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Floating bus stops improving safety of Cambridge cyclists suggests report

No interactions with motor vehicles out of 3,656 cyclists observed passing the stops

A report commissioned by Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) and carried out by Sustrans has suggested that Cambridge’s ‘floating bus stops’ are improving safety for cyclists. After monitoring all interactions between road users at two such stops across 28 hours of CCTV footage, Sustrans rated all interactions as being ‘safe, normal behaviour’.

CCC are implementing a series of floating bus stops within the Cambridgeshire area. They asked Sustrans to review footage of the Hills Road and Huntingdon Road stops to see whether they were proving effective.

Sustrans looked at 28 hours of footage, spanning three days, with 2,456 cyclists observed passing the Hills Road stop and 1,200 passing the Huntingdon Road stop. No interactions were observed between cyclists and motor vehicles (including buses).

Furthermore, 99 per cent of cyclists were involved in no interaction with pedestrians. Of the 42 interactions that did occur between pedestrians and cyclists, all were at peak times, and all scored one or two on a five-point scale.

Level one was defined as: ‘Precautionary or anticipatory braking/slowing down when risk of collision is minimal’.

Level two was defined as: ‘Controlled braking, slowing down or stepping aside to avoid collision (but with ample time for manoeuvre)’.

Cambridgeshire County Councillor Ian Bates, Chairman of the Economy and Environment Committee, told Cambridge News:

“The report’s findings are particularly pleasing, and give reassurance of the safety benefits offered by this new design of bus stop for Cambridge. The County Council is committed to providing safe networks for all road users. I welcome ongoing engagement with disability groups, pedestrians, cyclists and bus operators to see if the designs require any further enhancements.”

The report did however highlight one issue which Sustrans said could have future safety implications: large groups of pedestrians using the cycle lane as an extension of the pavement at Hills Road, especially when the bus stop was congested.

This seemed to be particularly common after school, with the report stating: “They usually do not appear to be as attentive to the flow of traffic with some students appearing to cross back and forth along the cycle lane without any apparent justifications for these movements.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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13 comments

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Cantab | 7 years ago
1 like

I frequently commute down Hills Rd. Have the floating bus stops made things safer? Logically yes, because I'm further from the traffic. Can this report quantify that? No because it doesn't have a comparison/control.

With respect to pedestrians, most are fine, capable of treating the cycle lane like a small road, and most cyclists slow down adequately.

I have definitely encountered the odd idiot who stands in or blindly wanders across the lane. My impression (but it is only that) is that these tend to be the foreign students who are shipped in by 'language colleges' presumably with huge fees attached, and thus may be less attuned to British road environments (and normally very closely attuned to their smartphone screen).

From the cyclist's point of view, the more considerable issues are motorists turning across the cycle lane without due care or attention, delivery drivers who think it is a convenient parking area, and motorists who are too impatient to wait behind someone who is waiting to make a turning (and therefore use the cycle lane to cut round).

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cammackmartin | 7 years ago
1 like

This article is in fact incorrect. Firstly the study did not look at interactions with motor vehicles but between cyclists and pedestrians at the bus stop/getting on and off buses. Secondly, and most imprtantly, the SUSTRANS study you refer to does not claim that these bus stops make it safer for cyclists. It studies 28h of CCTV footage and shows a low level of interaction between cyclists and pedestrians. It states clearly in the conclusion:

"It is unclear due to a lack of baseline data whether the new bus stops have increased or decreased interactions at these sites."

So it specifically says that it cannot say that the bus stops are safer than before they were installed. Additionally they highlight some causes for concern regarding pedestrians using the cycle lane to stand or walk in which is consistent with previous research looking at shared pathways where cycle lane and walkway are together. In these it is found that it is pedestrians that tend to walk on the cycle lane rather than cyclists going onto the walkway. This phenomena is influenced by traffic levels in each of the areas.

On the two stretches of road they studied in this SUSTRANS audit, only 2 incidents involving cyclists have been reported, on each stretch, to police in the last 5 years. So significant incidents were already rare. To prove that these bus stops make it safer for cyclists, a lot more than 28h of cctv footage would need to be analysed.

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kitsunegari | 7 years ago
0 likes

They seem pretty good so far, but time will tell if they're treated like all other cycling infrastructure in Cambridge and left to ruin, and never swept clean of debris.

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jhsmith87 | 7 years ago
0 likes

I use the Hills Road as part of my commute, I think they are a great idea & so far I have no had any issues with pedestrians. You have to slow down if you happen to be behind another cyclist, as the lane narrows from a double width to a single but other than that the design appears to work well. Now to fix some of the other roads/junctions in the UK...!

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Al__S | 7 years ago
1 like

The ones in Cambridge are considerably better designed than the ones on CS2 in east London- which aren't that bad themselves.

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Housecathst | 7 years ago
1 like

I'm surprised Sustrans didn't suggest putting 20 Chicanes on each cycle lane and resurfacing them in that material with all the properties of crushed glass that only they can supply.

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RPK | 7 years ago
0 likes

They work well if they are designed well.  I ride through one which has car parking at the exit point, so while you can bypass a bus stop, you are likely to plow side on into a vehicle turning into the parking space.  Before the bypass, I could just ride round the parking vehicle.

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ajmisquitta | 7 years ago
2 likes

This is really good news - not surprising, but good all the same. Anyone recall the councillor from Fulbourn and the 'kamikaze cyclists' claim? Here's the article:

http://road.cc/content/news/120222-cambridge-segregated-bike-lanes-postp...

All that 'concern' by John Williams (LibDem from Fulbourn) and David Jenkins (Histon) over what has turned out to be a non-issue! I cycle this route everyday and to date have encountered problems mainly with motor vehicles parked on the cycle lane (one of them actually reversed into two of us on cycles) and only one with a fellow cyclist who thought he could overtake exactly at the bus stop where the path narrows. 

 

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Chuck replied to ajmisquitta | 7 years ago
1 like

ajmisquitta wrote:

This is really good news - not surprising, but good all the same.

I don't mind saying I was surprised, that seemed to be a terrible idea to me in terms of bus passenger/cyclist problems. Happy for it to be shown that it's not though mail

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imajez | 7 years ago
1 like

Something to bear in mind is that the more common such things are and the more they are used, the better people use them. i.e. in this case pedestrians won't bimble aound on bike path as they tend to do near traditiona bustops.

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nowasps | 7 years ago
6 likes

Yes, but you can prove anything with facts.

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Ush replied to nowasps | 7 years ago
0 likes

nowasps wrote:

Yes, but you can prove anything with facts.

 

Well, the important thing is to identify what the facts are and what they mean.  As pointed out below by Cammackmartin and Cantab it is not clear at all what is shown by this study.

 

If Sustrans had gone and stood at the same location and counted the interactions between cyclists and motorized vehicles would they have been the same/lower/higher?

 

How rare is the type of accident for which this is ostensibly designed?  Following on from that how many datapoints would you need in order to draw a conclusion.

 

 

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paulrattew | 7 years ago
0 likes

No shit Sherlock

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