Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

forum
Tea Stop

New Dutch style roundabout in Cambridge

by Mungecrundle
Sat, Aug 08, 2020 18:34
5

If you want to see a somewhat crappy video click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A1zHexMiQHy6md2vUFJ6U8ZAl2DJ0xoO/view?u...

My Fly12 mount broke on the way up to Cambridge, shaken to death by what laughably passes as a path besides the A10 out of Royston. Not really a cycle track at all, but it's that or contend with 60mph cars on a busy road.

Anyway, Cambridge has lots of really good cycle infra and one of the first (the first?) Dutch style roundabouts near to Addenbrookes hospital. It looks complicated as a whole but it really is a doddle to use with the right hierarchy of Pedestrians first, cycles second and cars having to yield to both. https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/gallery/dutch-round...

Only issue I had (not in video) was a SUV driver who failed to yield entering the roundabout but as long as people don't try and race round it like a velodrome, should be OK.

The cost though is ridiculous. Ballooning from £800k to over £2 million! 2 years of disruption as well. Unfortunately that sort of project management error / incompetence / price gouging by contractors or whatever caused the cost overun could make it difficult to justify this style of roundabout in other places. I'm not totally convinced that the original basic roundabout was actually that difficult to navigate in the first place either.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

Add new comment

5 comments

Avatar
mdavidford | 4 years ago
3 likes

The new design already turns out to be dangerous...

...for those hard-to-spot belisha beacons.

Avatar
Richard D replied to mdavidford | 4 years ago
2 likes

I know.  Scary, isn't it?  When drivers cannot be relied upon not to hit something that is both completely stationary and designed to be easily seen, what chance do people on bikes have?

Avatar
mdavidford | 4 years ago
1 like

Quote:

The cost though is ridiculous. Ballooning from £800k to over £2 million! 2 years of disruption as well. Unfortunately that sort of project management error / incompetence / price gouging by contractors or whatever caused the cost overun could make it difficult to justify this style of roundabout in other places.

Quite possibly true, but not necessarily fair. Cost overruns like this are, unfortunately, common on infrastructure projects of all kinds, and, in the absence of further evidence, there's no particular reason to assume that the cycling- and walking-friendly design is behind the slippage in this case.

Avatar
Rome73 | 4 years ago
3 likes

I think almost any cycle infrastructure is positive as it 'normalises' cycling and makes other road users aware that cycles are part of urban mobility. This project is the first of its kind in the UK so perhaps there was overspend and delay. The next one will be implemented more efficiently. 

The original roundabout may not have been that difficult to circumvent, the difference is that this roundabout affords priority to the most vulnerable first; pedestrian, cycle, motor vehicle (although in the vid you attached I noticed a van completely ignored the priority and cut across two cycles) 

Avatar
Nick T replied to Rome73 | 4 years ago
2 likes

Bad infrastructure is worse than not having any imo. I chose not to use a cycle lane yesterday, shared use with pedestrians, going through bus stops, then on the road, back on the pavement, between parked cars and pavement, across a junction on the wrong side of priority, back on the road.. travelling at 40kph I'm safer for everyone to be on the road, but the drivers who are slowing me down still take the time to remind me to get in the cycle lane

Latest Comments