz, then right to General-Guisan-Quai, and on left through Mythenquai.

To the east side (Seefeld/Zollikon/Küssnacht): East on Museumstrasse, right to Bahnhofquai but taking the middle cycling lane to stay on Bahnhofquai continuing through the tunnel, then left on the Uraniastrasse bridge (where the Schweizer Heimatwerk shop is and the Lindenhof hill starts), then right to Limmatquai just after the bridge, continuing on Limmatquai where it splits left from the Utoquai, then over that side of Bellevueplatz to Theaterstrasse and on to Seefeldstrasse, and right at your convenience down to Utoquai.

It's good to see I'm not the only one that is confused by the cycle paths in Zurich.

I especially love how they suddenly end, only to continue on the other side of the road a few meters along.