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Newsletter 8 (September 1996)
Contents:
- Our First AGM!
- Safety Time of Year
- Bike Parking Locations
- Madingley Road Park-&-Cycle
- See Beautiful Views of Ugley
- Reclaim The Streets
- Cambridge Area Cycling Liaison Group
- Footway Buildouts and Chesterton Road Crossing (Continued)
- The CCC Web Site
- Cycle Training
- Stall Opportunities
- Member Discounts
- Monthly Meetings
- Elected Officers
- Contact Details
- Thanks This Month
Our First AGM!
It's the second half of the year, so our Constitution says we should have an AGM. It will be on:
Tuesday 1st October
You'll also get the chance to vote for (or against!) the Campaign's Elected Officers. The following people are standing for re-election:
| Treasurer: | Clare Macrae |
| Membership Secretary: | David Earl |
| Stall Officer: | Paula Watson |
| Acting Press Officer: | David Earl |
We need a new Newsletter Editor, and we will discuss creating a new post of Secretary. We need at least 20 members there to make the elections valid. Don't miss your chance to influence how the Campaign is run!
Safety Time of Year
As usual at this time of year, the County is organising safety initiatives targeted at younger people, and particularly the new student intake. There are, on average, 300 cycle casualties in the city each year. The Council's Road Safety Section is therefore spearheading an intensive safer-cycling campaign throughout October.The campaign, entitled 'Cyclists Beware! Beware Cyclists' (as last year), is targeted at both cyclists and at drivers, in an attempt to reduce a pedal-cycle casualty rate that is one of the highest in the country.
Organisers Sarah Truluck and Simon Cripwell told "Centrepiece" (the University Centre's journal): "If only cyclists and drivers could become more aware of each other and endeavour to share the road in a patient and responsible manner, perhaps we would see a reduction in the rate".
Road-safety officers promoting the campaign will be encouraging cyclists to ride defensively (see also 'Cycle Training', later in this Newsletter) and increase their visibility by wearing something fluorescent and reflective day and night. Drivers will be exhorted to allow cyclists more room, be more considerate and anticipate the unexpected.
The campaign, which starts on September 27th, will be supported by bus advertising and distribution of leaflets, as well as involving every college and other further-education establishment in Cambridge.
Although the aims of the Road Safety Section are laudable, we would be cautious about emphasis on wearing cycle helmets and defensive riding which does nothing to combat the source of the problems (such as dangerous cycle facilities, poor road design, speeding, etc.). We would prefer them to concentrate on some of the 'Road Danger Reduction' policies described in previous newsletters.
Jonathan
Bike Parking Locations
Earlier this year, Andy Walford of the County Council's Transportation Department published a request in the Cambridge Evening News for suggestions for new locations for cycle-racks in the City. And thus another sub-group was formed! We began with some general principles:
- that new racks should be of the Sheffield type (an upside-down "U") rather than the traditional wheel benders, which just grip the front wheel.
- we also expressed dissatisfaction with the new "curly" stands which have been used in the St Andrews Street "Environmental Improvements", because they only offer a single point of contact with most bikes. (The good feature of these racks, however, is that they do provide some separation of bikes, which prevents handlebars and saddles becoming intertwined.)
- that some existing facilities could be better sign- posted, to improve usage.
After plans drawn up at an initial meeting, we cycled around the city, checking our suggestions. We were asked to make the list as detailed as possible, and to be sure to avoid drain covers, not block shop loading bays and emergency exits, etc.
In total, we suggested 44 locations, including:
- Gonville Place, on the pavement outside Lloyds Bank.
- Green Street, between the existing racks and Sidney Street, to provid much-needed additional parking for Sainsburys customers
- Guildhall Street, by making use of the end of the Street nearest to the Market Square (i.e. where we held our Dr Bike event during National Bike Week)
- King Street, making use of pavement space between the pillars in front of the rows of shops, e.g. Heffers Art Shop.
- Park Street Multi-story car park, converting some unused space to give parking spaces sheltered from weather.
The complete list of suggestions is up on our Web pages, at:
www.camcycle.org.uk/campaigning/subgroups/cycleparking/suggestedlocations.html
We sent our reply early in August, and decided to issue a press release, thinking we might get a small amount of press coverage if we were lucky.
In fact, this generated coverage in several of the local newspapers, including front page of the Weekly News, and even two interviews with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire!
Clare
Madingley Road Park-&-Cycle
Do you know anyone who regularly drives into Cambridge from the West? If so, please spread the word about the cycle-lockers at the new Madingley Road Park-&-Ride site.The idea is that you arrive at the site, leave your car, get your bike from your locker (only you and the council have a key) and cycle to your destination. Amongst the many advantages over the bus service:
- You don't have to wait for the next bus to arrive.
- It's more convenient - you don't have to worry
about whether there's a bus route close to your
destination.
- It's cheaper than the bus. (Currently, it's free! A deposit for the key is required.)
- You won't get stuck sitting in traffic jams.
For those who live too far a way to cycle in regularly, it's an ideal solution.
There are now only 5 lockers left (as of 17th September). To book one, telephone 463258.
Clare
See Beautiful Views of Ugley
The Home Farm Trust, which provides accommodation, training and opportunities for adults with learning disabilities, has a sponsored bike ride on Sunday 6th October, from Duxford to Ugley. There's a choice of a 20 mile ride with free transport back to Duxford, or a 50 mile circular trip. The organisers also need marshalls, if you'd rather just watch everyone else pushing their pedals. Paul Rosen has entry forms and further details (ring 312751) or you can contact HFC at 4 Robin Way, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 7PF, tel. 01787 378344.Paul Rosen
Reclaim The Streets
What follows is an account by on of our members of the "Reclaim The Streets" demonstration held in Cambridge. These events aren't "organised" in a conventional manner, and this one certainly wasn't organised by the Campaign. However, we thought our members would be interested to hear one person's impressions.Jonathan
The traditional warm sun (otherwise not much in evidence in Cambridge lately) shone on hundreds of merrymakers of all ages, shapes and sizes, and a ludicrously large number of police, at the Reclaim the Streets Cambridge street party last Saturday afternoon. About five hundred people, some from as far away as Somerset (and approximately one percent of them Cycling Campaign members - where were you all?), set off from outside the station at about 1.30, watched by interested travellers, a police helicopter and numerous officers on the ground, one of them videoing the proceedings. Led by strange creatures on stilts or with sunshine heads, we processed through the car park, along Devonshire Road and over Mill Road railway bridge, where we found someone on top of a tripod of scaffolding poles (another tripod having already been nicked by the constabulary).
The plan was apparently to carry on down Mill Road to the junction with Perne Road, but in the event those who'd gone on ahead came back, and the party took place outside the Lord Beaconsfield pub. People put down their rugs, cushions and even armchairs, and sat or lay down in the road; others enjoyed just walking up and down the middle of the road in safety, or the ever-popular dancing in the street. An attempt to set up a children's activities area was for some reason discouraged by the police.
Music was provided by some excellent drummers, two sound systems (neither unfortunately arriving on the rumoured horse and cart), assorted whistles and horns, and a penny-whistle duet. People painted and pierced various parts of each others' bodies, and strung up banners across the road, including 'Mad car disease', 'Underneath the pavement is the beach', 'Stop the car-n-age', 'http://www.McSpotlight.org' (a anti-McDonalds website), and 'More cars? You must be choking', this one held by two girls skipping through the throng. Others drew and painted on the road, not only slogans but flowers, leaves, footprints and a bike. The Beaconsfield and Balv's did a roaring trade, while other shopkeepers brought chairs out into the sunshine to watch the fun (complaining the while, of course).
Nor was the action all at ground-level. As well as the aforementioned stylite, later joined by a fish, several people shinned up lamp-posts to hang banners, and others danced on the roofs of houses and shops. Local residents yelled football results out of their windows to the police below. An occasional smile was even seen from these latter, although they must have been sweltering in their full riot gear and overalls as they stood shoulder to shoulder, five deep, at the out-of- town end of the party. Apparently their excuse for this massive over-reaction was that they had been warned of a right-wing counter demonstration (if so, this never materialised), or alternatively that the organisers hadn't told them how many people were coming (spontaneity? Never heard of it, madam).
Even so, one can hardly believe it was necessary to bus officers in from Bedfordshire (twelve mini-buses and a black maria were seen on the streets), barricade Parkside police station, or keep the aforementioned helicopter in the air all the night before at a rumoured cost of £1,000 of our money an hour. We were pleased to see they'd closed Mill Road at the swimming pool, and their presence at least looked a lot more relaxed at the town end of the proceedings, but not that only about half the officers in the human wall the other end were displaying their numbers.
It has to be said that, up until the time your correspondent wimped out at about 6.30, alas no longer able to party all day and all night, all the police had actually done was escort an old lady through the crowd with her suitcase, but they were certainly being there in an extremely intimidating manner. On the other hand, they responded very mildly to numerous minor attempts to wind them up. A couple of people were removed from the scene, but no arrests were apparently made.
Intimidation notwithstanding, hundreds of people had an extremely good time, and Mill Road was made a much more pleasant place for several hours. Why can't it be like this all the time? we wondered. The next morning, even Sunday now being spoiled by drivers exercising their divine right to shop, the noise and fumes and danger were back, but green banners still fluttered from lamp-posts, and smudged chalk footprints and a freelance zebra crossing could be seen on the roadway of the bridge.
If you wished you hadn't missed it, there'll be another chance in Oxford on Hallowe'en. Meet at the Carfax Tower at 6pm.
Debby
Stop Press: It turns out that, soon after I left, the police decided it was time to stop the party, and arrested some forty people in the process. I guess it was too much to hope they might put all those resources into the day without doing something to 'justify' their presence. According to the Cambridge Evening News (Monday 16 September), our cycling MP is to ask the chief constable 'why the police commitment was so heavy'.
Debby
Cambridge Area Cycling Liaison Group
We have met three times now, each time taking up a whole Monday morning.By the time you read this, the Cambridge Traffic Management Joint Sub Committee ('Joint-Sub' for short) will have met and voted on the first formal document written by the liaison group. This sets out two options for the Barton Road cycleway improvement, one being more or less the scheme the Campaign's subgroup planned out earlier this summer.
Our scheme is for mandatory cycle lanes where the road is wide enough, a separate cycle track beside the road where it isn't, and for traffic lights at the Grantchester Street junction. The traffic lights have been separated from the rest of the scheme, because they're expensive, and come out of a different budget. They'll be one item on the Joint-Sub agenda, and one which would not have been there at all without the Campaign's proposal. The rest of the Campaign's scheme is under 'option A' in a report which forms another item. An 'option B' (widen the existing, inadequate shared-use path) has been costed as an alternative. All but one of the liaison group supported the Campaign's plans, which will use more than this year's budget. They'll also take more than one year to finish, so will take up a chunk of next year's money. They provide a better 'level of service' than the alternative.
It has been interesting to learn how strongly the representatives of the Pedestrians Association, Ramblers Association and Camsight feel about shared- use pavements. The only people who like them at all are the three councils' officials. Even they find only one thing in favour of shared-use paths: they are cheap.
Slim presented the 'footway buildouts' subgroup report to the last meeting of the liaison group. We expect County and City councils to circulate the report to their relevant engineers and planners.
Specifications for the other two cycle routes being planned at present, Milton-Waterbeach and Milton- Impington, have been sent to W S Atkins. (This is the firm of civil engineers who have the roads contract for Cambridgeshire at present.) They still haven't appointed a contractor to build the last cycle route sent to them, Comberton to Toft. South Cambridgeshire District Council's representative on the liaison group wasn't at all pleased about that delay, because his council paid for that route (before the Cycling Campaign even existed).
Atkins have also been given the design brief for a new crossing for the Huntingdon Road and Girton Road junction (near Girton College). Work on this crossing and a new bus lane there should start in January.
Mark
Footway Buildouts and Chesterton Road Crossing (Continued)
As most members will be aware, the promised alterations to the disastrously-remodelled Jesus Lock crossing are now in place, minus the expected cycle lane on the south-side approach; 'zig-zag lanes' extend 20m either side, (presumably) serving a similar function. The result remains unsatisfactory. (For history, see Newsletters passim.)'Footway Buildouts at Pedestrian Crossings', a position paper now produced by the Cambridge Cycling Campaign, outlines what to most people seems obvious about the undesirability of imperilling cyclists in this needless fashion, quoting liberally from the official guidelines. It has been presented to relevant County Council officers and the Cycling Liaison Group.
We now have, in response to our formal complaint over Chesterton Road, an explanation of the Transport Department's policy and its justification for this particular project. While it remains unclear why it enjoyed sudden priority in the 'black-spot' hierarchy, the crossing "has featured in the list of accident sites for some time". These accidents, we are told by Mr. R D Menzies, Head of Accident Investigation and Prevention, involve "rear end shunts at the crossing, pedestrians and cyclists injured while crossing by drivers who had failed to see them and accidents at the adjacent Carlyle Road, most of which involved cyclists being struck by turning vehicles." This sounds to us like a catalogue of motoring offences and the appalling driving habits about which little or nothing is done, but according to Mr. Menzies - who offers no excuse for 'cyclists being struck by turning vehicles' - the rest "can be attributed to the lack of conspicuity of the crossing and of the common practice of cyclists and pedestrians coming straight from the footbridge or Carlyle Road onto the crossing". While we might take the view that a motorist who cannot see a zebra crossing is totally unfit to drive, the Council expresses no interest in this angle, finding the remedy instead in build-outs to "a minimum of 2.2m. Any greater reduction [i.e. from the first version - more than 3m] would result in the crossing [and people about to use it] being hidden behind parked cars and buses". Yet parking is already banned on the approaches; if the bus-stop on the south side is a problem, it could surely be moved with little cost or inconvenience.
Must cyclists, then, be deliberately endangered because this is the only way the Council can respond to dangerous driving and promiscuous parking? So it seems, although Mr. Menzies, despite the very clear advice to the contrary given in the 'Cycle-Friendly Infrastructure' guidelines, does "not consider that 0.85m is unsafe", albeit conceding "that cyclists would feel more at ease with wider lanes" - especially, presumably, those with wide handlebars; whether he thought the previous arrangement, with cycle lanes 0.0m wide, was 'not unsafe', he omits to say.
In future we will be included "in consultation on schemes of this type". This may be seen as a threat of more such projects, since Mr. Menzies remains convinced of their alleged merits, at least so long as he is "not aware of any cases where they have resulted in a personal injury accident problem". If this is so, it could well result from cyclists' perception of such an obvious hazard and their avoidance of it, or the route, or of cycling altogether - which is certainly one way of reducing cycling accidents.
The uncharitable might conclude that the whole episode demonstrates the futility of a statistics-driven, black-spotting approach to highway engineering. It represents the opposite of Road Danger Reduction.
Slim
The CCC Web Site
With all the current hype surrounding the Internet, the first thing I'd like to point out, for those without Internet access, is that the Cycling Campaign World Wide Web pages are very definitely secondary in importance to the Newsletter as a medium for staying in touch with our members.That said, the Web site has proved to be a good way of attracting new members, who can take a look at past newsletters to see what we're doing, and can print a membership form directly from their Web browser.
We recently held a small meeting to discuss possible directions for future improvements for the Web site. Some of the suggestions made were:
- Provide some statistics on how frequently the site
is accessed, and by whom.
- Have a "search" facility, as there's so much
information there now.
- "Prettify" the page, with nicer graphical design.
To date, only the first has been done. It shows that:
- There are on average 350 requests per week (each file and each picture counts as a request)
- There are requests from all over the world, including USA, Singapore, Israel and New Zealand.
Suggestions for other improvements, particularly in content, are welcome, as are small images to make the site visually more interesting.
If you have any specific requests for information you'd like to see added to the Web server, please send them to me (contact@camcycle.org.uk).
Note: We specifically exclude minutes of our meetings from the Web Server, as we feel these should really be for members only. I keep a copy of all minutes and correspondence, and members are welcome to ask for copies (e-mail me, or phone me on Cambridge 336024).
Clare
Cycle Training
A recurring theme in the questionnaires on our membership forms has been the request for adult cycle training. This has fitted in perfectly with plans in the Cycle Challenge bid, and so we're happy (and relieved) to announce the first Cambridge Cycling Campaign "Better Cycling" course.The course will be taught by trainers from York City Council, including Ken Spence, who was our invited speaker at the April meeting.
The emphasis will be on cycling confidently and skilfully, rather than the all-too-often heard "get off and walk" school of "road safety".
Topics on the two-day course include:
- getting to know your bike
- sound basic cycling skills
- feeling safer and more confident on the road
- more advanced cycling techniques
- your rights as a road user
Here's what you need to know:
| When: | Saturday 26th October and Saturday 16th November, 10:00 - 4:30. |
| Where: | Long Road Sixth Form College. |
| Cost: | CCC Members & unwaged: £16 for
both days, or £12 for one day.
Others: £20 for both days, or £15 for one day. |
Please display the enclosed poster, to help advertise the course.
For further details, contact Debby on 316101. CCC members are welcome to attend, but we advise booking early, as places are limited in number.
Debby and Clare
Stall Opportunities
The weather has been fantastic on the stall recently, so why not take the chance before Winter sets in to volunteer for some time on any Saturday between 10am and 2pm. The stall's in front of the Guidhall.Additionally, on Tuesday 15th October, from 7pm to 10pm there's the "One World Squash", held at Kings College as part of the freshers' events. We've got a stall there which will be a good opportunity to sign up student members for the Campaign.
Give Paula a ring on 323057 if you can volunteer for either the Squash or for any of the time on a Saturday.
Member Discounts
Please note: the most up-to-date list of shops offering discounts to members of the Campaign is always on the membership discounts page of the website.
Please note: Some shops may not give the discount if you pay by credit card. If in doubt, please check with the shop directly.
New this month:
Bishop's Cycles Greg's Cycles 51 Station Road 186 Mill Road Histon Cambridge 01223 518855 01223 210678 Mike's Bikes 26-28 Mill Road Cambridge 01223 312591Now with phone numbers!
Ben Hayward Cycles Ben Hayward Cycles 69 Trumpington Street Laundress Lane Cambridge Cambridge 01223 352294 01223 301118 Cycle-Logical Geoff's Bike Hire 171 Mill Road 65 Devonshire Road Cambridge Cambridge 01223 576545 01223 365629 Howes Cycles King Street Cycles 104 Regent Street 82 King Street Cambridge Cambridge 01223 350350 01223 367275 Kingsway Cycles University Cycles 8 City Road 9 Victoria Avenue Cambridge Cambridge 01223 355852 01223 355517
Monthly Meetings
Please note: the most up-to-date version of the diary of events is always in the events section of the website.
Tuesday 1st October
Tuesday 5th November
Tuesday 3rd December
Elected Officers
Please note: the most up-to-date Committee list is always in the Committee list section of the website.
| Treasurer: | Clare Macrae |
| Newsletter Editor: | Jonathan Whiteland |
| Membership Secretary: | David Earl |
| Stall Officer: | Paula Watson |
| Acting Press Officer: | David Earl |
Contact Details
Please note: the most up-to-date contact details for the Campaign are always in the contacts section of the website, which includes an online feedback form.
In particular, note that our fax number is now separate from the phone number.
By e-mail: On the Web: By phone:
Thanks This Month
Huge thanks this month to Slim, Nigel, Clare, Debby, Oliver, Mark, PaulJonathan HTML conversion by: Nick Smith
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