Panton Street - needs to be two-way for cycling
This area of town has lots of children having to cycle round the main road because there is one-way cycling - we should get the council to make it two way.
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:
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138 homes on City FC site, Mitcham's Corner 12/1211/FUL
An application for 148 homes 11/0008/FUL was refused by Planning Committee(against officer recommendation) on 4 April. Cycle parking "storage" is generally less easy to reach than car parking, and it appears that for the central blocks it is proposed in a shared basement area - I haven't found the drawing for the basement.
There is no access to the site except by the narrow road around the existing Westbrook office block - the site is a deep enclave.
The issues for cycling are probably virtually identical to previously. One of various reasons for previous refusal was "...lack of transport mitigation measures..." and the Highways provisional comment on the current one outlines concerns. I fear that cycle and pedestrian access issues were not previously considered grounds for refusal and that therefore we might be fighting a lost cause... have contacted the officer about this, and hope to submit a comment for Sustrans.
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Ice Rink on Parker's Piece
There have been problems before with unsatisfactory cycle parking and obstruction of the paths across this busy green space. New people are providing the ice rink this year though.
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Carmageddon: Improving Congestion Message Signs in Cambridge
On Hills Rd Bridge (etc) a large message sign displaying 5 lines of text and two screens warns of delays because of upcoming building work in central Cambridge (Lensfield Rd etc)
I am minded to write to the city early on Monday
Re: Message signs warning of congestion due to street works
Dear Madam, Sir,
We would like to make an suggestion regarding the text displayed on the mobile message signs currently warning of major road works and congestion. Our suggestions would be to add the words “Thanks for cycling” and “Try the bicycle to avoid delays” (alternating).
We believe it is entirely appropriate to use any major road-works as an opportunity to encourage the use of active transportation, because it is proven to reduce congestion. Such messages will also deliver an important message about the status of cycling in the city. The expression of gratitude expressed in the first suggestion is especially important, as it sets a tone of public appreciation.
We would also like to remind you that a recent Freeway closure in Los Angeles was widely advertised by local authorities as “Carmageddon” and residents were encouraged to participate in local bike rides, organised by the regional transportation authority (METRO), to overcome the expected delays. Given our own little Carmageddon, should Cambridge not do the same ?
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Feedback please, contacts, CCs to the press, Travel to work, etc -
Mitcham's Corner redevelopment
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Development-plan-for-Mitchams-Corner-unveiled-28092012.htm
In summary: Staples and Lloyd’s bank are due to be demolished in this redevelopment. There's a consultation meeting next Friday from 2-7pm and on Saturday from 10am - 2pm at The Tivoli pub which is opposite.
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Sustrans to Visit Cambridge
Jim C raised this in an email to SUSTRANS: ...if staff from the London office would find an 'Awayday' in Cambridge an interesting outing?
> Cambridge can be great in the spring, and if a trip is in term time
you can see just the sorts of diverse cycles and cyclists (diversity)
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> I'm sure we can create a good itinerary, covering innovative
locations, tourist hotspots, and key cycle facilities.
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> As I said at the time, why go 'Dutch' to see examples of cycle
culture, when in Cambridge you can see what can be achieved in the UK. -
International Cycling Safety Conference 2012, Helmond (NL)
International Cycling Safety Conference 2012, 7 Nov
Location: Helmond, The Netherlands
Costs: 150 Euro
Twitter hashtag: #safecycling2012 -
Business Improvement District (BID) proposal
Proposal for a Business Improvement District which would replace (?) "Love Cambridge". http://www.cbbid.co.uk/
Proposal is all about safety, cleanliness, city ambassadors, ultimately revenue
Beverly Carpenter from millroadsociety.org has a very spirited and serious response in the local paper
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Bidding-to-make-the-most-from-city-12092012.htm (does not include the "threat to diversity" argument present in the print version)
She calls it an attempt to privatise public space, privatise policing, (BID's don't honor Freedom of information requests) and turning the city centre into a shopping centre
I have seen these BIDs working in other places: ambassadors whizzing around on strange wheeled things, trying to enforce "no cycling" rules, but also a large budget which funded an annual festival.
The proposal has no language about car parking this is a topic that needs to be very closely watched from the bicycle saddle.
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Qualitative Cycle Infrastructure Assessment
What if we could create a standardised method of assessing cycling infrastructure, either proposed by developers or existing?
Northstowe used something called the "IHT Cycle Audit Guidelines" that appear to be from 1996. Perhaps something better can be done that follows a more continental approach?
Thoughts? Opinions?
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Link needed from Guided Bus to Hills Road Bridge
This is a proposal for a link joining the Guided Busway cycleway and Hills Road bridge.
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Developer contributions - S106
Several meetings, in each area committee location to discuss s106 money and how it should be spent. Details below.
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/planning-and-building-control/developer-contributions.en
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Transport Corridor Funding
On a bi-annual basis, the funding for S106 projects is to be reviewed with Area Committee recommendations going to Cabinet for final approval.
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12/1071/FUL Change of use from Pool and Snooker club
This is a change of use application to turn Mickey Flynns from a snooker hall to shops, financial services and a café.
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Cambourne Retail Planning Application S/1666/12/F
Planning application for 5 retail units - cycle parking required.
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Joshua Taylor - change of use
Change of use for the former Joshua Taylor building to provide 12 residential units over three floors.
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Whittlesford Station
The possibility of a new cycle/walking route from Whittlesford station in part using funds from proposed adjacent development (Relocation of Welches transport depot from Stapleford/Shelford
The platform which is c 264m long extends beneath A505 overbridge.
Longest trains are 240m (12 coaches). This route was investigated some 10 years ago.
Greater Anglia say a route is not possible. I regard this as a stuck rather than locked door.
It may be possible with the use of a fence to take over all of last few metres or to have half (if half cyclist dismount signs may be needed)
As a very last resort to may be REQUIRED for those with bikes to walk.
I can see no reason why a walking route cannot be permitted.
Any 'risk' crossing A505 at grade must be orders of magnitude greater than using end of platform! -
Location Fees for Cycle Free Filming
"Anyone who uses the racks in St John's Street, Trinity Street, and King's Parade, may have seen notices about filming this week. They're suspending cycle parking for Wednesday and Thursday 'due to the nature of the filming'. The mind boggles" (Bev)
The suspension notice (elevation, lifting?) says "We have been working with Cambridge council to achieve this. " This phrase probably means that the production company has negotiated a location fee with the city council for filming on Cambridge streets, and to film "bike free". If it is correct that the CCC represents Cambridge Cyclists, and in so far as our constituency bears the impact of this "suspension", we would be well placed to receive some compensation for the inconvenience forced upon local cyclists. 1000 £ or 2000 £ could buy us a lot of bike badges (pins), including blue ones of course
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/business/licensing-and-permissions/filming.en
citycentremanagement@cambridge.gov.uk -
12/1040/FUL 6 houses, internal access road parking
Two 5 bed houses, five 4 bed houses, internal access road plus car and cycle parking.
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Poor-quality cycle parking at Geography Department
Poor-quality cycle parking at Geography.
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12/1014/FUL New shop front for Unit 5, CB1 development
A new shop front for a Co-op store with an ATM to the side elevation.
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12/0968/FUL Installation of one bike stand
The installation of one stand in the boundary of M&S facing Market Hill Square.
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12/0925/FUL Removal of cycle shed and build a new timber furniture store
Madgelene College (at Cripps Court) wish to remove a cycle shed in order to build a timber furniture store. The design and access statement, justifying this, says that few of the racks are used.
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12/0929/FUL NIAB site external works
External works including pedestrian access ramp, alterations to bin storage, covered cycle parking, staff and visitor car parking etc.
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12/0966/FUL Erection of 6 studio units and a retail unit
8 cycle racks shown in the ground floor plan. A retail unit is likely to have some effect on traffic.
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12/0967/CAC Demolition of 191-193 Mill Road
An application to demolish 191 and 193 Mill Road (opposite St Phillip's Church and replace with 6 studio units and a retail unit. It's a conservation area.
This map shows all issues, whether points, routes, or areas:
The most popular issues, based on the number of votes:
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Chisholm Trail
Proposed route along the rail corridor through Cambridge, part of which is in the Cambridge Local Plan.
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NCN route 11 and the Waterbeach Gap
I've visited Riverside to Waterbeach with William Rayner of county cycling team. He's revising signage here and providing it along the St Ives corridor, with the old NCN 51 being renamed Regional Route 24 (blue patch). We've decided finally to continue to sign NCN 11 from Riverside Bridge to Waterbeach Station, and he's looking at suitable (hopefully temporary) wording to advise to follow NCN 51 to Bottisham for destinations beyond Waterbeach, which will hopefully eliminate misrouting those from outside the area.
Our inspection of existing signs showed that only one new signboard was provided on completion 5 years ago of Riverside Bridge. Signboards still send people via Green Dragon. Sustrans considers signage is an important part of any route project.
The intention is to sign Milton Country Park as a destination, not as part of the route, removing route signs within the park, and probably retaining Coles Road as the signed route through the village, though it would be much preferable to have improvements past the shops and the village green, pubs etc.
Retaining the route to Waterbeach as NCN will help keep the gap in people's awareness.
I am planning to contact again the landowner of the missing link between Bottisham Lock and Fen Road, Lode with a suggestion for a low-level route, southeast side of the Bottisham Lode floodbank which is the route of the public footpath, where signs forbid cycling. It might be considered more visually acceptable. All parish councils are for the route, including the one of which he is a member.
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Safer Walking and Cycling between NW Cambridge and Girton
Our campaign for safer walking and cycling to/from NWCambridge now has a petition and a first video (of five) summarising our position.
See our new video summarising our petition:
https://youtu.be/hIlQAzsU0js?t=1sI’d be delighted if you could promote this to your networks. Time is of the essence because a Senate House discussion is coming up [3 Nov 2015], and I will report the number of signatures on our petition there. (But signatures after the date will still be useful.)
More information:
http://tinyurl.com/EddingtonSafetyThe petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/EddingtonSafetyAnyone is welcome to sign the petition; we ask people to use the Comment field to let us know if they are University Member / University employee / City resident / SouthCambs resident / etc.
For twitter purposes the recommended hashtag is #EddingtonSafety and there is an @EddingtonSafety account too.
Thanks very much
David
David J C MacKay FRS
djcm1@cam.ac.ukRegius Professor of Engineering,
Cambridge University Engineering DepartmentAuthor of “Sustainable Energy - without the hot air” www.withouthotair.com
and “Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms” www.inference.eng.cam.ac.uk/mackay/Girton resident and parent.
Cambridge Cycling Campaign Member -
Lack of cycle routes to Cambridge Business Park, Waterbeach
My employer is planning to relocate from central cambridge to the Cambridge Business Park (near Waterbeach). There is currently no decent cycle (or footpath!) access to this business park which avoids riding along the A10. I am a confident cyclist but I am not looking forward to riding to work along sections of the A10.
Are there any plans for cycle route construction which the campaign can, perhaps, help accelerate?
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Bar Hill to Cambridge Cycleway
There is a campaign for a cycle route between Bar Hill and Cambridge, also connecting Dry Drayton, Madingley and Coton to North-West Cambridge.
Currently cycle provision for these villages is poor. Bar Hill has lower rates of cycling than other villages that are closer to Cambridge.
The campaign site is: http://www.bhddmadcycle.com/
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Reach Fair Ride
The Reach Fair ride takes place on the early Bank Holiday Monday (May Day) in May.
The web page for it is:
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/rides/The planning overview is summarised:
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/rides/timeline.htmlI've created this issue to help plan this event.
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Replace Hooper Street gates with bollard
The permeability gate between Hooper Street and Kingston Street is obstructive as it only allows passage in one direction at a time.
Given the ever-increasing amount of cycling in areas like this, it's time to get this replaced with a simple bollard arrangement that would allow two-way passage whilst still enable the emergency services to unlock for access in an emergency.
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Dangerous to cross Milton Road diagonally at Toucan crossing
As the bridleway crosses Milton Road, it swaps sides of the busway, so most pedestrians and cyclists want to cross diagonally. However the toucan crossing only protects people crossing Milton Road. It doesn't stop busway traffic.
This is confusing and dangerous. When the road traffic stops at red lights, and the Toucan crossing turns green, it feels very safe to cross the busway. Yet buses can come from three directions (busway west, busway east, Milton Road south) at speeds of 30 mph.
Cyclists in particular are tempted to cross diagonally from north west to south east. Last week I saw a near accident.
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A14 very hostile for cycling
The A14 is a very hostile, dangerous road for cycling.
Improvements to it, as well as broader changes to the national framework for cyclist crossings of major roads, are needed.
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Parking policy review
The County appointed an officer back in June to review parking policy across the County, starting with the City.
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The 'Milton Road Effect'
Vehicles are continually abusing cyclists who use the road here because the bus lane on the other side forces the carriageway to be narrow.
Although there is the cycleway, it has the usual problems of loss of priority at sideroads, bins in the way, people going in and out of driveways, etc.
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Upgrading Milton Road to Dutch standards
Milton Road, like other main roads in the city, is a mix of typically bad bits of cycle infrastructure. There is considerable scope, possibly within the City Deal funding, to rework the whole streetscape to Dutch standards.
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Cottenham to Histon Cycleway
The Cottenham to Histon cycleway needs improvement.
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Improved cycling facilities on A603 in Barton
The current Barton to Cambridge off road cycle path starts at the White Horse in Barton. During term time Cambridge bound traffic is now backed up and slow moving throughout Barton along the A603. This leaves no clear safe route for cyclists. The road has white hatchings down the middle and would be wide enough for a proper on-road cycle lane to leave a safe passage past the queuing vehicles.
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Poor exit from West Cambridge site onto Clerk Maxwell Road
There's a very poor dogleg right-angle with barriers at the entrance/exit from the West Cambridge site to Clerk Maxwell Road.
This should be turned into a wide splay with good visibility.
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State of Waterbeach-Lode link
Has there been any improvement in the "new" NCN 11 route from Waterbeach to Lode since last summer? Last time I went that way I had to wheel the bike across fields and carry it over two or three stiles.
Any information, including a forecast date when a proper route is likely to be built, welcome. Thanks.
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Emmanuel College 12/0029/FUL
Starting a thread about this application here so we can continue on from the previous planning list discussion.
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Northstowe Planning Application
Major planning application here - c. 10,000 homes
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Railway Route between Cambridge and Cherry Hinton
The railway line from Cambridge to Newmarket turns out across Coldham's Common and right through the middle of Cherry Hinton, and then carries on passing to the north of Fulbourn.
There are currently (2013) two main routes from the east of Cambridge to Cherry Hinton - the Tins and Snakey Path. However both have long very narrow sections involving pedestrian conflict.
The railway line is single track - but satellite images show the bridges crossing Barnwell Road and Coldham's Lane were both built for dual track. So this means there should easily be enough room to accommodate a cycleway alongside the railway.
This route could then connect up with the Chisholm Trail and provide a direct fast cycle route to and from the city and the Science Park area.
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Landbeach to Cambridge Cycleway
The Landbeach Parish Council would like the bridgeway from Landbeach to Cambridge to be upgraded to a cycleway.
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Should Cambridge 'Go Dutch' (or Danish)
London Cycling Campaign has reorientated its policy towards a 'Go Dutch' approach.
This aims to learn from best practice abroad rather than continuing with the 'hierarchy of provision' that, in 20 years in the UK, has arguably failed to deliver meaningful change.
This is an overarching issue for conceptual discussion of this issue.
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Girton Interchange "Improvements"
At the moment it is possible to cycle from Cambridge Road, near Madingley, to Girton, on a bridleway that crosses over the A428 and then passes under the M11 at the Girton Interchange. You can then cross three roads (A1307) and reach a pavement on the North-East side of the Interchange. Using the pavement you can then reach Washpit Lane and cycle up towards Girton. (The pavement is marked as a shared-use route on the OSM Cycle map, although I am not sure that it really is.)
Apart from having to be careful when crossing the A1307 junction it is a rather pleasant route to ride.
The Girton Interchange is being "improved" to reduce the bottleneck for cars. Does anyone know what plans there are to ensure that the current route through remains open and whether there are plans to improve the bridleway route through? Or will this be another example of roads being developed to the detriment of footpaths/bridleways.
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Proper cycle provision on Cherry Hinton Road needed
Cherry Hinton Road is currently mainly typical 'blue sign on a pavement' provision, despite having the edge-to-edge width in places for proper cycle provision. A longer-term objective should be to upgrade this.
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Evil posts on busway cycleway
There are some evil short grey posts on the busway cycleway that are really hard to see in the dark. I have heard of a number of people hitting them with disastrous consequences
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Cambridge Cycling Campaign's "Project Orange"
Project Orange is an attempt develop our general strategy during the year 2013.
It involves
1) Should Cambridge Go Dutch (or Copenhagenize)
2) A more assertive stance in our interactions with agencies: Demanding of them to make feasible what seems infeasible
3) focus on a regional area 10 miles (15 km) around Cambridge and a dartboard network structure to connect villages,
4) the development of a Bicycle Infrastructure Assessment Tool (BIAC) which will allow us to grade and praise provision
5) Priority over sideroads as part of a Dutch-style approach
5) Development of Visualisation Tools for major projects (Chisholm Trail, Newnham to Newmarket Rd, Mitcham's Corner)