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Notes from a foreign correspondent

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  1. amir
    Member

    After our adventures in Suffolk, we are now having a short stay in Cambridge. This morning over breakfast, it was remarkable how many were cycling to work - just a random street in Cmabridge with good facilities.

    Around town, the facilities are bit mixed but more effort has been put in by the council here. Some facilities were on the road - generally lanes were reasonably wide and not too bumpy. Sometimes they were even mandatory!

    However on occasion the cyclepath was on the pavement, sometimes shared use and sometimes with a fat line segregating. These were sometimes up and down due to drives and poor surfaces, with slower speeds possible and stopping to give way at junctions.

    We ended up on the Cambridge to St Ives cycleway. This a a wonderful facility for guided buses and cycles. I think it is the longest and it seems to be popular with bus users. For cyclists, it is nice and wide with a great surface and takes you right into the countryside, with access to nice lanes, an RSPB reserve and of course St Ives. It felt Dutch.

    Below are a few pics:

    Car trap

    Bus and windmill

    Bike and bus

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. Uberuce
    Member

    With the windmill especially it looks helluva Dutch.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. SRD
    Moderator

    nah, if it were dutch there'd be more bikes in the pictures

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. Morningsider
    Member

    Looks good. I took a ride up to St Andrews yesterday and then on to Leuchars to get the train back. I took NCN1 for the section to Leuchars and was amazed that it looked like the photos above. I was thinking about lavishing it with praise when the path ducked between two houses, into metal barriers, shrank to about three feet wide, turned into a shared use pavement and then led to a pavement that was possibly shared use - but it wasn't clear. Inevitably, I ended up back on the road. Nice to see somewhere in the UK getting it right.

    Don't ever praise the St Ives-Cambridge guided busway if you are near any rail campaigners though, they may get a tad heated.

    Almost 14 quid for the train back from Leuchars!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. fimm
    Member

    I believe (well I read it on the internet) that the Cambridge busway cycleway is very prone to flooding. I also get the impression that while central Cambridge is full of cyclists because there are lots of students there, get even a short way from the centre and it becomes British again (I think it was a Cambridge blogger who was claiming that the police were stopping cyclists and fineing them for cycling on the pavement just after a piece of shared-use pavement ended).

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. amir
    Member

    "nah, if it were dutch there'd be more bikes in the pictures"

    I thought the Dutch only go short distances - this was about halfway between the town's - quite a way from either.

    @morningsider that route near St Andrews is very disappointing - the bit in Guardbridge is interesting.

    I regularly come for meetings in Cambridge and have found that mentioning the busway a good way to waste time, a bit like the Edinburgh trams.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. DaveC
    Member

    I used to work in the Business Park where the guided bus way runs to. We used to use it for quiet walks in lunch time, when ot walking round the Science Park. The section after the VW Garage, which runs down the side of the Business Park, was still over grown when I was there 3 years ago. There were rumours that they couldn't extend into the Railyard behind the Business park as (rare??) Newts were found on the old track bed.

    How for does the guided busway go Amir?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. amir
    Member

    St Ives so about 16 miles.

    In my experience, apart from right in the centre, there's a good cross section of society cycling here.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. DaveC
    Member

    Yes, lots of student types and ex student types, still living and working in Cambridge. Once they have children they move out where bigger houses are cheaper. Lots of collegues cycled when I worked in Cambridge.

    16 miles eh? a bit like the Dunfermline to Clackmannan cycle path. Would be ideal for St Ives people who worked in the North of the Cambridge, nice fast, straight smooth traffic free route, to work.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. sallyhinch
    Member

    I think at the last census / survey something like 50% of people living in Cambridge cycled at least once a month (and the figure for once a week was quite high too - maybe 40%). That's the highest by a long way for anywhere in the UK

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. cc
    Member

    "I thought the Dutch only go short distances"

    @amir David Hembrow points out now and again on a view from the cycle path that children from outlying villages happily cycle quite long distances each way to get to and from school. Also the NL has a big network of intercity paths I think.

    Also he has things to say about Cambridge, where he used to live.

    That busway does look nice to cycle on though.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  12. Roibeard
    Member

    I had cause to be in Cambourne in the late summer - lovely it was. There was Bikeability training happening on the day, and the streets seemed obviously designed to appear residential and "enforce" low speeds. Some dedicated cycle infrastructure was also present (as well as plenty of cycle parking), but the general roads felt designed for people not vehicles.

    The opposite was near Althorne (Google pic). This was folk living in a car park, although the only clue is the oddly parked vehicles in Streetview. Every driveway, turning space and half the carriageway was filled with vehicles as I passed one evening - cycle commuting here was obviously an alien concept, so Cambridge (or even Edinburgh!) might be seen as an aberration/abomination...

    Robert

    Posted 10 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    "
    more Cycle Points (including a 3000 space hub at Cambridge

    "

    http://www.greateranglia.co.uk/about-us/news/2013/09/greater-anglia-consults-on-cycle-strategy-and-further-cycle-rail-improvements

    Posted 10 years ago #

  14. amir
    Member

    The Cambridge-St Ives cycleway is missing one thing - a roof! I was planning to go for another spin on it today but it's raining heavily and I am on holiday! Of course it would even more pleasant commuting on it on a day like today than the road.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  15. DaveC
    Member

    No no no!!! If you pt a roof on it, people would expire of heat in summer. East Angular ;o) does get its fare shair ;o) of heat in summer!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  16. amir
    Member

    Roof plus air conditioning?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  17. DaveC
    Member

    amir said "Roof Plus Air Con...".

    Aye like thats very green. May as well have busses running up and down along side using similar amounts of CO2.... ... oh I see they already have that.

    You'll be asking for a travelator to speed up your cycling next... ;O)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  18. amir
    Member

    I don't really understand why so many students cycle in Cambridge. It must be amidst as quick to walk with the short distances in the centre.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  19. crowriver
    Member

    @amir, read David Hembrow's blog post. Cambridge students are barred by university regs from keeping a car!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  20. amir
    Member

    Interesting blog.

    I am not sure that banning students from having cars explain the number cycling. Money stops most students anyway from owning or at least running a car. And many universities are far more spread out than Cambridge. I remember walks of 3 miles each way (or the bus). For some reason there is a long standing culture in Cambridge with supporting businesses. The more studenty types are concentrated around the college's in the centre whilst a wider cross-section can be seen a little further out.

    It is interesting to see in the blog that driver antagonism towards cyclists still exists in Cambridge. Clearly numbers are not enough to stop this.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  21. DaveC
    Member

    When I moved to East Angular, I found drivers to be more arrogant and pushy. Of course I was a driver myself not having redeiscovered cycling in a big way, but just driving round, drivers were less forgiving than my daily commute in Edinburgh, when I lived here before.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  22. i
    Member

    This video doesn't convince me of safety in numbers.

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Plugin

    Posted 10 years ago #

  23. DaveC
    Member

    I recognise that street! The pub round the corner serves Duchars IPA! :O)

    I notice (though speeded up) there appeared to be no accidents!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  24. Min
    Member

    It looks kind of awesome. :-)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  25. kaputnik
    Moderator

    As I was going to St. Ives,
    I met a student with seven bikes,
    Each bike had seven baskets,
    Each basket had seven cats,
    Each cat had seven youtube channels,
    Youtube channels, cats, baskets and bikes,
    How many were there going to St. Ives?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    Which St. Ives...

    Posted 10 years ago #

  27. PS
    Member

    When you see the number of cyclists filtering up the inside of cars and those cars that are looking to turn left at the junction half way up the street actually waiting for cyclists to go past before they turn, I'd say that shows safety in numbers as the drivers have obviously learnt to check their left for cyclists before they turn.

    It does, however, look like anarchy. And a strong justification for some tangible cycling infrastructure there.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  28. HankChief
    Member

    @amir

    "I don't really understand why so many students cycle in Cambridge. It must be amidst as quick to walk with the short distances in the centre."

    The centre is pretty compact but it's actually quite hard to only live in the very centre as a student. There are several outlying colleges (and most central ones have newer accommodation blocks built further out) and nowadays most of the departments have moved out to greenfield sites on the outskirts and then you have trips to the boat houses and sports field.

    Cycling in Cambridge is relative easy to get used to - just follow the crowd and don't expect to still have the same bike in a year's time - it's driving which is very unnerving for the first timer. They do come at you from all angles, but that just makes you totally on edge and looking round continuously.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  29. kaputnik
    Moderator

    That video's a great example of how inefficient the motorcar is at moving people around city centres. There had to be at least 10x people on bikes for every car.

    Posted 10 years ago #

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