Trips, slips, etc.

The Cambridge News has discovered, by means of a Freedom of Information request, that the County Council has received 15 compensation claims since the Busway opened, of which 6 were successful. These six cost a total of £18,700 to settle. Defective paving (by no means unique to the Busway, of course) and an unmarked bollard are amongst the causes of incidents which gave rise to these payments.

The full story is available here.

[Updated] Busway extension to new Railway Station - and the right kind of bollard?

In the last post there was mention of "the recently completed extension of the busway that will serve the new Cambridge North station."

The busway extension is not open yet, and probably won't be until there is a station to go to, but part of the adjacent cycleway/footpath is.

There is a traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing at the end of the current busway to cross Milton Road (in one leg - no intermediate islands). The entrance to the new busway extension is clearly closed with metal fences, but the entrance to the footpath/cycleway is open.

View from Milton Road

The "Busway" is a normal single carriageway road, with a short section of surface-mounted metal guide-rails and a car-trap at the entrance.

Closer view of the bollards

The foot/cycle path is similar to that along the rest of the busway, but the bollards are quite different.

- They are about twice the height,
- Painted black and white
- With a reflector near the top
- And a pair of handles.

The handles appear to be to help lift the bollard out of the socket.

The path continues just round the bend from the furthest point visible in these photos, then you are forced to turn right along a short path to join Nuffield Road.

I wonder if National Cycle Route 51 will be diverted to use this new path?

Update 16 Jan 2016

Today I took some more photos.

Viewed from the side, it is apparent that these bollards are designed to lift out of their socket when unlocked, and the locking flap (shown on left here) hinges down to cover the hole. But to the right of the hole as viewed in above photos, there is a metal eye so that as the flap goes down, the eye protrudes through the hole in the flap so it can be padlocked locked in place.

The next picture shows this eye viewed from ground level. I estimate it is about 25mm high, and about 5mm thick. If you hit that with the edge of your cycle tyre, I suspect it could cause a puncture. Hitting the padlock if it was in place would not be very pleasant either.

Finally, a photo of the bollards where the connecting path from Nuffield Road meets the new busway extension:

These are very similar to the old bollards along the busway, but with proper reflectors at the top, and black/yellow stripes below that.

The wrong kind of bollard?

This story goes back to a meeting of the City Council's South Area Committee on 5 October (and yes, I missed it at the time - although in my defence I was out of town...). As part of the "Open Forum" that's a standard item on area committee agendas, the minutes record the following:

"Mr Storer raised concerns regarding cyclists riding into bollards (generally in the dark) on the cycleway alongside the guided busway. He queried if the bollards were needed."

The minutes go on to record a few comments made on this topic, and a final action - writing a letter to the County Council, requesting further information.

So, now to the latest meeting of that committee (14 December). This generated a response from the County Council. This covers the status of the track adjacent to the Busway, and then goes on to address both the lighting and bollards used. One interesting sentence reads: "As a result of comments received about the bollards we have used a different design on the recently completed extension of the busway that will serve the new Cambridge North station." The number and location of bollards is also to be reviewed.

It's hard to read this, I think, without taking away from it a certain acceptance that the bollards already installed along the busway may not always be the most suitable - although you won't find any direct admission of that in the County's letter.

And then, in the Cambridge News of 17 December, comes an article giving details of a cyclist who was badly injured after hitting one of the bollards near the Hills Road bridge. At no point does the Cambridge News article refer to the South Area Committee's coverage of this issue - it may be that it's entirely coincidental timing that the article appeared just a few days after the committee heard from the County Council, but the balance of probability suggests otherwise.

Needless to say, if you want to know more about this topic - from the cyclists' perspective - then the Cambridge Cycling Campaign's latest newsletter has fuller coverage. Two articles, indeed.

Pending any changes, the message to cyclists using the bridleway/cycle track alongside the Busway appears to be: take care! I don't think that applies just to the bollards, though...