Tube strike leads to new Boris Bike record

Almost 50,000 Londoners took to ‘Boris bikes’ yesterday to dodge the Tube strike – setting a new record for the scheme.

With 49,025 hires, the total exceeds the previous record set during the 2012 Olympics. The figure was similar on Tuesday, the first day of the strike.

The increased demand led to uneven distribution at docking stations, with many commuters unable to find a bike at their nearest station – or, conversely, trying to return them at the end of the journey only to find that the dock was full. The usage was 60% up over normal hire rates. Ollie O’Brien’s Bike Share Map chronicled the extreme demand during the day.

Check out our guide to using Boris bikes to get around town.

The bikes on the bus go round and round

A new circular bus service in Cambridgeshire will have space for 24 bikes – and only 20 passengers.

The BikeBus, set to launch this summer, will tow a bike trailer on its route from Cambridge city centre into the nearby countryside. It’s designed to encourage leisure cycling in Cambridgeshire, to the National Trust property of Wimpole Hall and to other attractions such as Burwash Manor, Gamlingay and Great Gransden Woods.

The bus will run on Sundays and Bank Holidays, giving several villages a Sunday bus service where currently they have none. It will make four circular journeys each day. Bus tickets will be valid for part journeys, so you can hop on and off at leisure.

Cyclists will be able to use it as a starting point for a country route, or as one leg of an out-and-back journey. South Cambridgeshire District Council, which is running the project, will also be recommending short circular routes around local villages. The National Trust and Cambridge City Council will also contribute to the £18,000 cost.

Clare Gibbons, Development Officer with South Cambridgeshire District Council, told the Cambridge News:

“The villages near the route contain a great mix of businesses and visitor attractions, including the Wimpole estate, and we believe that once people use the service and see what is on offer, they will be back time and again.”

Otterly brilliant: Devon eyes up new traffic-free trail

Devon already has the otter-themed Tarka Trail for cyclists – and now a path along the Otter Valley could be built at the other end of the county.

The Otter Valley Trail, first conceived by schoolchildren in Ottery St Mary, is being proposed as a traffic-free route between Sidmouth and Feniton. It would partly use a disused railway line, which currently belongs to 28 separate landowners.

Cycling charity Sustrans has now carried out a feasibility study into the route, and believes that construction would cost just £1.4m – a low price for a ten-mile route – though land acquisition would cost extra. The trail would attract around £600,000 of spending from visiting cyclists each year.

Devon County Council is one of the most bike-friendly councils in the country, having embarked on several major cycling projects such as the new Gem Bridge viaduct just south of Tavistock. Cycling has grown by 15% across the county in the last five years. However, their councillor in charge of highways, Stuart Hughes, warned that the new route would not be built overnight.

“A lot of work would have to be done to make this scheme a reality – look at the Exe Estuary Trail that has taken around 15 years to deliver, with work on the final section just about to get underway. But Devon is a leading authority when it comes to cycling, and we have demonstrated in recent years that we have become a premier destination for cycling tourism.

“East Devon is already popular with visitors and a multi-use route, particularly one which links to the Jurassic Coast at one end and Feniton railway station at the other, would provide an added draw. As well as increasing visitor numbers to the area it would also enable local people to travel to work and school without relying on the car.”

Paul Hawkins from Sustrans called the idea of a new route “very appealing… it would provide both tourism and local commuting benefits”. Local councillor Claire Wright, meanwhile, said: “It won't be easy but there is a huge determination within the local community to make it happen. I look forward to moving the Ottery section of the project forward with the help of the Otter Trail group and other members of the community.”

You can show your support for the Otter Trail by signing the petition on the local campaign group’s website.

Cycle Lanes For Dummies - no excuses for bad bike lanes

City planners and developers will have one fewer excuse for bad bike lanes in future, thanks to a new guide called Making Space For Cycling.

Written by the Cambridge Cycling Campaign on behalf of Cyclenation, the umbrella group for local cycling campaigns, the guide says that all new developments and street renewals “should be designed for a third of all journeys to be made by bike” – and explains how to do it.

The 36-page illustrated book argues that local streets should be ‘tamed’ with 20mph limits and restrictions on through traffic, while main roads should have segregated, Dutch-style cycleways running alongside. It explains what to do at sideroad junctions, how to choose cycle parking, and how to avoid putting pedestrians and cyclists in contact – aspects that British planners often get wrong.

It lists ten basic principles that should underpin new developments:

1. People need space for cycling – separate lanes away from traffic, at least 2.1m wide
2. People like simple, direct routes
3. People prefer cycling away from pedestrians – not shared-use paths, except in rural areas
4. People want to maintain momentum – cycle tracks should not give way at every side road
5. People want to be visible – cycle infrastructure should allow people to see each other
6. People like level surfaces – not changing height at every junction
7. People want unobstructed routes – not streetlights in the middle of the path
8. People want to cycle away from parked cars
9. People need somewhere to park their bike
10. People want well-maintained infrastructure

For main roads, the guide recommends the Dutch model of segregated cycle tracks. As an alternative option, it suggests that ‘hybrid cycle lanes’, as used in Denmark and Sweden, can be considered: these are on-road cycle lanes yet with some physical dividing line, such as a line of cobbles.

The guide generally recommends against sharing paths with pedestrians, but says these can be useful for wider paths and leisure routes away from roads, and on routes between towns or in rural areas “where pedestrian flows are less than 100 people per hour”.

In a section that will be music to developers’ ears, it says that cycle-friendly developments are easier to sell:

“The attractiveness and quieter environment are a significant selling-point over competing developments. New developments planned around the bicycle will also use land more efficiently. Accordingly, this means that the density of the development – and therefore the number of saleable units – will be increased whilst enhancing the amenity of the area.”

The guide will be formally launched at the Cycle City Expo in Leeds on 1st-2nd May.

You can download the guide here (PDF) or read it in an online viewer.

CTC guide for ‘decision makers’

Meanwhile, cycling charity CTC has launched a companion guide for “local decision makers”. It covers similar ground, but is expressly aimed at councillors and other decision makers, rather than developers and planners. It, too, recommends protected space along main roads, coupled with low traffic volumes and speeds on back streets, and traffic-free routes away from roads. The guide is uncompromising on the standard of bike lane required:

“Unsegregated lanes should not be used though simply on the excuse that ‘there isn’t room for separate provision’. If there really isn’t enough space, and the traffic is too fast or too heavy for children or less confident cyclists to share the road, traffic volumes and speeds need to be reduced to a comfortable level.”

It also draws attention to ways in which funding can be found for cycling improvements. For example, it recommends making roads cycle-friendly when they’re resurfaced:

“Road resurfacing offers a great opportunity to redesign the road to be more cycle-friendly, at marginal extra cost. New York City has integrated its cycling and planned highway maintenance programmes very successfully. Plymouth City Council is doing the same here.”

The CTC guide is downloadable as a PDF.

Sustrans Handbook

Finally, Sustrans has launched its Handbook for Cycle Friendly Design (PDF), a condensed version of its full library of guidance. Designed for all audiences from planning directors to cycle campaigners, it focuses on “urban focused solutions to overcoming the barriers that face non-motorised users navigating our towns and cities”. According to Paul Hilton from Sustrans:

“At a time when funding for measures to improve transport in the UK are aimed largely at road building, it is essential that another vision is put forward: a world in which people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment.”

Another Oxford junction savaged

Another set of proposals for roundabouts in Oxford has got the thumbs-down from local cyclists, not long after plans for the Plain were roundly criticised.

This time, it’s Frideswide Square, outside the railway station, which is the focus of cyclists’ ire. The current design is generally agreed to be confusing and over-complicated, with a “forest of traffic lights” governing separate flows for cars and buses – while cyclists do the best they can. Oxfordshire County Council is now planning a simpler boulevard-style layout with roundabouts at each end, but campaign group Cyclox is not impressed.

In a letter to Councillor David Nimmo-Smith, in charge of transport at the council, Cyclox’s Dan Levy says that roundabouts are not the answer – and warns that cyclists could be trapped on the inside of buses and lorries.

“In general, UK roundabouts are appalling for cyclists. This one is likely to be worse than most because of the topography, the angles for long vehicles, and the frustration of drivers after queuing. Roundabouts are particularly scary for less confident cyclists – the very people that you need to get to use bicycles and leave their cars behind.

“The Frideswide proposals will lead to two main problems. Drivers of motor vehicles are likely to try to overtake on and between the roundabouts where there is no room, and long vehicles are likely to endeavour to turn to the left after pulling to the right (and vice versa), which will lead to cyclists getting trapped on the inside of such vehicles.”

The plans envisage that less confident cyclists will be allowed to use the pavements outside the Said Business School. The Oxford Pedestrians Association has expressed opposition to this, while Cyclox says that it is no substitute for “taking the same direct route as motorised vehicles”. Cyclox’s own preferred solution would see car traffic diverted away from the square on a southerly route, with through passage reserved for buses and cycles.

Oxfordshire County Council says that it is building “a square that can better handle the tens of thousands of journeys that use it every day, with traffic flowing slowly but steadily – creating a safe, efficient and attractive environment for all road users”. But Dan Levy disagrees:

“Major projects such as the Plain, Frideswide Square, Westgate and Wootton Roundabout [Abingdon] have been pushed through against expert advice, often using cycling safety money when cyclist safety won’t be improved, and are likely to fail to achieve any of their objectives other than maintaining motor vehicle flow.”

Work on the new layout is due to start this autumn and will cost £5.5m. It will be complete by winter 2015.