Thursday, June 18, 2009

Molly-coddled Cyclists

I had a meeting in the middle of Cambridge earlier in the week with a company with offices along Bridge Street. Of course what better way than to get there than to cycle. The only challenge is allowing a little more time and cycling a little more slowly to avoid over-heating. There is also a multi-storey car park near-by with the basement floor given over to cycle parking. Here are a couple of pictures, the last time I used it, which was quite a long time ago it was maybe less than a third full. Whilst not full to capacity it was probably 60-70% full. Clearly there was a demand there, what's more you can even get your bike fixed, as an operation - forgive the pun, called Bicycle Ambulance has opened up in the corner.


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The company I visited is a fairly young start-up with quite a few young engineers. They love being in the centre of town and were lucky enough to have their own patio, crowded with their bicycles. I mentioned the underground parking and apparently one of the team had taken the bike in for repair and expected a new wheel to be told that it would be could be fixed more cheaply. That is good service for you - I bet most motorists couldn't imagine their garage telling them that a repair could be done more cheaply. (Yet another reason for bicycle envy - suffered by many motorists.)


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Back to some of the ways that Traffic Planners can waste money. This is a road leading into Cherry Hinton on the outskirts of Cambridge. It is a rich ground for highlighting the ways that cyclists can be misled. This photograph shows one of the many pinch points used to try to get motorists to slow down. (In my experience the good drivers slow down, that ones who ought to slow down take even more risks.) Where there is a pinch point then the cycle lane is kinked and a bollard and kerb put in to separate the motor vehicle and the cyclist. The cunning approach though is to pop the cyclist back into the traffic flow just at the pinch point in the middle of the road when the motor vehicle is likely to swerve to the left. The cyclist has the power of the White Line to protect him or her - more fool any cyclist who thinks that it has much benefit.


In this case the kinked cycle path is also quite narrow and so cannot be swept by the street sweeper vehicle that are now used. Consequently they seem to remain dirty for longer and in this case there is a line of debris across the path just to add to the cyclist's challenge.




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A little bit further up the road to entice the cyclist away from the road there is a by-pass route for cyclist travelling straight on which allows them to legally continue on even when the light is red. No doubt this causes a few more motorists to fume. However he who laughs last last longer as the cyclist sweeps past he or she find that there are some over-hanging branches in the way and then a "Give-Way" with very bumpy kerbs. Perhaps the bushes are intended to slow the cyclist down.




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Perhaps this is the new "Green" approach to traffic control versus the need for lots of road infrastructure.



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