Flooding - 18 February

It was still flooded between Fen Drayton and Swavesey when I looked yesterday. But the water is now quite shallow, and there were signs that it might be possible to cycle through. I didn’t try it though.

Now the Great Ouse has flooded again, and it’s not possible to cycle or walk from St Ives Park & Ride to Fen Drayton Lakes.

Flooding continues - 13 February

A picturesque scene. The Cambridgeshire Lake District.

But not so good when you realise that the busway cycle track is still under water between Fen Drayton and Swavesey.

Flooding 2nd February

Still flooded between Fen Drayton Lakes and Swavesey, though water level has dropped slightly since  I last posted.

Flooding update - 22 January

The flood gates are closed across the cycle track.

Cycle route between Fen Drayton and Swavesey.

Water still covering the track near St Ives.

These photos were taken today (22 Jan) to illustrate that the cycle track is still flooded. The gates are closed across the track near St Ives Park & Ride and Swavesey, which should indicate to walkers and cyclists not to proceed any further. But still there are nutters who risk their safety by walking and wheeling their bikes along the grassy strip next to the bus track.
It looks as if it will soon be possible to cycle from St Ives to Fen Drayton Lakes, as the water level is rapidly dropping. You might be able to get through on foot if wearing wellies.
East of Fen Drayton Lakes, the flooding seems likely to persist for sone time (se David Parish’s posts). But it is possible to avoid this stretch by detouring via gravel tracks to Swavesey, and rejoin the busway there.

Cycle track flooding update

This photo, taken from the bus this morning, shows the busway cycle track is under water between Swavesey and Fen Drayton. From past experience, the water is likely to remain here for some time.

Saturday 11th January - still flooded.

Thirsday 16th January - now flooded between St Ives Park & Ride and Fen Drayton Lakes, as well as from Fen Drayton to Swavesey.

New closure of cycle track

The busway cycle track between Histon and Orchard Park will close for a month while repairs are carried out. This is the section of busway affected by the A14 widening works, and has been closed to buses for half a year, with buses diverted meanwhile.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cyclepath-guided-busway-a14-closure-17508409

Flooding update 22 December

A long stretch of the busway cycle track between St Ives Park & Ride and Fen Drayton Lakes is currently under water, as these photos show.
Walking or pushing your bicycle along the grass verge next to the bus track is dangerous, and is not recommended.

Busway cycle track flooded

The cycle track along the busway has water lying on it between St Ives Park & Ride and Fen Drayton Lakes. Currently (Sunday afternoon) the water appears to be shallow and cyclists and pedestrians seem able to get through.

If you are cycling that way over the next few days, please keep the blog updated.

Update - Saturday  21st December - cycle track is flooded between St Ives Park & Ride and Fen Drayton Lakes

[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.

[Updated] Respect Signs (2)

In  June I reported that "Respect" signs had appeared along the busway maintenance track / bridle path / cycleway. The Council documents said that some larger ones would be placed on the surface of the track.

Quickly after the first signs appeared, some were modified with drawings of horses by people who wanted to make a point that the track is also a bridleway.

This month the larger signs on the track have appeared - one each side of every road junction - and they have been redesigned to include a rather faint horse in the background.

Respect sign at St Ives end of track

It remains to be seen how well they wear.

Update 16 January 2016.

Took this photo today of the one approaching the CRC Bus Stop from Milton Road. It has not taken long for this one to start breaking up.

16 January 2016

Counting Cycles

Thanks to "Matt" for raising this question.

In May 2014 I posted an article about the appearance of what I assumed was a cycle counter by the Ouse viaduct at St Ives.

Mike replied:
"You are right, it is a cycle counter, of the standard type that Cambs County Council use. It reports to the CCC with quarter hourly counts, but the stats that I've seen for the two on the new(-ish) Lodes Way are weekly, which isn't a great deal of use.

Installing counters is a condition of Sustrans' financial involvement, and Sustrans will probably also commission a manual count and survey questionaire."

I have since noticed a similar counter between Histon and Orchard Park, and a number of others on other cycle routes in the county.

So Cambridgesgire County Council should have quarter hourly data from these counters.

So firstly, lets ask: Does any reader of this blog knows where the data can be found?

If not I will ask CCC directly.

Respect Signs

It has not taken long for a "Respect" sign to get modified.

Two at Swavesey have been modified by somebody who clearly feels that they omit to encourage respect between all users - horse riders, cyclists, pedestrians and dog walkers - on what is officially a bridleway.

Modified sign at Swavesey.

Bridleway signs

Signs on (and off) the busway

(1)
In the last week several of these notices have appeared along the length of the busway maintenance track / bridle path / cycleway:

Presumably  asking cyclists to show respect for pedestrians and vice versa.

But most of the signs are mounted high up. About the height of horse riders heads. Is it asking horse riders to show respect for pedestrians and cyclists? Seems unlikely.

A search finds this Twitter article https://twitter.com/gnomeicide/status/574853452414738432  where Richard Taylor says “Cllrs to spend public health cash putting “RESPECT” signs on Cambridge guided busway cycle/pedestrian path”.  Obviously relevant - but I have not found any Council minutes about this.

Anybody know any more?

 (2)

When the busway was built, it was stated that National Cycle Route 51 would be re-routed along the busway. Sure enough, signs soon appeared along the busway with the number 51 on them.

But for the next 3½ years the old signs remained on the route through Fenstanton, Fen Drayton, Swavesey, Longstanton, Oakington, Girton. A few weeks ago these were finally changed to local cycle route 24:

(3)

A new sign has been put up at Swavesey bus-stop by the Swavesey Meridian Magazine, showing a map of the village, and some places of interest.

(4)

I recently found this busy signpost 2/3 of the way through the "public footpath" connecting Trumpington to the busway through the allotments:

The top sign clearly says "Public Footpath". But the bottom one shows cyclists and pedestrians equally and points ahead to the busway (and cycle racks at the bus stop). Are cyclists allowed to ride on this one?

Flooding on busway cycle track - August 2014

A quarter-mile section of the busway cycle track is flooded between Long Stanton and Oakington. The water is only about 20cm deep and it is possible to cycle through if you go slow and don't mind getting your feet wet.

The Cambridge News has reported flash flooding in the Cambridge area including Dry Drayton, Oakington, Rampton and Bar Hill.

The flooded part of the cycle track lies close to the Beck Brook, a normally small stream flowing form Dry Drayton, through Girton  and Westwick and down to Rampton.

Busway lighting improvements - for cyclists?

There are a number of items in the County Council's recently-published Transport Delivery Plan 2014/15-2015/16 that relate to the Guided Busway. One that caught my attention is on page 15 and the works involved concern "Provision of lighting". But this is in a section headed "Funding from developer contributions to deliver cycling infrastructure". So, putting two and two together, one might conclude that the County Council is planning to spend around £190,000 over the next two years to provide (or improve?) lighting for cyclists using the bridleway alongside the bus track. But this could be a completely mistaken interpretation of the evidence.

Following the trail a little further, I ended up at the page on the County Council website providing the Forward plan of key decisions and service committee agenda plans (which we might summarise as "Looking ahead", perhaps). The plan for the Economy and Environment Committee, which can be found linked from that page, tells us that its 8 July meeting is scheduled to cover "Guided Busway lighting", which I'm guessing is the same as the item in the Transport Delivery Plan. We should know more when the agenda for that meeting is published a fortnight or so in advance.

Another item pencilled in for the 8 July meeting is "Busway to City Centre Cycle Route". Anyone care to suggest what this might be about (I feel I've done enough guesswork for one day!)?

Science Park station - Busway lighting

The County Council has given details of the street lighting it's proposing for the Busway extension into the forthcoming Science Park railway station. Follow this link for more information.

Counting Cycles?

Just at the west end of the Ouse Viaduct, what looks like a new electrical control cabinet has appeared this week - with a solar panel on top of it.

Control box

Today I noticed that in the cycle track beside it are some new lines, filled with tar, just like the traffic sensors you see on the approach to traffic lights.

Sensor in cycle track

What is it?  I think it is most likely to count the cycles passing that point. 

Are there any more anywhere else along the busway?

Anybody know any more?

Solving the flood problem

Cambridge News has picked up the story of the flooded busway bridleway/cycle track. Read article here.

Questions are being asked about the design of the route and whether putting it up on stilts might be a solution. Cambridgeshire County Council previously said the route might expect to be closed for 29 days a year. The article reports that a Council spokesman says it could expect to be closed for up to 56 days a year. The cycle track has been under water continuously since Christmas Day - I make that 60 days i.e. more than 8 weeks.

Cambridge Cycling Campaign says the existing design devalues the benefits of the bridleway.

Swavesey Half Marathon

The Swavesey Half Marathon will be using part of the busway cycle track near Fen Drayton on Sunday 2 March 2014.
Details of the event, including a map of the route, can be found here.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Swavesey-Half-Marathon-run-confirmed-for-second-year-20140115050018.htm

Hazardous new footpath junction at Histon

The new housing development at Primrose Lane, Histon, has recently been linked to the busway cycle track by a short footpath which emerges onto the cycle track at a break in the 4-metre high solid fence. Sightlines, particularly in the Cambridge direction, are extremely poor. The cycle track is narrow at this point, so west-bound cyclists will have little warning of a pedestrian emerging from the footpath and turning right.

Until the design of this junction is improved, users of the cycle track should be extremely cautious when passing this place.