Rampton to Northstowe Cycleway
The Rampton to Northstowe cycleway needs to have a decent surface so that people from Rampton and Cottenham can access Northstowe on a bicycle.
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 Cyclenation:
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Ring Fort Path
There is a need for a link between the A14 Histon interchange with Ring Fort Path in Orchard Park.
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A14 Histon Interchange is Hostile to Bikes
The A14 Histon Interchange is hostile to bikes as their is no way to safely cross the entrance slip roads onto the A14.
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Cottenham to Histon Cycleway
The Cottenham to Histon cycleway needs improvement.
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North West Cambridge site - planning application
Major planning for 3,000 houses between Madingley Road and Huntingdon Road.
It will also have shops, University laboratories, etc.
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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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Northstowe Planning Application
Major planning application here - c. 10,000 homes
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New gate - why can't I cycle *in* here?
The new gate is exit-only but it's obvious that people will want to cycle in.
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Signage
Sign indicates permissive cycleway through Church although additional signage indicates that cyclists must dismount
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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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Improve signage coming out of underpass on guided busway
Lack of signage to indicate hidden corner and t-junction coming out of underpass on guided busway heading into Cambridge
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Visibility at Perne Road / Cherry Hinton Road junction
It is intimidating to use this roundabout because of the high shrubbery in the middle. It is supposed to slow traffic down but my subjective feeling is that it doesn't
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Unregulated car parking becoming endemic here
Since the private enforcement regime stopped, car parking is becoming endemic here.
This is ruining the feeling of this estate.
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Elmers End junction
This junction can be dangerous for cyclists due to narrow pinch points, and drivers being too eager to jump past them, and are happy to frighten cyclists by honking their horns due to them "being in the way", when they are just taking the primary position so that they don't get knocked off their bike.
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Poor road quality on Newmarket Road
It has an uneven degraded surface in the cycle lanes from the Elizabeth Way roundabout until the bridge.
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Downing College now banning cycling through their grounds
Downing College are cracking down further on people cycling through the area. Gate now moved and is locked.
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Wandle path bypass for Earlsfield
Garratt Lane at Earlsfield station sucks massively for cyclists, and is a jarring interruption to the Wandle Trail (Sustrans route 20). It would be great to extend the riverside path underneath the railway to avoid this dangerous stretch of road.
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Missing "except cyclists" sign
When heading west along Leigham Court Road towards Streatham Hill Station, there is a sign saying no right turn into Mount Nod Road. However, there is a "cycle plug" there, so the no right turn sign should have an "except for cyclists" underneath.
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Can't cycle along Hillside Passage
There's a nice cycle route along Mount Nod Road into Hillside Road that's interrupted by a short section of path marked "No Cycling". Adding a cycle path would remove an (unsigned) detour via Faygate Road.
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Regent Terrace
Get rid of the car parking in this street and replace with cycle racks - swapping 10s of customers for 100s for local businesses.
This map shows all issues, whether points, routes, or areas:
The most popular issues, based on the number of votes:
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Pinch point created by pedestrian crossing
The current layout of the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Winchester road and Vermont close forces cyclists out of the cycle lane and into the flow of traffic. This is a risky maneuver and relies on the patience of the car driver behind the cyclist. A possible solution would be to be extend the cycle lane through the chicane, with give way markings so that pedestrians have right of way.
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Dangerous section of cycle path outside Dominos Pizza on the Avenue
Southampton Cycling Campaign has received many reports of local cyclists having accidents on the cycle path outside the Dominos Pizza outlet at the southern end of The Avenue.
A recent incident was reported in the Southampton Echo, http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10475081.Cyclist_hurt_in_road_crash/
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Dogs Head Street cycle contraflow lane parking/loading bay
There is a loading bay in the cycle contraflow cycle lane, which means that the cycle lane is blocked for cyclists as soon as a vehicle is parked there. This means that cyclists have to pull out into the path of oncoming buses, thus making the NCN route unsuitable to young children or inexperienced cyclists.
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Tandem carriage on Scotrail trains
We have a tandem which fits in all the spaces on trains in Scotland (as far as I know), but we are prohibited from taking it on any except the East Coast line trains. I've been writing to various officials - elected and otherwise - and contributed to the recent review of the Scotrail franchise, but am not getting much joy. No one seems to think it is a big deal. But, for my family, with 2 kids aged 5 and 1, and no car, if we don't go by tandem and train, we can't go anywhere much. The tandem is not a luxury but a practical transport solution. Does anyone else want to join in and make this more than a one-woman issue?
(another related issue: even once the kids can ride their own bikes, we won't be able to use trains much since most only allow 2 reservations).
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St Peters Dock lethal rail tracks
Disused railway tracks on St Peters Dock provide short section of road surface that is dangerous to traverse from East to West by bike.
If you are avoiding crossing the tracks then you are forced into oncoming traffic.
If you cross the tracks, you are then potentially trapped between parked cars and the railway tracks, which can be dangerous.
The tracks are very slippery when wet or icy, and sections are often hidden underwater because there is poor drainage after heavy rain.
Ideally the tracks are totally removed, or the surface covered with concrete or tarmac.
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Grey Street
Redesign of Grey Street to remove the danger of cars reversing (blind) out parking bays into middle of the road.
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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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Cycling on A2
The A2 is a hostile environment for cycling. Cyclists should be directed away from using the A2 towards existing safe alternatives (e.g. RCR16) and the current A2 cycle signs should be removed.
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Clerkenwell Boulevard
Here is an ambitious plan for a Bicycle Boulevard from Shoreditch to Fitzrovia, along Old Street, Clerkenwell Road and Theobalds Road, open only to bicycles, buses and motor traffic for local access only.
a. It is now the most cycled route in London, showing that it is the desired EW route.
b. It is of variable width, therefore trying to accommodate bikes, buses, and through traffic in a consistent and safe way is impossible. In other words, a compromise will be a botch job.
c. There will not be mixing of buses and bicycles: bicycles will have a dedicated two way cycle lane on the South side of the street.
d. The Boulevard stops being a mega- EW-rat-run. Motor traffic will have to use Pentonville/City Road.More details here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yw9mkHhGZaVBKYJs6FxyhC1Z4nNYVl-IFH-aR1ScK9U/pub?start=false#slide=id.p
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Lack of safe room for cycles, terrible road surface
While some painted "cycle lane" does exist northbound, there is woefully little provision for cyclists considering the huge number that use this section of road each day, a large number of whom are those who work at the General Hospital and other nearby health centres. Southbound cyclists have no real provision of space at all, save a graduated stopline, where cars turning right often try to pass right-turning cycles on the inside. Dale road itself is extremely narrow by winchester road, with almost no pavement space for pedestrians.
Cyclists heading northbound on Winchester road must beat traffic off the line at Dale road to get to the painted centre of Winchester road. North of the traffic light at The Range, the cycle lane is almost non-existent, placing cyclists between 2 lanes of heavy traffic, and cyclists have to stop and wait in this dangerous area in order to turn right onto Wilton road. Furthermore, the road surface, especially at this part of Winchester road, is currently deplorable. -
Wandle path bypass for Earlsfield
Garratt Lane at Earlsfield station sucks massively for cyclists, and is a jarring interruption to the Wandle Trail (Sustrans route 20). It would be great to extend the riverside path underneath the railway to avoid this dangerous stretch of road.
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North Meadow Walk - NMW
Surface, drainage and width issues.
Planned for upgrade as part of CEC 'family network'
No details/dates.
Was an issue 5 years ago (and before)
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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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Tower Bridge road surface problem
Six inch high ridge near left side of north bound lane on the south side of the bridge forces cyclists too close to the kerb or into the path of motor vehicles. Issue reported via CTC pothole reporting site. Resurfacing required.
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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 -
Kings Avenue/Milner Street rat run.
Motorised vehicles currently use the rat run through Milner Street to avoid the fraffic lights at Grove Lane/ St Helens St.
This is part of NCN 41 , any extra traffic passing through here detracts from the cycling experience and is negative for residents.
Cyclist comments are needed now ! -
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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High motor traffic area of Sustrans Route 4
Sustrans route 4 coming from the canal path on its main route into Bath city centre has a high level of traffic conflict and the need to filter between two tight lanes of traffic with a large proportion of LGVs coming down the A36 Beckford Road.
The right turn from Sydney Place southbound into Great Pulteney Street is signposted as no right turn as well as being route 4, and has no refuge to turn from.
It should be possible to route the path through Sydney Gardens as the Darlington Place/Sydney Place westbound/Great Pulteney Street junction has been improved to increase pedestrian flows.
Some non-cycling residents are also concerned about cyclists using the pavement in this area too.
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Castle Street Cycle Lane - Taxi parking
Castle Street cycle lane is a contraflow cycle lane on a one way street in Sheffield. It has been here since March 1997 and allows cyclists enter the city centre from the network of cycle paths on the East, avoiding some big arterial routes with no cycling provision.
For the past 15 years this cycle lane has been plagued by Hackney Carriage drivers parking illegally on this cycle lane, blocking cyclists access and forcing them into oncoming traffic. This has been the case for over a decade.
There is a taxi rank on the pavement side of the cycle lane, taxis often fill up this rank and overflow, parking in the cycle lane, blocking the way for cyclists.
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pinch points Southwood Road
There are several pedestrian refuges along the road particularly at the western end of the road. The refuges cause a pinch point for cyclists. The road marking confuse priorities between those using the on road cycle path and other traffic.
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Flagship NCN1 crossing Clerk Street
Is this really the best that Edinburgh can do for the flagship national cycle network route 1 to get it to cross Clerk Street? You have to go through a pile of bins, on to the pavement to get round a barrier and then try and judge it right to cross the road, or use the nearby pedestrian crossing.
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Prince St Bridge - Quick Fix
Prince St bridge is an anarchic pigs ear. I like pigs and fond of a bit of anarchy but it's getting beyond a joke. Of course it will all be sorted out properly in due course but we could live with this for years. Here's a quick fix:
SOUTH
1. Move south vehicle stop line back 10m behind tramlines
2. Remove all bollards unless one or two kept in line with centre of bridge with arrows right for cars
3. Widen cycle lane from bridge to Festival way turn so suitable for 2-way cycling.
4. Put in Give Way painted line at an angle running from enlarged cycle lane to centre line so southbound cyclists alerted to need to filter across traffic.NORTH
1. Remove all bollards
2. Widen cycle lane for 2 way cycling all the way up to the traffic lights with The Grove.
3. Remove 5 bollards on each side of north bound traffic light along with the two set back
4. Paint cycle lane passing behind light and then back onto carriageway making it nice and clear that it's an option for cyclists when lights red or they can carry on (as most will, no worse than now but at least it will be clear that they can treat these as 'give way')
5. There will need to be 'give way' paint to make clear that pedestrians have right of way on the by-pass.Yes it's muddled but less so than now and makes the desire lines easier. It's also a cheap paint based fix pending the proper job.
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A316 Cycle Lane - Priority over side roads
I have serious concerns about the safety of this portion of the bike path; arising from its recent re-design. Recently my 10 year old son was in a very close “near-miss” with a car turning off the A316 into Bicester Road; and I believe many more similar incidents are likely occurring. Eventually someone will be seriously hurt or killed on it.
However, the improvement in the track leads cyclists to feel more confident in using it – giving a false sense of security.
In particular:
• The segregated track makes it particularly appealing for inexperienced and more vulnerable cyclists (such as kids).
• This track design leads to an increase in the cyclists speed.
• The smooth/quick nature of the track leads inexperienced cyclists to believe that THEY HAVE RIGHT OF WAY across side roads.
• There are no markings on the roads to tell drivers coming in or out of side roads that cyclists could be on the track crossing their path.
• There is a particular challenge for EASTBOUND cyclists.To avoid stopping at every side road, when on the track travelling Eastbound (as per red arrow on photo) approaching roads such as Bicester road, the cyclist has to simultaneously
(a) check to their FRONT/LEFT side to see if a car is exiting the side road
(b) check BEHIND them on their REAR/ RIGHT hand side to see if a car is about to swing off the A316 into the side road (usually at speed) - (as per orange arrow on photo).This is a hard combination to perform – looking 180 degrees opposite directions at the same time. If you are an inexperienced cyclist, on an apparently safe track, it is very likely that you will not realise you have to be this vigilant and not check adequately for cars.
Hence, my boy rode across Bicester road from the east and was very nearly hit by a car turning off the A316.
(Note that travelling from the west is somewhat easier as both the vehicles turning in from the A316 and those turning out from the side roads are in your front field of vision).
My suggestions for improving this situation are:
(1) Clearly mark the bike track across the side roads so cars are aware there are cyclists approaching from the side.
(2) Ideally, give cyclists priority across the side roads; so making cars slow to a halt and making it more intuitive for cyclists.
(3) To facilitate this, would require some stopping space for traffic coming on/off the A316 to after the bike track crossingAt roads such as Bicester road the bike track could be curved to the south by about 2m before crossing the side road – this curve in the track would
(a) naturally slow cyclists down as they approach the side road
(b) would provide vehicles moving onto the A316 a decent gap so they can separate the concerns of first negotiating the bike track then focus on getting on the A316;
(c) for vehicles coming off the A316 the additional space would give them space to stop and give way to cyclists. -
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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Richmond Green - one way street
Cyclist coming from the river come up Friars Lane exit and have to currently route right round Richmond Green because it is one way. Many do not and simply cycle across the green. The path across the green should be formally opened up to cyclists - as a share path with pedestrian priority - or a seperate track provided along the south side of Richmond Green.