Issues

This section lists issues - problems on the street network and related matters.

Issues always relate to some geographical location, whether very local or perhaps city-wide.

You can create a new issue using the button on the right.

Listed issues, most recent first, limited to the area of Cambridge Cycling Campaign:

  • Stanley Road / Garlic Row / Oyster Row

    Created by Simon Nuttall // 1 thread

    A campaign member and resident of the area has sent this:

    I've just received a consultation paper from the City Council for residents of Stanley Road, Garlic Row and Oyster Row. I've summarised the proposals below.Scheme 2 Option B seemed the most significant.

    Scheme 1. Extension of parking and loading restrictions on Stanley Road
    Scheme 2, Option A. "No entry except cycles" on Garlic Row adjacent to the junction with Mercers Row
    Scheme 2, Option B. Oyster Row becomes one-way in the northeasterly direction. No exemption for cycles.

    Comments to Gavin Card at the City Council by the 30th March (gavin.card@cambridge.gov.uk or PO Box 700, CB1 0JH)

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  • 12/0300/FUL infill house rear 27 Histon Road

    Created by Rohan Wilson // 0 threads

    The adjacent, approved plot, 11/05530/FUL designed by the same architectural practice, places the cycle cupboard next to the front door and closer to it than is the car.

    THIS proposal, however, offers the standard back-of-garden shed for bins and bikes, with the bikes beyond the bins, while the car driver door is adjacent to the house front door...

    Note Manual for Streets 8.2.1, quoted in a prominent panel on p5 of the Cambridge Cycle Parking Guide:
    "In residential developments, designers should aim to make access to cycle storage at least as convenient as access to car parking."

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  • Change of use, office to study rooms: 89 Regent Street

    Created by Rohan Wilson // 1 thread

    This comment is on behalf of Sustrans, the charity that’s enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of the journeys we make every day.

    The site is proposed as study rooms for students aiming to enter university. Thus they would be old enough to cycle independently within Cambridge, for example between their places of residence and the various study buildings.

    Remarkably, it is suggested (Planning Statement) that the students might park their bikes on Station Road where cycle parking is available, and might be augmented, and walk to the proposed site. This is a distance of 700m, taking 10 minutes at a normal walking pace plus any waiting time to cross the East Road/ Regent Street junction. Any student with a cycle at Station Road would be likely to wish to use it to continue to the proposed site, if parking arrangements provided there were reasonably convenient and secure.

    We are told that the Regent Street site is closer to the student residences than Free School Lane, but no more definite information is given as to how far the residences are from the proposed site or from Station Road.

    The city's cycle parking standards are presumably set to reflect normal levels of demand from staff and students, and no explanation is given as to why "very few students have bicycles".

    The access to the suggested cycle parking in a narrow yard at the rear of the building is presumably the gated passageway to its north. This is not made clear, nor is it clear whether there are steps to be negotiated. It seems impossible that more than perhaps a dozen bicycles could be parked in the yard most of whose width appears to be less than a bike's length, leaving no room for daily or emergency access with the parking arrangement indicated.

    The transport aspects of this proposal have not been examined in sufficient detail for their impact to be properly assessed, but it is certain that there is insufficient space for the level of cycle parking required. There appears to be no disabled access. We therefore object.

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  • Use change to Children's Gym: 34 Clifton Road

    Created by Rohan Wilson // 1 thread

    12/0342/FUL 12 cycle spaces indicated but space looks inadequate (no dimensions or layout shown)

    This comment is on behalf of Sustrans, the charity that’s enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of the journeys we make every day.

    The site is on a local cycle link and thus it is reasonable, in the context of Cambridge, to anticipate a high proportion of parents and children arriving by bicycle. Indeed, bearing in mind the limited car parking available we would recommend that a travel plan strongly promoting cycle access for staff and users be required.

    We object because we do not believe that the cycle parking space(s) allocated are consistent with the stated aim and the need to achieve high cycling levels. In particular, tagalongs, trailers and large carrier-bikes are likely to form a high proportion of customer cycles. The dimensions of the small, unsheltered enclosure (designed as a bin store in the current use of the site?) and a proposed layout are not given but look insufficient, and include a narrow entrance.

    If cycles for say 30% of 18 customers, their children and 8 staff were to arrive by bike (say 3 staff, 6 adult customers and 8 children during a single class) then allowing a 50% margin for changeover between classes, space would be needed for a variety of types of bike and trailer to accommodate some 3 staff, 9 adult and 12 children customers.

    This sort of calculation and the detail of the use of the cycle parking spaces do not seem to have been presented by the applicant, and should be required and assessed before the application is determined. We suggest that at least one car space would have to be used to accommodate sufficient cycles on this site.

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  • Long Road unsafe

    Martin Lucas-Smith // 1 thread

    Cycling on Long Road can be pretty hazardous and unpleasant. There needs to be a lower speed limit (30mph) as a minimum.

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  • Planning application at Addenbrooke's "Titanic" MRC building for new cycle sheds

    Created by Heather Coleman // 1 thread

    I've just come across
    http://idox.cambridge.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=LZDOOTDX07B00

    Basically, it's an area which was surveyed in the summer, where we identified that the current cycle parking was rubbish.

    They are planning to improve the spacing, and make it secure sheds, but at the cost of reducing the number of spaces, which oddly I inspected the other lunchtime and all were full apart from the "wheelbenders at 30cm spacing", from 178 spaces to 146 spaces. When we did our survey, we felt more spaces could be fitted in, at a better spacing, than what is currently there. There is more detail in the Design and Access Statement regarding the lighting than there is about the actual sheds, how you get in and out of them, and whether you can easily park a bike in them.

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  • Lack of joined up information on Council websites

    Created by Heather Coleman // 1 thread

    I've just sent a sharp email to the Council. It reads as below. If the council can't do joined up information on their own websites, how do they expect people to make these modal shifts in transport that they are so keen on?

    "Dear Parking services,
    I've just done a google search on this.

    http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=park+st+car+park+ca
    mbridge&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=eZdMT-vbLsnu8QPw7pHXAg

    first item says "multi-story car park with cycle parking and pushchairs
    for loan".

    However, when you then go to the Park St car park page, it says nothing
    about either cycle parking being available, nor about the pushchair loan
    scheme. How about a link to

    http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/transport-and-streets/cycling-and
    -walking/cycle-parks.en

    on the website, so we don't have to do a separate search, so that when
    people go to the Park St website, they can get all of its features? They
    may even then decide to cycle into town rather than drive.

    I was looking for this information as I was just emailing a friend who
    lives in Chesterton and has a nine month old child, who I wasn't sure
    would be aware of this scheme, which she may find useful. However, if we
    have to spend five minutes doing exactly the correct google searches, it
    counts as a "secret facility" apart from those in the know.

    I wasn't aware, for example, that you could also get pushchairs at the
    Grand Arcade one. This information needs better dissemination, and
    linking from within the car park and other public transport pages, so
    that people can make a properly informed decision about their transport
    choices when visiting the city. This, surely, is the way to get modal
    shifts in people's transport choices?"

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  • Temporary road closures due to races

    Created by Heather Coleman // 2 threads

    e.g.

    A report in the Cambridge News
    http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Streets-due-to-be-closed-to-traffic-for-the-race-24022012.htm

    The car-centric paper talks about motorists, but there is of course no information for cyclists and pedestrians. These are roads that are closed. To all traffic including cyclists and pedestrians? Will routes across the Commons also be closed to cyclists?

    How should those of us who have to work that day in the centre of town get to work? Will it paradoxically be easier for me to drive along the A14 and M11, down the Barton Road, and park my car on West Road, and walk through King's, than cycle through Chesterton and Midsummer Common and through town and try to park my bike on King's Parade?

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  • Lighting Gough Way

    Created by cobweb // 1 thread

    A proposal to light the Gough Way cycle/footpath with solar- powered, directional cats eyes. The footbridge will be upgraded soon, so this is the next step. The route is well used.

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  • Cycle path on Lammas Land

    Created by cobweb // 1 thread

    A proposal to put in a new cycle path on the southern side of Lammas Land. The comment next to this in the report dismisses it because of the access road. They feel the loss of green space outweighs the need for it.

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