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Construction work is underway on a new scenic cycleway to the Dorset coast.
Local activists and Sustrans are aiming to turn the old railway from Maiden Newton to Bridport into a cycle route or ‘trailway’. (See the dotted line on the map.) The 10-mile route would be entirely traffic-free, which is rare in this part of the country.
Now, work has started on a major section of the path, from Bridport to the village of Bradpole. The work is expected to finish in early May, with a formal opening soon after.
Maggie Ray, the mayor of Bridport, said the new path was “great news, especially as a safe route to school”. The trail promoters have praised the support they’ve received from landowners, including the Co-op and builders’ merchants Travis Perkins.
A short section by the coast is already cyclable, though new roads have been built along other parts of the old trackbed. At Maiden Newton, the path would meet the existing National Cycle Network route 26.
The town of Northampton is the latest to sign up to Britain’s bike-hire boom.
The newly named ‘Cycle CoNNect’ scheme, riffing on the area’s NN postcode, starts operation in May. The £150,000 scheme is initially providing 50 bicycles for public hire from 10 docking stations around the town, including the town centre, Brackmills Industrial Estate and the main University campuses.
Michael Clarke, county council cabinet member for transport, said: “As a county council we’re very keen to encourage sustainable forms of transport and this can be a challenge particularly in the current financial climate. However, this relatively low-cost scheme is a clever way of encouraging people to discover the advantages of pedal power.”
Users will need to register as a member of the scheme for free, either online or over the phone. Once you are signed up as a member, you will receive a membership number and PIN. Key in your membership number and PIN at any of the docking stations and select a bike to rent. The bicycle will be released from the electronic locking system for you to cycle away. You can return the bike to any docking station, not just the one you rented it from. Each docking station will display a map of the immediate vicinity and show where the nearest docking stations in the area.
As with most similar schemes, the first 30 minutes of each rental is free of charge. The bikes will cost £1 per hour to rent, capped at £4 per day. If the docking station is full or faulty, you can lock the bike to it using the combination lock attached to the bike, and call Cycle CoNNect to end your hire period.
Revised plans to rebuild an Oxford city roundabout with ‘Cycling City’ money have failed to win over local cycle campaigners.
The Plain, by Magdalen Bridge, is one of the busiest spots in the city. Three routes from East Oxford converge here, funnelling into one road for the city centre – and Oxford’s extremely frequent bus services mean that cyclists must dodge very large vehicles to make their way round. 35 cycling accidents have been reported in the last five years, but many more are believed to have gone unreported.
Oxfordshire County Council is spending a central Government ‘Cycling City Ambition’ grant on roundabout works. It summarises the £1m plan:
“The scheme aims to encourage greater levels of cycling by addressing one of the key barriers/perceptive deterrents to increased cycling into and out of Oxford city centre. It would be on the basis that the preferred option is keeping cyclists on the carriageway and making it safer for them by reducing road space, tightening geometry of The Plain roundabout junction.”
The works will make the approach roads to the roundabout narrower, “promoting slower traffic speeds and thus making it safer for cyclists”. The plans would still allow coaches to park on the side of the road to pick up children from the nearby school, and retain the large loading bay used occasionally by Sainsbury’s delivery lorries.
The council claims that shared-use paths would have a “negative impact on pedestrians and other vulnerable users”, and that “there is insufficient space to provide facilities for cyclists completely off the carriageway – in any case, there would be a high level of conflict with vehicles at crossing points”.
But local cyclists have been underwhelmed by the plans. Simon Hunt, chairman of the city’s campaign group Cyclox, told the Oxford Mail that “We don’t think these changes go far enough”. An objection from a local CTC councillor, seen by cycle.travel, expresses bewilderment at “the particularly stubborn reluctance to acknowledge ‘hybrid’, Copenhagen-style or any type of segregated provision”.
Oxfordshire County Council has kept open the remote possibility of a Dutch-style segregated solution at a later date. It says: “Given that this scheme is stage one of a two stage scheme that would address the wider approaches to the junction, the concept of some sort of semi-segregated cycle lanes on the roundabout could be revisited at a later stage, when funding allows.”
Update: As expected, the plans were approved at a council meeting on Thursday 27th. Cyclox said it was disappointed, commenting: “These changes will hardly make any difference.”
London has no shortage of weird road layouts, but perhaps rather fewer wonderful ones. Now Transport for London is seeking to combine the two with a programme to fund “creative and original on-street projects”.
The Future Streets Incubator Fund has a comparatively modest £1.8m, to be spent over three years to make more streets “where people can socialise and interact”. According to London Mayor, Boris Johnson:
“Anything and everything will be considered, however weird and wonderful. We want to harness the creativity of Londoners and put their ingenuity on the map.”
Similar projects funded recently by TfL include a scheme to co-ordinate deliveries around Baker Street, so lorries are on the street for fewer hours of the day; a cycle freight and pitstop (pictured) service in Bankside; and a commercial vehicle reduction scheme in the West End. But the scheme is now setting its sights higher, pointing to a Brooklyn car park replaced with a tree-lined public plaza, ‘street tennis’ in Toronto, and Bogota’s famous car-free Ciclovia Sundays.
Local boroughs, Business Improvement Districts, and community projects are invited to apply to the fund by emailing incubator@tfl.gov.uk.
Meanwhile, 17-year old blogger MaidstoneOnBike has recently garnered attention for his well-thought through redesigns of TfL’s proposed junction schemes at Kings Cross and Elephant & Castle. We can’t think of any better way for TfL to support “the creativity of Londoners” (or, ok, nearby residents) than by adopting these sensible, community-endorsed schemes.
Tuesday is the deadline for cyclists to ask for a better deal at King’s Cross – where Transport for London’s plans have been widely condemned as “not good enough”.
King’s Cross is well known as one of the capital’s worst cycling blackspots; it was here that Min Joo Lee was killed by a construction lorry in October 2011. TfL’s proposals are focused on small improvements to the existing on-road cycle lanes, including a solid (mandatory) white line on the outside, and space taken from the pavement.
However, London Cycling Campaign and prominent London cyclists have criticised the plans for their lack of ambition. LCC said:
“It will not be possible to go through the junction in any direction without being exposed to unacceptable levels of danger. Some sections do not even meet the old cycle design standards set out a decade ago.
“Even the lorry driver, Terry Gibbs, exclaimed that the Mayor should take out one of the traffic lanes and put in a proper bike lane. We agree with him; so did the coroner.”
Instead, LCC believes that TfL should build “connected and continuous protected cycle lanes, for safe passage through the junction in every direction”.
Writing at ibikelondon, blogger Mark Ames said that cyclists were getting a raw deal.
“The entire surface of all the carriageways in the redevelopment area will be resurfaced – all on the back of the cycling budget. You might find yourself on a terrible pavement cycle lane, whilst motorists glide smoothly past on beautiful new tarmac paid for with money set aside to supposedly make you safer. You couldn’t make it up.
“We've all been enticed by the images of protected cycle lanes and the mock ups of cycle tracks yet to be built, but when it comes to proposing actual work, this is what we are met with.”
TfL’s plans can be found here. The consultation, which closes on Tuesday 25th, can be completed online.
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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