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Innovative ideas

From Newsletter 84 (June/July 2009)

Several lists of schemes for Cambridge and the necklace villages have been published on the County Council’s web site as reports to various Committees, and the most recent can be found at: www.camcycle.org.uk/jumpto/nl84innovate

Some of these are making slower progress than hoped for because of land ownership issues.

Of further interest is a list of suggested innovative ideas that I’ve heard are to be put to the Department of Transport (DfT) to be trialed in Cycling Development Towns.

Of course some of these may never see the light of day, and even those that do may not be trialed in Cambridge, but they include a number that we’ve been asking for in Cambridge, some for years.

Sign for unmarked / advisory lane contraflow cycling
Cyclists' exemption to No Entry signs
Option of times instead of distances on direction signs
Wider range of options for entry lanes into Advanced Stop Lines (including offside, multilane, no lane)
Cycle Lane marked on road without signs on posts
Painted pedestrian symbol for use on path surfaces
Elephants' footprints markings – thick dashed lines similar to ‘give way’ ones but with currently no legal status
Reduced level of signing for cycle priority crossings
Flexibility on lengths of tactile paving required on shared-use routes
Smaller sign sizes (for example, for use on bollards).

Longer-term issues:

Tiger crossings – zebra crossings that cyclists can use, with black and yellow stripes
Separate signal heads for cyclists as used abroad.

In fact the observant may notice that we have some of these already, but please don’t tell the DfT, or they may come down and tell the County Council to remove them.

Jim Chisholm