pshore
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Last contour N of Cambridge
The northern section has bridleway status and is used by horse riders too.
Built it and they haven't come
- Thread starter Red Light
- Start date
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The northern section has bridleway status and is used by horse riders too.
There's only a large volume of cycle crimes in Cambridge because there is a very large volume of cyclists - the Netherlands has the same problem. Not including the students (who all use bikes because students from Cambridge Uni are banned from having a car in or near the city) about a third of journeys are by bike. And many of the bikes are very poorly locked up - inadequate locks or locked to inadequate objects if at all.
Does it matter? Its a wide flat well surfaced route for cyclists away from traffic.
Taken in August 2011 after, as someone else noted, its been open to cyclists for a year. It looks about as busy with cyclists as the southern section I cycled.
style over speed
riding a f**king bike
That's a bit of selective interpretation. Why it is the case was explained by the Cambridge Cycling Campaign back in 2003 when the first consultation came out>
"We believe that the Council has designs for helping cyclists but that they are hardly mentioned in this first round of consultation due to the legal process.Because the guideway cannot be used by normal vehicles, it is deemed necessary to have a maintenance and emergency access strip about 3 metres (10') wide along nearly all of its length. For most of the route, no additional land outside the existing corridor will be required, but there are some locations where small pieces of land will need to be obtained via the TWA. I understand that a separate bid will then be made (via the LTP) to ensure that this strip is raised to a standard that will allow its use for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, because the TWA itself cannot be used for a cycle scheme."
The following year the Cambridge Cycling Campaign described it as
"The route from Trumpington to the station is likely to be an important route for commuting by
bicycle – from the Park & Ride site on Hauxton Road, from Shelford and Trumpington and
from all the new developments which are taking or will take place in the area."
And in response to the proposal it should just be a compacted earth surface (it was constructed as a tarmac surface)bicycle – from the Park & Ride site on Hauxton Road, from Shelford and Trumpington and
from all the new developments which are taking or will take place in the area."
"We believe that the location of this cycle route makes it potentially a very attractive
commuter route, especially the section between Longstanton and Chesterton Sidings and
the section between Trumpington, Addenbrooke’s and the Station. If this route is to achieve
this potential it is essential that cyclists can ride along it quickly, conveniently and easily. To
provide a cycle route which is suitable only for leisure cyclists is in contravention of the
Cambridgeshire Local Transport Plan."
So the "wasn't built as a cyclepath" was just a bit of legal pragmatism to acquire the land for it to be a cycle track and the CCC clearly saw it as a cycle path from the beginning and it was built as such (the maintenance track didn't need to be tarmacked nor go under Hills Road bridge, both of which were done to accommodate cyclists) and expected it to be a significant cycling route. commuter route, especially the section between Longstanton and Chesterton Sidings and
the section between Trumpington, Addenbrooke’s and the Station. If this route is to achieve
this potential it is essential that cyclists can ride along it quickly, conveniently and easily. To
provide a cycle route which is suitable only for leisure cyclists is in contravention of the
Cambridgeshire Local Transport Plan."
As for directness its a lot quicker and about the same distance as taking Trumpington Road into the centre (no traffic lights and queues to negotiate) and its definitely quicker to Addenbrookes from the Park and Ride. About the only road route that is quicker is city centre to Addenbrookes where Hills Road is much shorter.
pshore
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Last contour N of Cambridge
Aaaaarrggg my eyes. And I share the road with these people !
CEN: Bike is crushed by guided bus after cyclist rides along track
(both story and comments)
CEN: Bike is crushed by guided bus after cyclist rides along track
(both story and comments)
Guess it's clear for Cambridge natives but I can't quite grasp the question. Are you wondering why people aren't commuting to/from work Saturday 1pm, and all the while road running in parallel jammed with cars is filled with bicycles? Or are you shocked by the number of bicycles on roads vs. off-road cycle paths where off-road cycle paths do not exist?
Not knowing anything about the Park and Ride, how many people come from/there to the centre on bicycle in the first place on average Saturday?
Not knowing anything about the Park and Ride, how many people come from/there to the centre on bicycle in the first place on average Saturday?
No I'm wondering why nobody is cycling from a major park and ride site with 1340 parking spaces packed with cars, and several peripheral communities of Cambridge into a city centre heaving with people on a warm sunny Saturday in the middle of the day using a direct traffic free wide flat well surfaced cycle path. Plenty of people were paying £2.40 each to do the journey by bus. Plenty of people were prepared to sit in the queue in their cars in the hope they would find some city centre parking at the end of it and plenty were cycling the road route. I was the only one cycling it.
pshore
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Last contour N of Cambridge
It doesn't go all the way across Cambridge, but if you are talking about Trumpington P+R to the Station I think the answer is yes, or very nearly.
I haven't ridden the south side myself but I do know that OpenStreetMap is very very up-to-date in Cambridge.
See here for you answer:
http://osm.org/go/0EQHlHtJ-
Go to http://www.openstreetmap.org/, and click on "Map key", which is bottom-left.
Richard Mann
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Oxford
Assuming you're looking at the main layer (ie not the cycle map), you can get a key by clicking on the words "Map Key" about halfway down the left sidebar. You can change layers by clicking on the + at the top right. If you want a key for the cycle map layer, then use www.opencyclemap.org, and you'll find a link to a key (of sorts) on the bottom right.
{Yes the track goes straight from Trumpington to the station. It's probably used by almost all rail commuters. But it's probably not the preferred route into the city centre (the main road is direct). You'd only use the new track if you found the road intolerable for some reason.}
The OP makes a fair point: people make a lot of fuss about building tracks, when what actually matters is making main roads tolerable, and junctions safe.
Richard
