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news
Cambridge (CC licensed by mariosp)Cambridge City Deal board slammed after rejection of rural cycle routes
Campaigners have hit out at the board of Cambridge City Deal after it rejected a proposal to build long-distance cycling routes into the city from outlying towns and villages.
A meeting of the City Deal executive backed the Chisholm Trail and city-centre cycling facilities, but rejected longer-distance rural projects recommended by a January 12 meeting of the arger City Deal Assembly.
After the decision City Deal executive board members were slammed for not understanding how facilities enabling people to ride in from further away could help with the city's congestion problems.
According to Cambridge News, Cllr Steve Count and Cllr Ray Manning, the leaders of Cambridgeshire County and South Cambs District councils respectively, were singled out for criticism.
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for South Cambridgeshire, Cllr Sebastian Kindersley, said Cllr Manning was “hopelessly out of his depth”.
South Cambridgeshire District surrounds the city and includes villages such as Fulbourn, just 5 miles rom the city centre, Cottenham, 7 miles out and the new satellite village of Great Cambourne, 9 miles from the city and practically unreachable except by car.
South Cambridgeshire - dark green lines are cycleways (Image ©Google Maps)
Cllr Aidan Van de Weyer, a district councillor for Orwell and Barrington who has been active in the campaign for cycleways along the A10 corridor, added: “They clearly don’t see how a rural cycle route outside of Cambridge can make a contribution to reducing congestion, when the path along the busway has made a huge contribution.
“He (Cllr Manning) really failed to argue for anything except park and ride – they’re very good, but they only solve part of the problem.”
Cllr Manning told the meeting: “I believe park and ride sites are the most important thing we can do.
"If people can get to the edge of Cambridge quickly, leave their cars and either take a bus or cycle, if it’s only a mile or two to work, I believe that’s the biggest thing we can do to help.
“I’m quite lucky because I live about four or 500 yards from the guided busway. But this morning, as I actually sat there, I watched and there were 43 cars and vans and five artics that went past before someone went down the cycleway.
“They’re a very good idea, cycleways, but they’re not going to make a big impression on the number of people in South Cambridgeshire who are driving in.”
Great Chesterford parish councillor Gareth Bevens has been in the forefront of the campaign for cycling routes between Cambridge and Saffron Walden. He called the decision “very disappointing”.
He said: “We do have quite a significant barrier of mobility between communities south of Cambridge. It forces us to use cars when we don’t need to. There’s a viable alternative and a lot of support for it.
“We’re back to the drawing board now for funding solutions. We will have to take our place in the queue.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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17 comments
WIth fuckwit councillors like these making transport decisions that don't take into account cycling we're doomed.
I ride the GBW St Ives to Cambridge each day round trip. I don't ride the rural roads anymore as I used to, to get to it, instead I put my bike in the back of the car and drive. When I rode the rural roads each day was like riding a gauntlet. I could have been killed 10 times over, close passed punishment passed, swerved into, cut up, sworn at, threatened with extreme violence all for daring to ride my bike on a road slowing homicidal maniac drivers down which finally culminated with one of them driving into me a couple of years ago in a hit and run late one evening and leaving me for dead. Fortunately I lived.
These councillors are probably over weight unhealthy fuckers who could do with riding a bike. Let's hope they drop dead from a coronary for being so myopic.
Yeah, my 75 yo aunt should just 'harden up', right?
Well, she doesn't have to, as her route in Stockholm is now nicely segregated or using filtered permeability...
Well I don't suppose the sub-zero weather might have something to do with it when you don't de-ice the cycle path, now, would it?
Muppet.
And what were 43 cars and vans and five artics doing on the busway and don't you think that might deter cyclists from that section?
Muppet. Gonzo, probably.
ibike said:
I was referring to the modal share for cycle journeys which sits at around 1 to 2% nationally and has done for last decade or so. That period has witnessed an unprecedented interest in cycling. The nation’s garages and sheds are awash with billions of pounds worth of bikes yet still the modal share sits at this dismally low figure. It could barely get any lower.
There is a simple reason for this: people are too scared to venture out on the roads, and with very good reason. You have to share them cars, buses and lorries that are terrifying and lethal. I used to commute from Fulbourn into Cambridge, which is a comfortable distance for a bike ride, but instead chose to drive because the route was so unpleasant and dangerous on a bike.
If we genuinely want to see Britain become a nation of cyclists then we need to provide a dense network of high quality cycle lanes and safe routes. You know, like they do the Netherlands?
Even 9 miles hardly seems like long distance to me. It's 45 minutes at 12mph.
the_steve said:
If you want to attract the 98% of the population who don't cycle because it's too dangerous, yes.
At the expense of reinforcing many drivers' idea that bicycles aren't something that belongs on "their" roads. I'm of the opinion that education for drivers and cyclists is a far more positive action than segregation.
As long as we're thinking of ideal solutions, why can't we have both education and segregated cycling routes? Besides which, some drivers are just dicks and impossible to educate.
Based on what? Name one country where education alone has worked to increase cycling as a mode of transport while also reducing KSIs among all road users.
Remember that drivers are already supposed to be 'educated', yet they're responsible for almost 100% of the KSI on our roads. What use is further education?
Well, it's an opinion. Still disproven by every country that has a high modal share for everyday cycling across all ages.
Are rural cycle routes even needed?
(Other than motorways) if a car can get somewhere, so can a bike - just use the A roads and HTFU.
I commute Cheltenham to Evesham 16miles of single carriageway A roads the first the A435 isn't too bad, the second the A46(t) well it is a very unpleasant, lots of HGVs cutting from the M42 to the M5, as a cyclist with no viable alternative, other than drive, I HTFU! Doesn't really encourage others though, a colleague who cycles has stated the reason they will not ride to work is because they have to use that road. Others have quit in the winter because it means riding that road in the dark.
Provide a viable alternative and more people will cycle.
"HTFU" - whilst catchy - does not represent effective large-scale transport policy.
There are many people wish to ride a bicycle - not as an expression of their boundless machismo - but as a pleasant, efficient and civilised way of getting around.
These people's desires remain largely unfulfilled by the neglectful state of our country's infrastructure, and the potential for reshaping our transport system based on significant, mainstream levels of cycle usage remains untapped as a result.
"HTFU" may feel great to yell at people, but don't expect them to listen. They've got their own priorities which exist outside our lovely little sporty clique.
Yes. Hardened cyclists may take the A-roads, though by and large we shudder when we do.
I commute out of Cambridge daily to Babraham. Used to be about 3 of us, until last summer when the cycleway was built out to the Babraham Institute. Then dozens, lots of my colleagues who were simply too scared to ride on the road. As it was only useable from autumn last year, expect numbers to rise significantly as this year progresses.
The major issue is keeping the cycleways useable: no pro-active cutting of hedges/ trees, slow response when overgrown. Funnily enough, in the winter these routes need gritting just the same as the roads.
"Cyclists" may use the roads despite the conditions, but putting in some infrastructure allows "people on bikes" to commute, while keeping the die-hards safer.
I couldn't agree with you more, the A1307 is treacherous, and not enjoyable to ride on! I commute by bus from linton to cambridge along the A1307 and the only thing stopping me from doing it by bike is the fact that cars drive like morons on it! The new cycle way to the babraham institute is brilliant, but I wish they'd extended it to babraham village, then more people could use it as you can get to babraham village from linton, Abington and elsewhere on nice little roads.
I've cycled in a number of times on the A1307 and its always a lovely moment when you can join the cycle way!
Definitely more needed. Even if cyclists are prepared to ride on A roads, people that ride bikes are not, and this would definitely have a positive impact in reducing the congestion levels in the city!
Cambridge is getting increasingly worse for traffic congestion. 10 years ago I used to commute 40-60% of the time by bike for the health benefits. Today, if pressed for a singular reason I would say I commute by bike simply because sitting in stationary queues of traffic on the outskirts of the city once (sometimes twice) a day is soul destroying and a waste of life.
I do feel fortunate to at least have that option mind you. Some peoples circumstances both locally and around the rest of the country don't allow it, even if they wanted to.
From personal experience the P&R on the east side of the city is on the wrong side of the congestion build up - that starts at the A14. Getting from the A14 to the P&R can be more than 60% of my journey time but is about 10% of my journey distance. The only way to get people to the P&R more quickly is to reduce the congestion - by getting more people car sharing, using public transport from the outlying villages, or using bikes.