A no Picture Day

Monday - meetings in London today; however as I only needed to get there by 10am it meant I could catch the 8.45am - which tends not to be such a busy train - although they do charge peak rate for the fare! The other plus is that I only had to spend a few hours in London which meant that I could park my bike at Station Cycles rather than waste time finding a cycle parking space.

It costs £1.50 to leave the bike with Station Cycles - quite expensive compared with the daily weekday charge for the car park - £7.20 (5 bikes ~equals 1 car). But the bike is indoors and it then means not having to strip of lights and speedometer from my bike - I reckon it saves 10 minutes of messing around at the station. the shop is in the car park on the way through to the Station Building so is convenient. It is opposite this cycle park (one of the three cycle parking spaces.

To get home I cycled along Mill Road, not a normal route for me as I don't like the traffic but I wanted a change of scenery. As i was cycling along towards the city centre a bus had stopped on the opposite side for passengers, two cycles overtook it and passed me and then a red car also overtook the bus and driving at me forced me onto the kerb - what a tosser. I was wearing light clothes and it was mid-afternoon - in my opinion that person is not fit to drive a car. I do believe that cycling has gotten riskier - which stops people cycling. Yet we should be encouraging more people to cycle - not just the "die-hards" like me.

The Cambridge Guided Busway (CGB) has been in the news again - "No opening date...". Apparently based upon (lack of) progress they will not be able to commit to an opening date before July at the earliest. Whenever I cycle along the CGB there does not seem to be any evidence of real urgency associated with the project - it seems to me that there is something badly wrong if over £100million of taxpayers money can be tied up in a project which then gets caught up in a "Mexican-standoff" between the two parties involved. The CGB maintenance track also gets a mention in another piece of News: "Estate residents worry as travellers set up camp".

Finally Gilbert road was the scene of attention as newly-elected MP Julian Huppert and various interested parties witnessed for themselves the issues facing cyclists on Gilbert Road. The question we need to answer is how to get more people cycling, especially the young. Cars (and other motor vehicles) are not unconditionally good as some people seem to believe. We need to make cycling significantly safer to overcome the resistance that poeple have to it.

Tins path to the Station

I had an afternoon meeting in London today. Given the challenge finding a bicycle parking space at the Cambridge Railway Station I did consider taking my Brompton - but the meeting was being held in an office I had not visited before - and so was not sure quite how to cycle there. Also we generally have a post-meeting debrief elsewhere - a pint in a local pub afterwards which compounds the problems. Now it is not impossible to take my Brompton under these circumstances but it is more hassle when you have a bike and bag to keep an eye on.

So in the end I decided to set off for the station slightly early to give me time to hunt around. As I was returning after the Station Cycles closing time I did not have the option of leaving my bike there. (It costs £1.50 for a day - and is good for peace of mind.) It was also a lovely sunny day and I just could not bring myself to cycle in long trousers, so I set of in shorts and shirt - with a pair of long trousers, jumper and bright yellow fluorescent jacket just in case it got too cold. I also took a front light with me for the return cycle part of the journey. The trip to the Station was lovely - I took a path known as the Tins Path which is also slated for some improvements along with other areas of Cambridge as part of - "£7.2Million Cycle Improvements Ride Forward". It is a pleasant route into town from the Cherry Hinton direction - but caries significantly in terms of the overall quality of the path.

The cycle bit of the route starts path just of Coldhams Lane where you turn down an almost hidden path just after Katherine Elliot Way. You then end up on a broad pink tarmac cycle path and pass a large Gym complex and then a Holiday Inn Express. You have to be a little careful going past the Gym as you get a downhill run (don't expect it to be too steep - this is Cambridge) and tired "exercisers" don't always seem to have the energy to look before they cross the path to the Gym car park.

I had to stop and take a picture of the Holiday Inn car park. There seemed to be a Satellite TV Installers Conference going on judging by all of the Vans in the car park. It would seem that they do not use bicycles at all as the cycle parking was empty.

The path the reverts to the type of path I more normally associate with share use cycle/pedestrian paths when it crosses the Ipswich to Cambridge Railway Line (apparently Ipswich to Ely with a branch line to Cambridge). Seen here - it looks as if the line was originally built for two tracks.

The bridge over the line is rather narrow and a "blind" and steep approach from both sides. This is the Cherry Hinton side.

This is the Mill Road side.

Once you leave the bridge this is what you see. Although the camera accentuates the darkness - it is pretty dark - did you notice those two people walking up the path. (Wondering why I am taking the picture probably.)

Once your eyes get accustomed to the gloom the path itself, having been recently re-surfaced is fairly flat. It was very bumpy from all of the tree roots. The plan is to widen this assuming all the negotiations go through. It is tricky when two bicycles pass, especially next to the lampposts.

Although I left more time to find a cycle space I got luck this time and found one almost straight away. These stands are rather close together and there was a bike with a basket in the adjacent stand that appeared to be blocking the space I took. When I took the picture I did wonder will this be the last time I see my bike? The bag is an Altura bag designed for clipping easily on and off the rear rack of the bike. In this case there are a wodge of papers (so I can work on the train) along with trousers, jumper, bright yellow jacket and phone and money.

Getting out of London made me wish I had taken my Brompton - Oxford Circus Tube station was closed when I turned up - most people hung around - I had a 7.15 train to catch fortunately I got a taxi. At the station there was the inevitable hanging around until what seemed like seconds to go they tell you which platform to head for. At that point it seems as if everyone in the station makes a dash for the train to ensure they get a seat. But not everyone does. The problem is that if you catch an earlier train then they charge peak rate - the 7.15pm is the first non-peak rate trains and lots of people wait for it.

The ride home was very pleasant though - I did put on my fluorescent yellow jacket and use lights on my bike - it was not dark but getting gloomy and I took a different way home.

A walk around Bury St Edmunds

It has been a while since I last cycled from Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds, there has been a route signed out to Newmarket for a while. According to the Sustrans website the signing gap between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds has now been completed. This week my mother has come to stay and so instead of cycling I am taking to various interesting places (by car) and then we walk around them. Yesterday we went to Bury St Edmunds only instead of taking the more obvious route along the A14 I drove along the Sustrans route, at least the bit between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds. Yes I am sorry to my fellow cyclists - it is not what they are intended for - but it was the only way I could show my Mum one of the routes I cycle along - she has turned down my offer to take her on my Tandem.

The route follows some country lanes which are so quiet we hardly saw anything on them. We didn't see any cyclists of cars for much of the route - we did see one person walking - she looked very surprised to see us. I can certainly recommend the route if you are looking for some pleasant cycling through some slightly undulating countryside away from danger too many motorists. In places the road has quite a few potholes - perhaps that is what keeps the cars away!

One of the villages on the way through is Moulton, near the border of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire the Sustrans route takes you past an old 15th century "packhorse" bridge next to a Ford. Mind you in the times I have cycled through the village I have never ever seen water over the ford. There is a ford at the other end of the village, near the church that has water flowing that you can (and I do) cycle through though. The other thing of note - for a Flatland cyclist is that you have to cycle down a hill into Moulton and up a hill out of Moulton (on the Sustrans 51 route that is). A quick look at the Ordnance Survey getamap site shows that the climb is only around 50m with the hill at 90m - still you have to remember that the bridges seem to be climbs to me I have lived in the area for so long.

Don't expect too many photographs though, when I am on my own I can (and do) stop whenever I want - I get teased if I take too many pictures when I am with people - and being thin-skinned it puts me off! I must cycle the route through to Ipswich on a spring day and take a few picture of the route though, after Bury St Edmunds there are some lovely off-road sections.

One of the nice things about Bury St Edmunds is that it still looks like a market town and you can enjoy walking around the ruins of the Abbey without having to walk around the shops if you don't want to. I am not a great fan of window shopping and fortunately neither is my mother. The parking was not free - but still seemed cheaper than I am used to parking in Cambridge!

After we parked it was a short stroll to the remains of the Abbey which is now a park where you can walk around the ruins. In the park there is a scale model and a kind gentlemen pointed out the various things to see to my mum. The is also a cathedral on the bounds of the park it was built in 1914, extended in the 60s and a Cathedral tower added and completed in 2005. I have not walked around the park for quite a few years and had not realised that a tower had been added. I have cycled through the town but just not noticed the tower being built - how observant is that!

The cathedral lies behind the ruins in this picture - with the new tower - although it fits in very well with the existing architecture. The Abbey was sacked by the towns people in 14th century so it is surprising to see anything left.

The ruins have been shored up against further dilapidation and there are various boards around describing what the buildings were for and what they might have looked like. You can also take an audio tour - there is a "shop" in the grounds where the "tapes" are available. (I might well be in MP3 format by now.) The new cathedral tower has made it into this picture as well.

We did pop into the town to walk through the market, we were spoilt for choice on one bread stall - in the end we chose a loaf with olive oil and rosemary as the flavouring ingredients. This traffic sign required special permission when it was installed and according to Wikipedia is called the "Pillar of salt". I think that it looks a little like a lighthouse and is the sort of thing that the I-spy books my brother and I were given when we where driving around as young children. The books contained things to look out for and if you saw them you got points for - it stopped us continually asking "are we there yet". A refrain you become familiar with when your own children reach a certain age!

I should also mention that the brewers Greene King have a large brewery in the town and yesterday there was a pleasant smell of beer brewing. The outskirts of the town also have a British Sugar factories - notable for their huge silos. I once took a picture of them for a presentation I made in my old company when trying to reduce the problem of silo management.

A postscript - a fellow cyclist has put me to shame by doing something about the atrocious cycle parking facilities at Cambridge Railway Station. "Commuter calls for more bike spaces at station". She has gone around taking pictures of places where they might add some additional spaces - well done.

Floodgate (Cambridge Guided Busway) and Cycle parking at Cambridge Station!

There seems to be a huge amount of interest, well in the Cambridge area, in the non availability of the Cambridge Guided Busway - which I've decided to call "FLOODGATE" - yes you heard it (the name that is) here first. Today the Cambridge Evening News has published a story in which "Council blames contractor for guided bus delay" with more details to emerge in the paper tomorrow. According to the story based upon document released by the council there is a disagreement about the state of completion. One man's defects are another mans opportunity to earn more money perhaps. I have had a quick look on the web to see if I could find the document - but searches based upon the words "Cambridge Guided Bus" throw up over 1.4 million hits although this narrows down to 14,100 if the word "bus" is replaced with "busway" in the previous search. According to the news report one of the issues is to do with the flooding of the maintenance/cycle-path/path and rather worryingly the Busway Foundations!

UPDATE: The report can be found here. The following link from the Kings Hedges' Lib dems showed the way - in an Internet sense.

What the search does throw up is some interesting sites focusing on the CGB - www.noguidedbus.com gives a hint as to the author's views. A lovely picture on today's pages (9th march 10). :-) Another www.castiron.org.uk also gives an interesting point of view. What is interesting is that quite a few of the negative predictions do seem to have come to pass. What is worrying is that the completion seems to be in free-fall...

Having contributed to this development as a Taxpayer - I would like it be be used and not a white elephant - I would also like to be able to cycle alongside it without having to paddle. In fact I would like to see the cycleway given a decent surface to encourage more people to cycle commute into Cambridge. When I lived in Willingham and used to cycle a round trip of 28miles in the summer (most days) - it was really very pleasant, but all or nothing. The CGB when it is working will allow mixed cycling/bus use. The bus and cycle route could complement each other. Not that I am holding my breath on it happening though.

I had a meeting in Cambridge today with someone coming up from London by train - so I took a slightly loopy route past the airfield and back down Tins Path and then onto a route parallel with Mill Road and over the cycle/pedestrian bridge to the station. I arrived early though - why? well if you have ever tried to park a bicycle at the railway station you'll know that it can be quite time consuming.

There are three separate areas for cycle parking at the station, one alongside Station Road, seen here. As you can see it is pretty jam packed. I have had a bike stolen from this cycle park a few years ago and so tend to avoid it. I assume a van parked down the bottom and someone hopped into the area and then broke a bunch of locks and nicked the bikes. I don't know if mine was the only one stolen, but I have heard reports of them being stolen by the van load.

The second area - right in front of the station around the trees looks similar. There are more than two bikes per stand and it can be quite hard locating you bike when you've been down in London all day. This area does appear to be overlooked by security cameras. (The previous area might also be - I did not check). In the background you can see a yellow digger - this is working on the CGB route down to Addenbrooke's Hospital. Who knows they might finish this bit before they open the Cambridge to St Ives route.

The third area is on the public car park. and provides "covered" parking - what mod cons ay? I parked my bike in this one today - as I passed some else was "un-parking" their bike. There was a space, but it had other bikes parked oddly alongside and so was tricky to get the bike into and out off. Which is probably why it was available. You might notice that there are reserved parking spaces here. When I cycled into the car park at around 9.15am there were a few car spaces left as well. You can see here that a whole bunch of cyclists had relented and left their bikes free-standing but locked up alongside the wall. When you have a train to catch it can be quite tricky finding a space.

There was also a handy sign giving advice on cycle security posted near the entrance. I had not realised that I was supposed to remove all removable parts and take them with me, including wheels and quick release saddles. How remiss of me - although to be honest I would find it easier to take my Brompton cycle in its entirety folded than carry a saddle and a couple of large, dirty wheels onto the train. I can't say I've noticed many such wheel carriers on the trains either.

Although there is another piece of advice to lock both the wheels and frame to the stand - perhaps bicycle wheels have quantum properties and their exact position is uncertain. The other bit of advice I have not taken before is that I should also use two good quality locks and spend at least 20% of the value of the bike on security devices.

It takes long enough finding a space to lock the bike up in, if every time I had to take the wheels and saddle off, put two locks onto the bike and vice versa at the end of the day I'd miss more trains than I do already (Which is not many really). At least the area with the sign has CCTV - probably to ensure the sign is not taken.

Am I wrong? - I find it somewhat obnoxious that cycling customers of the trains are treated in this way.

I did not take pictures of every single bicycle not locked to a stand - but here are a few - they don't seem to have read the advice do they - only one lock each - but the wheels aren't quick release so it would take a spanner to steal them - mind you you could only take one of each bike as they front of the left bike and the rear of the right bike are locked to their respective frames. Perhaps 20% of the cost of the bike would only stretch to one lock?

This bike has also seen better days - which is perhaps again the reason for only having a cheap lock.

I think that there is a certain amount of poetic justice here with the Car Parking sign providing one bike with a place to lock up to.

This is Cambridge - a place that many other cyclists in other towns probably think is a great place to cycle. It is pretty good 0 but as you can see from there pictures much more needs to be done. The Council wanted £500M from government to reduce congestion - for a start they ought to do something where there is proven demand from non-car users. I realise it is easy to say - but there are issues of land ownership and cost - but if the Council can have a Guided Busway built surely improving cycling facilities where there is real demand should be possible.