Cambridge Cycling Campaign

For more, better and safer cycling in and around Cambridge

Cyclists to be forced off Hills Road

  • New! It now looks as if the County Council will defer any further consideration of this scheme until April, “to explore the Campaign’s suggestions and to investigate any possible compromises which might make the scheme more acceptable to cyclists”. We welcome deferral of the scheme and will be working constructively with the Council to convince them that there are better alternatives to a bus lane.

  • 400 objection cards presented to the County Council

We asked users of Hills Road to complete an Objection Card, each an individual objection to the scheme. Here are the cards to the County Council being handed in:

The 400 cards each individually registering an objection to the scheme.

Richard Preston, from Cambridgeshire County Council, accepting the cards.
  • Geoffrey Heathcock, the County Councillor for the area in which the proposed Hills Road bus lane is to be built, has come out publicly against it. The Cambridge Evening News reports: “Many Queen Ediths residents are against the county council’s proposed scheme to put in a bus lane from Cavendish Avenue to Long Road. “Coun Heathcock said: ‘This is a scheme full of difficulties and will cost a significant amount of money for very debatable gain. “‘I remain unhappy with it and will write to the Area Traffic Committee at the close of the public consultation. This money can, and should, be better spent on other public transport priorities.'”
  • The Council’s proposals (on its website at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/sub/eandt/highways/cambridge/hillsroad/
  • Exhibition dates (now finished)

‘A cycle superhighway’ was how Newsletter 32 described the section of Hills Road between Cherry Hinton Road and Long Road. This is the stretch that runs past Homerton College and the Perse School, a wide, leafy and rather attractive road with wider than normal cycle lanes on each side, nicely surfaced in smooth red tarmac. As a result, this section of Hills Road is one of the easiest and most pleasant routes in and out of the city for cyclists.

Well, you’ve got just one more year to enjoy it. Because after next summer, this pleasant section of road will be transformed into one of the most unpleasant roads to cycle along in the city.

County Council proposals for a bus lane between Cavendish Avenue and Long Road mean that the existing cycle lanes would be removed. Where this has happened on Milton Road, cars cannot easily and safely pass cyclists on the road. Cyclists are regularly abused and intimidated. On Hills Road most cyclists currently use the lanes on the road, not the path.

Unnecessary proposals

The Council offers two options, both of which leave a narrow traffic lane towards the City. Outbound, as well as the traffic lane, there would be either a narrow bus lane and a narrow pavement path; or a wider bus lane containing a narrow cycle lane, removing part of the grass verge. We think both options are unacceptable and should be rejected.

Our bus count shows that no bus passengers can be said to have been delayed for as long as 4 minutes, on both days we surveyed.

What you can do

  • Please complete an Objection Card and send it to us.
  • Please write to your Councillor (the Council’s website has Councillors’ contact details.
  • Fill in the Council’s online form at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/sub/consult/buslane/form.htm
  • Go to the Council’s exhibition on the proposals:
Hills Road now: Pleasant cycling
Hills Road now: Pleasant cycling