Consequences: I was chatting with a friend who rides horses the other morning - apparently because the farmers are snaring/shooting so many foxes the rabbits are breeding like ... rabbits and digging holes in the fields which makes it very dangerous for horses and their riders. Why are the farmers doing it - well when times are hard every penny counts and quite a few have some games birds around and of course want to protect them from the foxes. However the consequence is an increase in the number of rabbits as their predator gets taken out by the "no 1" predator and so you end up with a surfeit of rabbits. (Also we no longer eat rabbits as we used to - perhaps as part of the urbanisation of the UK we are losing track what nature is really all about).
Why do I mention this - well on the Sustrans 51 route between Burwell and Cambridge just after Marshall's Airfield there is a shared cycle/pedestrian path. I have noticed that there are more and more rabbits along the path. In fact at night I am concerned that I might run over one and get knocked off my bike. My trick is to make machine gun noises as I cycle along - my kids think I am mad and I do get the odd look when I pass a cyclist at night. One of the problems of unchecked numbers of rabbits is that they do quite a lot of damage to the trees - they nibble of the bark - if they nibble all around then it kills the tree. Here you can see the sort of damage that occurs.
This is the path - the white dotted lines are really useful when cycling along here at night with cars coming the other way, especially when they do not bother to dip their lights. If you look closely you can see two rabbits on the grass on the left and you can see more chewed trees on the right.
Cambridge is a Cycling City and along with a number of other towns and cities in the UK enjoys some extra funding from Cycling England. One suggested scheme is to improve an important road through the city - Gilbert Road. This gets a lot of use by cars - but importantly is also well used by cyclists. At the moment it as advisory cycle lanes - but they are, in my opinion, almost worthless - there is no prohibition on cars parking in them. Here is Glibert Road, you can see one car parked in the lane and two more encroaching on it. The closets car is also blocking a Bus Stop. If there is a vehicle class structure then cyclists, buses and pedestrians are at the bottom.
Looking the other way there are two more cars parked in the cycle lane. The problem is that the cycle lanes lure less confident cyclists into taking the route only to find that they have to bob in and out of the fast flowing traffic - The road is wide and well used. The Council has proposed two potential modifications and is consulting on them. Unfortunately some residents resent the loss of their on-road parking as reported in the Cambridge Evening News. Most of the houses seem to have reasonable drives and gardens - but some are complaining that their visitors will have nowhere to park - but there have been a number of accidents over the last few years and there are several schools around.
Personally I feel that cyclists should have the right to cycle on roads, with only Motorways being the exception, but I really like to cycle away from noisy traffic. It amazes me how noisy cars can be as they drive by, with their stereos blaring, chatting on their phones. No, I not not all of them do - but all cars create a lot of tyre noise and some engine noise that is really quite intrusive - not to mention the carbon dioxide generation issues.
So after the unpleasantness of the Cambridge traffic I set out along the Cambridge Guided Busway - CGB, to see if it was passable by bike, without resorting to cycling on the concrete tracks to avoid the flooded paths. I joined it at the College end, rather than from Milton Road. Despite all the weather we have been having there are a couple of tracks being worn into the path by the regular use by cyclists that are flatter and compacted and actually not too bad to cycle along at a reasonable pace. Up to Histon the path will have a tarmac surface I believe and so it is quite rough in places with warnings about the manholes/drain covers being raised. There are not too many of them, but I still would not want to go over one in the dark. As you can see here - they are easily avoidable - if you notice them.
There is still no public date for when the CGB will have buses running on it - it looks pretty complete - I did see around four gangs working on it, but most of it looks like this. The path alongside will not be surfaced until it is handed over.
The last time I cycled along here this path was flooded - so a good sign that it was clear - despite the fact we have been having rain.
This appears to be why it is clearer - some drainage ditches are being dug alongside in the field.
As I mentioned, lots of it seem complete - the concrete blocks give the game away though - no driving a bus through those.
As you get closer to the Fen Drayton Lake area there are quite a few paths that cross the CGB - here is one. They need to put something reflective on those metal poles blocking the path to vehicles - unless they are to catch out unwary speeding cyclists.
The CGB path is also well signed with routes of to surrounding villages and distances marked. The route away from the CGB path is to Swavesey and marked by a small bicycle. I hope that this path becomes are important a cycle commuter route as the Bath to Bristol cycle path.
As I got closer to the areas that were flooded last time I was here it looked more promising - I managed to cycle through this "puddle" without my pedals dipping in the water - mind you I would not want to do it at night the puddles were murky and the surface underneath was soft and difficult to cycle through. You can see why the path will flood though - or rather they obviously built the level of the CGB to avoid possible flooding.
Another gang working on something - actually I was not really sure what.
Unfortunately the bridle way was still flooded in one place at a depth I could not cycle through (or dare not cycle through). There was a path on the other side though and so I cross over onto it. There were no actual places to cross so I had to carry my bike over.
The view from the other side.
The last place it had flooded was close to St Ives - this time the path was passable. So It was promising - definitely less flooding to contend with - mind you this has been around for 8-10 weeks I think so it really needs something doing about it if the path is to be capable of taking regular traffic - (horses, cyclists, people) - when the buses run. I read that there are going to be 6 per hour, each way so not impossible to cross but not as easy as at the moment and you could certainly not cycle on the track when it is in use!! Once again this time around I saw people on the track, waking and cycling trying to avoid the floods.
I am really looking forward to seeing it in Summer (actually I am looking forward to Summer). I feel that this will be a great amenity and just hope the buses will not be to noisy for the other path users.
Here are some CGB facts.
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