Sustrans and the Cambridge Busway
When the Department of Transport report into the Cambridge Busway was published it contained these paragraphs in the section of the busway’s supporters.
Sustrans supports the guided bus project. Moreover, with its associated maintenance track it offers great potential benefits for cyclists and walkers. The route is expected to form part of the National Cycle Network and this is welcomed.
The maintenance track surface should be tarmac or equivalent throughout. There is a danger that were the surface to deteriorate, people would be tempted to walk or even cycle on the guideway. Access to the stops should focus on the public walking and cycling there. This necessitates a network of high-quality feeder paths to be constructed at the same time as the busway. More thought needs to be given to crossing details for cyclists, walkers and horse riders.
It would be desirable for the buses to employ hybrid drives to allow electric operation within the City area. Also, the buses should have the capability to carry cycles.
I suspect that they would be very interesting in the picture I put up in Paddling the Guided Busway. To get round the puddle, I actually crossed the busway twice, which echoes Sustrans’ comments about the deteriorating surface.
They also wanted hybrid buses and the capability to carry cycles. I don’t think either of these points have been met.
Interestingly, search the Sustrans web site and you will find no mention of the Cambridge Busway at all. So perhaps, the only reason they supported the busway was because of the promise of a cycle track, which is now more suitable for cyclo-cross.
I can’t find their comments on it now and would welcome them. The nearest I can get to a direct quote is this piece from Railway Ramblers.
This is Sustrans’ response in the latest edition of The Hub, its quarterly magazine for supporters: ‘While Sustrans fully supports plans to improve public transport, we do question whether bus routes should be built at the expense of walking and cycling paths. It seems counter intuitive to develop public transport in direct competition with walking and cycling when the aim is to tackle road congestion and greenhouse gas emissions [and rising levels of obesity – Webmaster]. What this trend seems to show is how under-valued walking and cycling are as transport choices in their own right.’ Many share this view. Many also question the wisdom of building guided busways in the first place. Not only are they visually intrusive structures that deploy vast amounts of concrete, but the example now being completed between Cambridge and St. Ives has cost millions of pounds more than reinstating the railway which it replaced.
I’d agree with all that.
We need good cycling paths everywhere and perhaps a better and much cheaper solution would have been to use the old railway to create a proper cycle path all the way from St. Ives to Cambridge. In fact I’ve seen comments on the Internet, that the route will be used by cyclists from Histon to get to the Cambridge Science Park.
But the latter did not need a scheme that is going to cost upwards of a hundred million pounds.
Paddling the Guided Busway
Yesterday, I went along the track by the Cambridge Busway at Fen Drayton Lakes, to take a few pictures.
It was lucky that I cycled, as any other mode of transport other than a horse or a canoe, would have meant I’d probably have got very wet.
Flooding on the Cambridge Busway
It prompted me to write a letter to the Cambridge Evening News.
I had an enjoyable day yesterday, cycling at Fen Drayton Lakes using the cycleway alongside the side of the new busway.
What surprised me was that with all the money spent, that they couldn’t get the drainage right. At times there was at least twenty centimetres of water on the cycleway. Perhaps not too bad on a bike, but it would be a real deterrent to walkers.
Surely the success of the busway in every respect, depends on getting all the little details correct!
The Cambridge Busway may well be a needed project, but detailed planning seems to have lacking.
A Curious and Tragic Fact About Women Cyclists
I just spotted this on the BBC’s web site.
Men do about three times more journeys by bicycle than women, but in accidents causing deaths with lorries in London last year, seven out of the eight victims were women.
I’m writing this in Holland, where I suspect that the ratio of women cyclists to men is not as low as in the UK. I wonder if the Dutch have the same anomaly with their accidents? The figures in Holland would probably shed some light on those for the UK.
I do wonder though, whether a lot of the difference is due to the fact that the average man rides a bicycle much more aggressively than does the average woman. I’m also constantly looking out for traffic on the lanes where I ride around Suffolk and make sure that when I meet a lorry, I either get them to slow down or I time it to meet them in a safe and obvious place. I’m also pretty fit, so I can get out of the saddle to sprint to get out of the way.
But this is only conjecture.
None of the researchers in the article seem to have a clue. And it’s not for want of trying.
Travelling in Style
This picture shows the typical way I travel.
Lotus Elan, Brompton Bicycle and a Paul Smith Case
The Elan was built in 1991-92, whilst the Brompton was made around the turn of the millennium. The case is newer and was a present from my son.
There is space in the boot of the Elan for a lot more than just the Paul Smith case and the Brompton. I actually think that you might get two Bromptons into one Elan.
What is my next trip? Not sure, but I really would like to circumnavigate the Baltic, taking in St. Petersburg.
Ryanair Cuts Flights at Stansted
Ryanair has announced that it is cutting flights at London Stansted this winter.
Michael O’Leary blames the British Government’s Air Passenger Duty and high charges at the airport. He’s probably right to a certain degree, but in the statements of his, I’ve heard, he doesn’t blame the recession.
I do!
I also think that people are thinking much more about their holidays and travel plans. I travel to Holland quite a bit and although, I can fly, I prefer to drive using Norfolk Line from Dover to Dunkirk. It takes a few hours longer, but then I live alone and enjoy a restful drive through the countryside. And if I pick my times right, I can even get across the Dartford Crossing with ease.
You have also to look at the economics.
A typical low-cost flight on Ryanair or EasyJet costs about £70 return, which is about the same as the cost of the ferry. So with the ferry I have to drive perhaps another 600 miles, which costs me about another £70 for diesel. But then it costs me at least £30-40 to park at the airport and then there is the train trip at the other end.
So although the low-cost flight is nominally cheaper, it’s unlikely there is more than about £30 in it. And of course the whole thing is blown apart if I need to hire a car at the other end.
It does take longer, but then I’m in comfort and I haven’t had to get to the airport and wait for a flight at some time that is inconvenient to everyone.
But where it gets interesting is that in my last trip to Holland, the car was quite full, in that I had a couple of boxes and my Brompton bicycle.
Try taking that on Ryanair with their 10Kg limit!
Bolton West Service Area
Is this the worst service area on Britain’s motorways?
In my view, yes!
The place looks like it hasn’t been painted or cleaned for some years and all of the roads around the place are of genuine third world standard. I was only able to buy some Coke! Couldn’t find any coeliac-friendly crisps or nuts at all.
Perhaps though it owes it all to Bolton.
Biking Along the Beach
When I travel, I often travel with my Brompton bicycle in the boot. These are the Rolls-Royce of folding bicycles and they ride just like something best described as proper. Mine is about seven or eight years old and was a present from my late wife.
Brompton Bicycle by a Lotus Elan
I’d already ascertained that there was a cycle path all the way along the front, so I cycled all of the way to the South Pier and the Pleasure Beach. It wasn’t a great distance, but it was enough to stimulate and wake up my body.
Blackpool is in desperate need of a makeover and it is getting one.
Amusement Arcades in Blackpool
This shows the rebuilding on the front, where they are smartening it all up and Blackpool’s problem; endless tatt and amusement arcades. They ought to put a wrecker’s ball to most of them.
But things will be better.
Blackpool's New Promenade
It’s all steel and nice finishes. It should be as they’re spending £174 on it according to the ReBlackpool web site.
But I wonder if they’ll get it right. The cycle path is long and very useful. But it has gaps and is badly signposted so that visitors like me aren’t sure where it goes.
