This article was published in 1996, in Newsletter 8.
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