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

Separating buses from cyclists and pedestrians

At a meeting of the Cambridge South Area Committee on 4 June, Councillor Katie Thornburrow proposed the erection of fencing along the stretch between Trumpington Park & Ride and Addenbrooke's Hospital to help keep cyclists and pedestrians separate from buses.

A brief report of the relevant part of that meeting has appeared in the Cambridge Independent.

UPDATE 0940 on 11 June: Less than an hour after I posted the above, the Cambridge News is reporting some sort of collision involving a pedestrian and a guided bus, close to Long Road. Inevitably the details are somewhat sketchy at this point.

New pedestrian/cyclist links to/from Busway near Cambridge Railway Station

Two new links from near to the Busway at Cambridge Railway Station have recently opened and will benefit pedestrians connecting to/from Busway A, C & R services (as well as cyclists). One is a short link from south of the station to the east side of Hills Rd (likely to be of most use if you're heading to the Leisure Park area); the other is again from the south of the station, but starts south of the Hills Road bridge and goes through to Fitzwilliam Road/Clarendon Road (and from there to Brooklands Avenue).

There's a very handy summary in the current issue of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign Newsletter. More detailed descriptions and maps were provided in issue 117 (the paths numbered 1 and 4). Thanks to the CCC for documenting this and for making the information available.

I've been unable to determine whether these are public rights of way, permissive access paths or have some other legal status. Neither currently show up on the County Council's interactive map as rights of way/permissive paths.

Cheeky cyclists

This week's Hunts Post (13 August, page 13) report a story about what are described as 'cheeky cyclists' who have been triggering the busway traffic lights at the Harrison Way crossing in St Ives to change for them. These lights were intended for buses. And this has been causing delays to motorists.

Cambridgeshire County Council engineers have now altered the lights so that cyclists can no longer benefit from them. The article says 'The junction had been designed so that cyclists and pedestrians would use a traffic-light controlled crossing - a crossing that does not give priority to the detriment of traffic on Harrison Way'.

Letters in Hunts Post about flooding

The Hunts Post ( 30 January, page 6) has two letters about flooding. Although neither mentions the busway directly, both examples of the flooding described affect busway users.

The floods at Earith cause congestion in St Ives as drivers seek alternative routes to Cambridge and other destinations, and there is a knock-on effect on guided buses trying to pass through St Ives. The flooding in Low Road, Fenstanton, affects cyclists who have to divert off the busway due to flooding between St Ives and Swavesey.

Solutions discussed in the letters are: raising the level of the A1123 at Earith, raising the level of Low Road, dredging the Hundred Foot river to increase flow, and ensuring that the drain flaps in Low Road are working correctly.

Lights for cyclists

A proposal has been made to provide solar lighting for cyclists and walkers on the southern section of the guided busway between Cambrdige Station and Trumpington. See Cambridge News website.

Flooding on the busway

Today (Saturday), as I travelled to work in the relative comfort of a Stagecoach bus, I noticed that the water level on the flooded section of the busway cycle path has now risen a few more inches. It was lapping at the top of the concrete bridge that takes the cycle track over what must be intended as a flood channel. This is situated a few metres east of the Ouse Viaduct.

Nearby is one of those brick 'art installations' that were erected along the busway a few months ago. The 'installation' was almost submerged. So I reckon the water is close to two feet, maybe three feet deep.

This is too deep for cyclist to plough through (as they have been doing the past few days), and so this morning there were several cyclists wheeling their bikes along the grass verge at the top of the busway embankment, dangerously close to the buses which at this point travel at 56mph.

The flat area of grass at the top of the embankment is only about a metre wide, so people are putting themselves into danger. There is very little margin for error between getting hit by a passing bus and sliding down the embankment into the water. The busway cycle track has proved hugely successful as both a leisure route for cyclist, walkers, and runners, and as a travel-to-work route for cyclists. Is it too much to ask that Cambridgeshire County Council raise the level of the track even more so that the cycle path becomes an all weather route?

Conflict between joggers and cyclists

The Cambridge News highights a problem which I have experienced when cycling between St Ives and Cambridge - joggers and walkers who occupy too much of the track, or weave from side to side and so make it difficult for cyclists to pass. Some pedestrians may find it difficult to understand why cyclists have to go so fast - but, speaking as a cyclist who uses the route sometimes for commuting to work, speed is important, and it is annoying when those on foot behave in a way that slows me down.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Busway-runners-angry-at-cyclists-30102011.htm

The track beside the busway is a public bridleway, which means that it's open to walkers, joggers, cyclist and people on horseback. All users have to respect each other's presence, and take care when passing other users of the track.