Cottenham Cyclist

Danger junctions, that minor victory.

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:23:00 +0000

Cambridge Cyclist and I have recently had a minor success. One of the Police priorities set by the North Area Committee in Cambridge has been to target anti-social cycling. Some of this was about cyclists without lights (I approve) but more controversially pavement or more accurately footway cycling.

One of the areas that was being targeted for anti-social cycling was the shopping area on Milton Road close to Arbury Road. The issue here was unclear signage, where a shared use path ends without clear signs. Cyclist are supposed to move onto the road using the 1m cycle lane past the shops, and then just 200m later the shared-use path restarts on the other side of an awful busy junction with Arbury Road.

Milton Road is a major A road in and out of Cambridge and is subsequently very busy with traffic. It has a shared use cyclepath on its western side, starting at its junction with Gilbert Road and pretty much continues for 2.35km to the Science Park. I say pretty much, because it has two holes, one of those being the 200m at the Milton/Arbury Road shops. If you are a timid cyclist, would you want to cycle in that on-road lane?

Worse, if you are travelling in the other direction trying to get round the 200m hole legally, you would be expected to cross over the road, use the 1m on-road cycle lane going straight on at the roundabout while all the majority of traffic on your right is attempting to turn left. The Google StreetView visualises the conflict. This junction is statistically bad for cyclists too.

Cyclist using the legal route over the roundabout, rather than the illegal footway on right.
Most vehicles turn left here, many cyclists go straight on.

As a result of the criticisms, we got involved with the local political process, explained our case - badly at the North Area Committee - but then better one-to-one. Targeting anti-social cycling has now been dropped as a priority with a view to improving cycle path signs and looking at road and path layout. This is summarised well in the Cambridge News.

The good news is that the Police and Councillors understand the issues more than they did before and that they are looking at the views of not just cyclists, but pedestrians too. It is certainly not my wish to have a solution that puts vulnerable pedestrians at risk. One outcome - proposed by Councillor Manning - is to look at the root cause of any issues they are asked to prioritise. That's a great result for all, not just cyclists.

Where next?

When I went to the North Area Committee I went armed with statistics of Cambridge's road accidents. I meant to get the cyclist accidents visualised on a map, but that's partly been superceeded by the DfT's collision map. Here's a map of Cambridgeshire's collisions involving cyclists. This tool doesn't have a way to filter to pedestrian collisions - I've already put in a request to the authors get that improved.

My other task is verifying the OpenStreetMap view of the shared-use paths in Cambridge. When correct, it can be used to show where any problems are. I've been using two sources: the Traffic Regulation Orders and actual on-the-ground signage. I've reviewed the TRO's for Arbury so far, making a few minor corrections and mostly adding legal shared use that wasn't on the map.

An interesting example shared-use path runs along the south side of Kings Hedges Road. Almost the entire 2.7km length is shared-use, except for a dodge round a bus shelter next to Kirkwood Road. Could you spot the end of the cyclepath? Here it is from the other end.

A final example is some shared-use path on Campkin Road. This is genuinely shared-use. It looks like footway, isn't that clearly marked and probably causes bad feeling for some pedestrians. Some of them may have even complained about cyclists on the footpath. Shared-use cyclists in Cambridge often find themselves in close quarters with pedestrians, on routes that sometimes look like shared-use, sometimes like footway, regardless of their legal status.

Some of the shared-use looks awful to a fast rider, but even when poor quality, many people do value being able to keep off the road such as accompanying children cycling to school. But when the speeds go up in tight spaces, that's surely when the conflict and animosity starts.

These are positive things we can do to improve the situation for all.

Improve signs so people understand where is legal to ride.
Find a way to make longer shared-use cycle paths continuous. Dumping timid riders on the road in 1m cycle lanes is unacceptable.
Longer term, redesign the road and path layout.

Testing Cambridge's Safer Cycle Nework

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:37:00 +0000

This post contains a lot of road names, one of the following map sources will help you follow:

OpenCycleMap (opens on Cambridge)
Cambridge City Cycle Map (pdf)
CycleStreets Journey Planner (Cambridge)

I hate cycling in traffic. Even with every driver overtaking you perfectly, I've always got my hearing tuned for unusual behaviour from drivers behind and ready myself for evasive action. For every 99 drivers who are excellent, there will be just one who overtakes badly, or worse gives you a close pass. This is why, when there are safer routes I want to use them.

Histon Road

Avid readers will know that I no longer take Histon Road, Cambridge as part of my commute. At the times I travel, the traffic flows freely through the worst pinch point, with inadequate 1 metre on-road cycle lanes next to a traffic lane that is the same width as a bus.

Southbound, destination city centre, I prefer to avoid the worst part of Histon Road and divert down the parallel route just to the East, along Kings Hedges Road, Arbury Road, then Mere and Carlton Way. Upon reaching Gilbert Road I take the route into town via Gilbert Road, Milton Road and Victoria Avenue. There is a safer route that continues over Gilbert Road, into Stretten Avenue and over Jesus Green Lock.

If I hate traffic so much, why do I not take the safer Jesus Lock route? I am balancing additional time and safety. The direct route from Cottenham to the city centre takes me 24 minutes. My safer route takes around 27 minutes. Going via Jesus Lock, 33m00s. Actually, when I am in a rush, I find myself having to take Histon Road to save time - a forced but pragmatic decision. To put this into perspective, the same journey by motorcycle during rush hour takes me 25 minutes. I've never done it by car.

Viability

You can already see that on my usual commute route I am trading safety for time and extra distance. Some of us who are very skilled in traffic (Bikeability 3, CycleCraft) can save time. For normal people these routes can be safer but force them to go further. I don't expect Granny will be too happy going the extra distance in a headwind.

The more fiddly routes require effort to learn. This is fine for a regular journeys or trips close to home but becomes a pain for cross-town journeys.

You should know that my safe route along Mere and Carlton Way turns into a tricky and dangerous route at 8:45am as the school drop-offs turn the road to chaos. At this time, Histon Road is safer because the traffic is moving slower than bicycles. Choosing a safe route can be hard. Not all routes are consistently safe throughout the day.

The obstacles we put in the way are a straw-that-broke-the-camels-back problem. The more obstacles we make, the less journeys people are going to take by bicycle. Many of us have a car and it competes with the bicycle on physical effort, convenience and journey time. Not many people question CO2 when you need a loaf of bread in a hurry. Need to pop across town quickly and safely? Some will choose the car because its hard to find a safe route. You really do have to be a committed cyclist to make regular journeys.

Gilbert Road via Jesus Lock to City Centre

The safer route used by many normal cyclists from Gilbert Road into the city centre arrives via Jesus Lock and crosses Jesus Green towards Park Street car and cycle parks.

The legal route across town (green dots) feels like you are fighting the one way system. The natural desire-line is past Sainsbury on Sydney St, but is illegal due to a one-way system (for motor-vehicles) and is often Policed with PSCOs handing out fines to cyclists.

A legal route Southbound from Jesus Green.
Cambridgeshire County Council's cycling map.

Mill Road

I occasionally need to do errands to the far end of Mill Road. I've previously written about it being a cycle casualty black spot.

Cambridge City Printed Cycle Map

Mill Road has a safer parallel route which is quite popular. Last time I was at the far end I wanted to take that parallel route but I'd come unprepared. I was sat on the ring road at the junction of Brooks Road and Natal Road wondering how I could pickup the safer parallel route to the city centre rather than take Mill Road. Unbelievably, I was at the exact junction where the safer route started and had no idea. I gave up and used Mill Road.

I returned with a paper map in hand determined to test the safer route, from Parkers Piece to Natal Road and back. From Parkers Piece, I started my stopwatch and headed East picking up Gresham Road, following blue signs for Cherry Hinton. It's a wiggly route but I followed my nose and another cyclist. Signs for Cherry Hinton were lacking around Tenison Road but recognised Station Road was the wrong way and followed my nose into Devonshire Road. I just missed the ramp up onto the Carter Bridge but solved by a quick u-turn and over the railway I went. On the other/east side I reached a T-junction where I was stumped. My paper map saved me and I turned left then right into Greville Road and followed a reasonably obvious route.

Off Coleridge Road there was a comically thin cut through to Marmora Road. Funny because this is a classic route that mixes cyclists and pedestrians on pavements that have been legalised for dual-use just like many locations in Cambridge, but in at other locations you can receive a fine if enough locals badger the Police with their irritation.

The final off-road link was a pavement cut through from Mamora/Hobart Road to Natal Road. I rode this route in the dark and this location was unlit with a dark corner in a quiet location. I can't imagine women cycling alone would be happy here at night.

Arriving at the ring road, I realised I'd passed just a handful of moving cars. The route took me 11m20s over 2.6km.

I returned to Parkers Piece along the direct Mill Road route, with light traffic at 7:30pm, taking 6m10s over 2.1km. The safer route had cost me 5 minutes, and 500 metres.

Would I take this route again? If I lived in the area, without a doubt. For my occasional errand, perhaps not. It's a trip that I'm always squeezing into a busy schedule and the extra delay over such as short distance is hard to swallow.

Conclusion

Cambridge has some very adult friendly cycle routes. The Mill Road area in particular has many one way streets for drivers and closed through routes. This does provide a useful secondary cycle network, but does require effort to learn. Improved signage would make their use much easier.

Some of the newer shared-use routes in Cambridge are far better than their previous generations - Madingley Road for example, and new off-road routes keep popping up such as The Tins towards Cherry Hinton. One of the greatest successes in Cambridge is limited motor vehicle access to the bollard protected city centre. The history of this precedes my time in Cambridge, but I bet it was highly controversial and required bold and courageous decision making - it's paid off.

But, outside of the bollard protected central shopping area, Cambridge suffers from a lack of direct and safe cycle routes. Cycles are allowed to use wide bus lanes, along routes such as Hills Road, Milton Road, and Newmarket Road, but these always end just before difficult junctions. The direct routes come into play for cross-city journeys and those commuting into Cambridge from outside the 'radial corden'.

In this city of cyclists, we still have to balance safety and journey time while traffic flow on the main routes takes priority over cyclist safety. Better junction design and re-allocating road space from motor-vehicles to bicycles are the current debates. These ideas will again require bold and courageous decision making from our local politicians.

Further reading:
Ely Cycle Campaign on Cambridge's Cycling Infrastructure and the use of a secondary network.
Cambridge Cycle Campaign's criticism of the Catholic Church junction design decision.

Cyclists' 10 worst junctions revealed

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:29:00 +0000

Cambridge News have published a story with collision counts at the junctions either end of Lensfield Road in Cambridge. The story contains some factual errors which have been analysed and corrected.

Cyclists' 10 worst junctions revealed

08:12 Monday 18 March 2013

Written byDebra Fox

It begins:

The 10 most dangerous junctions for cyclists in Cambridge have been revealed, with Lensfield Road the top hotspot for accidents.

The Lensfield Road, Trumpington Street and Fen Causeway junction was recorded as the most dangerous with 41 accidents recorded in six years, while 20 accidents put Perne Road, Radegund Road and Birdwood Road roundabout in at number 10.

The latest figures from Levenes Cycle Injury, the personal injury lawyers, show the number of accidents have increased at all of the 10 locations in the city. However, Cambridgeshire County Council disputes the figures.

The story is similar to one published a year ago in a number of sources. Levenes have previously published their own story on Levenes' web site dated 29th March 2012. Cambridge News themselves published a very similar story Most Dangerous Junctions for Cyclists Revealed 15th March 2012 with numbers. And the figures from Levenes were also used in a similarly named story by The Cambridge Student 22nd March 2012.

The story references the total number of collisions at two junctions, each at either end of Lensfield Road. Its a confusing set of numbers which become clearer when you see the source.

Levenes provided these numbers to Cambridge News and gave me the same data to help clear up factual errors:

The Junction	2005-2010 6 years	2005-2011 7 years
1. Lensfield Rd/Trumpington St/The Fen Causeway	36	41
2. Queen Edith's Way/Fendon Rd/Hills Road Triangle	34	39
3. East Rd/Mill Rd	31	33
4. Maids Causeway/Victoria Ave/Jesus Lane Roundabout	27	33
5. Hills Road/Gonville Pl/Lensfield Rd/Regent St Cross Roads	30	31
6. Castle St/Northampton St/Chesterton Ln	26	27
7. Milton Rd/Elizabeth Way Roundabout	23	26
8. Hills Rd/Cherry Hinton Rd	23	25
9. Emmanuel St/St Andrews St/Downing St	20	22
10. Perne Rd/Radegund Rd/Birdwood Roundabout	15	20

Quotes from the story:

The Lensfield Road, Trumpington Street and Fen Causeway junction was recorded as the most dangerous with 41 accidents recorded in six years.

There is a mistake, 41 is the Levenes figure for 7 years, not 6 as stated.

The Catholic Church junction, where Hills Road, Gonville Place, Lensfield Road and Regent Street meet ... came fifth on the list after 31 cyclists were said to have been injured there between 2005 and 2011 [7 years].

This number is correctly quoted.

But a spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council said the Lensfield Road junction with Fen Causeway had only had 31 accidents between 2005 and 2010 [6 years] – 10 fewer than the Levenes statistics.

This number is not correct. Given the earlier mistake by Cambridge News quoting the wrong year, we cannot be sure what question CN asked the council to answer, or if there were any mistakes whilst writing the story. This could be a case of "garbage in, garbage out".

A small part of the story said:

The latest figures from Levenes Cycle Injury, the personal injury lawyers, show the number of accidents have increased at all of the 10 locations in the city

The story did not give the numbers as they did in previous years so it was impossible for the reader to check this claim. The total number of collisions has increased - obvious given one extra year of data - but the collision rate has not accelerated.

It is worth adding that Levenes and the Council take different approaches when working out which are the worst junctions for collisions.

Levenes have simply counted the total number of collisions involving cyclists.

Cambridgeshire County Council use an algorithm score the sites which skews results towards more severe collisions. The scoring process considers all collisions and road users, not just those involving cyclists.

Last year the story was more topical as cyclists were busy marking their most dangerous junctions on The Times Cycle Safe Map with the Hills Road end of Lensfield Road having twice as many submissions as the TrumpingtonSt/Fen Causeway end. Shortly after, the council announced they had plans to update the Catholic Church junction at Hills Road / Lensfield Road.

STATS19 data for 2012 will be released to the general public around July 2013 and that is when we'll start to see the next round of updates and headlines from all the news sources. Levenes have said they will be updating their map when the new data is released.

If you spot any errors or can provide clearer information, please do get in contact.

The Failure of Cambridgeshire Police.

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:57:00 +0000

I was on the receiving end of a road rage incident today where a driver drove their car at me. There was no collision, I did nothing to antagonise the driver, I was simply riding my bicycle legally and happened to be in their way. I was shaken up. I called through to the Police on 101.

What follows is (so others tell me) is a typical response from Cambridge Police when you phone through an incident as a cyclist. The summary of which is:

No independent witnesses? Do nothing.
Make the victim jump through as many hoops to avoid recording anything.
Above all, make sure this incident is not recorded as a crime for the statistics.
Advertise record 'low' crime rates.

Cambridgeshire Police has a reputation for being institutionally anti-cyclist. I personally think you'd get the same treatment as a pedestrian, and for many other types of crime. The worst part for me is having no way for the Police to record and categorise car-cycle incidents. We often hear the phrase, "if you don't report crime, we can't do anything about it". I have tried several times to report serious incidents over the last decade with similar results and get no action.

This is my recollection of the conversation. The Police's paraphrased words are in blue.

I phone 101 on my mobile from the street.

Your location is not recognised, putting you through to an operator ... Which Police station? Cambridge .... If you know the extension number of the person you require press 1 if you [repeating the registration number over and over in my head] .... or hold for an operator ... Cambridgeshire Police how can I help? I've been forced off the road ... I'll put you through. [seriously frustrated now]

What happened? [I describe the incident]. You poor thing, let me take some details. Phone number? [tappity tap] address? postcode? [the driver will be long gone now] registration of the vehicle? description? Here's your incident number ....

Hang on! This was a serious incident I am shaken up, I am standing at the side of the road. I want somebody to speak with the driver.

OK, [tappity-tap] We have interview slots at Parkside at 10am and 5pm.
What about Histon Police station? I am 5 mins away. It opens at 4pm. [I indecisively grumble]
Let me speak with my supervisor. I'll call you back. [three minutes later]
He says as you were forced off the road this is being treated as a road traffic collision.
[Fab! now we are getting somewhere] Report your incident within 24 hours at any police station.

[An hour later at Parkside]

I was told to come in to report an incident in person.
What happened? I explain briefly. Any independent witnesses? Nobody stopped at the roadside. Won't do anything. There were following cars. CPS won't do anything without them. [the lady officer really was that harsh, sharp and battle hardened].
What? I was told to come in, I reported this on the phone.
Incident number? I don't have one, I was in the street shaken up when I made the call to 101.
Can you search by phone number, my name, my address? No, can't do that. Really?

Look, I realise that no prosecution will happen. I just want somebody to speak with the driver so if they see me tomorrow, they won't threaten me again, that's all. I am quite shaken up.

Can't do that. Why not? Their word against yours. We can't accuse them of something. You won't be doing that, you'll just be talking to them and investigating. Sorry, its policy.
What? I am standing here shaken up after being threatened and you won't do anything? No, not without independent witnesses. What if I was threatened with a knife? That's a different matter.
Err, ok [a bit dazed], turns around to leave. Oh, can I have the incident number. [At this point there is a lot of tapping]. What time did it happen? ... where? .... Your phone number. 077...
[I realise the officer is hunting harder for a record of my phone call after I was told they couldn't search for it].

[Taps away for a couple of minutes, followed by another few minutes recording my contact details. Obviously my visit to Parkside would not have resulted in an incident record - again!]

Can I have a printout of this incident record? You'll have to put it in writing and pay £10. [I recognise this the data protection act being used here]. Can I just see the computer screen? No, its the Police National Computer, no member of the public can see it. Did you record my dissatisfaction with the whole process. Yes. My supervisor will read it.

So while this driver gets away with endangering my life, without even getting a talking to. Operation Pedalo continues with 'huge' amounts of officer time spent cracking down on cyclists being foolish to not have lights, and on pavement cycling, most of those who are there because they fear traffic.

[As a side note: I was the independent witness in a separate incident where that cyclist was clipped by a wing mirror by an aggressive driver. The end result was the driver got a talking to. No fixed penalty notice, no CPS. How hard can Cambridgeshire Police make it to reduce bad driver behaviour]

Cambridgeshire Police think Operation Pedalo is successful in reducing cyclist casualty numbers. How untrue that is. This is how Cambridgeshire Police are failing the vulnerable.

This is why faith in Cambridgeshire Police is low. Individual officers do a great and difficult job, but the institution is a failure for vulnerable cyclist and pedestrian road users . It needs fixing and just admitting there is a problem would be a massive leap forward. This is in the city with the highest proportion of people cycling to work in the entire country.

Cambridgeshire Police need to lead the country on cyclist road safety policing not brush the problem under the carpet.

Update 5 Mar 2013

A few days after I decided to phone Cambridgeshire Police back and go up the management chain. After calling 101, I received a call back from a real officer who reviewed calls. It took 15 minutes of discussing my issue for him to realise just how serious my incident was. The information recorded by Parkside Police Station reception staff did not convey my message. If I had been able to see what was recorded at Parkside about my incident there would have been a chance a real officer could have spotted my incident.

After speaking with the real officer, he worked hard, attempting to call the driver of the accused vehicle. They tried several times, and even passed the task to another officer when not available and kept me informed of their attempts. In the final attempt they managed to speak with the accused. He did not admit to anything untoward (expected) but this was enough for me, the warning message had made it, and I learned that this person was not a regular on my commute and I did not have to worry. I also learned that this was yet another case of a driver thinking the footway next to the road was a cyclepath.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this sorry tale, it's don't be brushed off by 101 if you think you have a serious case and should be helped. But, be realistic, something like close passing without malicious intent will go nowhere.

Observing the Crackdown

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:25:00 +0000

As I motorcycled home I spotted two officers on Milton Road obviously on Operation Pedalo (or is that the North Area Police priority, or both?). Targets of the operation are: cycling without lights; pavement cycling; and reducing cycle crime [theft?].

Setting the Scene

7pm Thursday 7th. Feb, two officers were outside Wilco exactly where the cyclist is on Google StreetView waiting for cyclists travelling North (left to right). I was observing from outside the pharmacy, where the police cones are. It was dark but well lit with streetlamps.

Some will be familiar with the location. The signage is unclear and it is quite easy to continue cycling from a shared use (just ~30 yards from the officers) and continue straight into the trap, but now on a footway.

I was not quite close enough to see if they were officers or PCSOs. They were not aware that I was observing.

Just before I arrived they were talking to a person with a bicycle but by the time I had parked up they had gone so I don't know if they had been ticketed or were asking for directions.

Five minutes of observation.

The first thing that happened was a car was pulled over for using fog lamps when not foggy. The car left without a ticket being issued.

Many cyclists went past on the road on both directions all with lights. Far more cars went past too, I estimate about 10 times as many.

A cyclist came northbound into the trap. Before they arrived I could see they were riding courteously and passed a family with two children. In no way did the family look worried. This looked like a typical scene on any shared use path.

The cyclist, a male maybe 30-40yrs, had no lights and was stopped and given a ticket. This took the full duration of the time I was there so more than 4 minutes. There was a moment when the cyclist was looking down at his bike, confused. Perhaps looking for the frame number.

During the time the officers were giving the cyclist a FPN, and thus unobserved and ignored, these events took place:

One car with a failed headlamp parked near them. One car went past with fog lamps lit. A panther taxi was hooted as it attempted pull out onto the main road from the shop area. A cyclist with no rear light safely negotiated their way past a dog and walker, then round the officers and continued. My motorcycle came within 6 inches of being hit as an unobservant driver swung into my parking space - I was obscured by the car next to me.

At this point I left. (See StreetView image) I negotiated my way left to right through the bollards retracing my steps to leave via the drop kerb at the white line. A car had parked here blocking the way out.

No cyclists were on the footway with lights during the time I was there so we do not know if that is being ticketed here.

Summary

So that's 2 bicycle light offences; 2 bicycles on the footway; 3 car lighting offences; 2 cases of poor driving; 1 case of anti-social car parking.

I use Wilco a few times a year and I believe the pedestrians are at most risk from cars rushing in and out of the parking areas from a busy main road. Anecdotal observations should not be relied upon, but my road safety stats (see on footway or verge) add weight to that theory.

I left via Arbury Road and knowing the Police were elsewhere, pulled a superbly long power wheelie. joke.

Mill Road: a cycle casualty black spot.

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:36:00 +0000

I had an errand to run tonight, taking me away from my normal commute, and this time from the centre of Cambridge to the end of Mill Road and back. This journey, epitomised everything about the current state of Policing in this city.

My journey

First up, out of town on St Andrew's Street. I pass two Police Officers (maybe PCSOs) who are enforcing the Lights Instead of Tickets (LIT) scheme. I wholeheartedly approve of this scheme, but I do object to the amount of time spent on this. Let me say why.

Diagonally across Parker's Piece. I wanted to see the demonstration lights, but they have been vandalised. It's really dark across here and pedestrians walk in black invisibility cloaks but I respect that as a faster vehicle, its my responsibility to look out for them. Interestingly society has arrived at the opposite conclusion on the road - to allow us to travel faster.

Then I start my journey outbound on Mill Road. This is approximately 7pm on a Wednesday night. A few weeks ago I heard my village Officer tell us that either side of the rush hour is the most likely time to catch speeders as gaps start to appear in traffic flows.

Mill Road has a very poor collision record and as such has a 20mph zone. You can see the collisions mapped on CycleStreets and Cambridge CC's websites. Allmost all of those dots are car-bicycle accidents.

Panther pounces

Twenty is how fast I cycle, but I find a taxi very close behind with an aggressive sounding engine threatening to pass. I am cycling in the left wheel track - trained cyclists will recognise as one of two advised road positions - and it is holding the taxi back whilst there is oncoming traffic. The taxi passes with hard acceleration a little too close for my liking and easily exceeding the 20mph speed limit. Other young adults are cycling nearer the gutter and I watch as taxi squeezes between them and the white line with oncoming traffic. This YouTube video demonstrates how close cars come when squeezing through and the risks taken.

Of course, I caught the taxi up again. Plenty of risk to others, but nothing gained.

I am not one to rely on anecdotal examples, but this happens a second, and a third time, with all three driving aggressively and in a bullying way.

I didn't notice any pavement cyclists, but I did see cyclists without lights on the road. It is very well lit by streetlights and everybody is easy to see if you look properly. There are plenty of unlit pedestrians crossing this busy road and you have to look out for them anyway. Cyclists are not any harder to spot under these streetlights.

After my errand I return inbound. I am overtaken by a car which accelerates aggressively up to, I estimate, 35mph. Then braked very sharply. A car was sitting stationary in the middle of the road, looking like it had pulled out from a side road. A female cyclist 40yrs old (with lights and helmet) was looking at her back wheel like the car had collided with it. I don't know who was at fault, but did hear the cyclist asking if the driver was ok. They must have been in shock.

Continuing along Mill Road, a van pulled out of a side road in front of me and I had to emergency stop. They had seen me - I know, they were looking into my eyes - this was a SMIDGAF, (Sorry Mate I Don't Give a Fuck). It's a variation on the SMIDSY (I Didn't See You). Again a taxi. All of the taxis were Panther Taxis.

Conclusions

This was a scary ride for me. I am a very experienced cyclist, motorcyclist and driver. I would not ride this route regularly at this time, it is too risky.

It is plainly obvious when cycling down Mill Road what the causes of accidents are - aggressive driving and failing to look properly. The story could be said to be anecdotal and unrepresentative, but my statistical analysis (summary) agrees and shows the extent of this problem.

The council and councillors are aware of the problem. It's on their map, and a 20mph zone has been implemented. Now it's time for Cambridgeshire Police to step up and play their part. While they are sending 30 officers to target low level anti-social cycling, Mill Road traffic goes unpoliced and the casualty numbers continue to rise.

Ignoring this problem has gone on for too long. Cambridge has 32% of people cycling to work the highest rate in the country and needs new ideas and leadership from the highest levels in Cambs Police. Doing nothing is shameful.

Boycott Cambridge News!

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:32:00 +0000

Did you just click through to this page to see what the fuss is all about? Gotcha!

Online newspapers use shocking and irresistible headlines to attract us through to their site to generate advertising revenue. Some go further, painting a picture of a something terrible that tugs on our stereotypes and prejudice (travellers! parking charges! lazy yoofs! pavement cycling!), and provide a comments section to have you visiting time and time again. Kerching kerching.

We find ourselves sucked in to reading, perhaps even commenting on this shameful click-thru journalism. All it is achieves is division in our communities. Lets try an experiment, all together for one month. Let's boycott ! My local paper is the Cambridge (Evening) News.

Feb 2013

Boycott Cambridge News.

#boycottCN

How do I boycott Cambridge News?

Avoid visiting their website for the entire of February. Their website metrics are unique visitors per month. Just one click and you've funded click-thru journalism.

A guaranteed way to prevent their site working is to change your hosts file.
Instructions: Windows XP/7, 8, Linux and Mac.
Use IP: 127.0.0.1 and hostname: www.cambridge-news.co.uk

How can I help?

Spread the message. Retweet. Cambridge News gets visitors from anywhere in the UK. Cyclists raising issues across the country often link to CN in digust. Find other sources if possible. Don't provide links. Use the #boycottCN tag.

But they've said something about [minority group] cyclists, I must change their minds!

First of all ignore the story, don't visit the home page, then you won't find out. The world will seem peaceful when you are not told other people are bad.

You'll likely come across links to their stories in many places, e.g. Twitter, another site like road.cc, BBC News related stories. Check links before you click on them. If your heart rate rises as you read a headline, don't click through. Beware obscured redirection URL's (t.co bit.ly) and use your instinct.

How do I keep up with my daily local new fix ?

There are many sources of local news. Local papers often copy press releases just adding a little bit of spin, setting the scene with a careful crafted headline to hook you in. You can go to their sources direct. See the bottom of this page for alternatives for Cambridge.

If you want to share a link to a story that is not Cambridge News, put it on twitter. Use the hashtag #boycottCN and we can all see your story.

I still want to discuss a story

Humans thrive on communication and Twitter is a great place to do that albeit in 140 characters. Find or put up stories with hashtag #boycottCN and reply. Get involved, lets have a debate, no one person is right but we can start our discussions from a truthful and honest platform. Twitter is free and open, your [reasonable] comments won't be moderated by a newspaper's agenda to drive advertising revenue.

Twitter actually has a major advantage over a controlled newspaper environment. Your local councillors and MP's are on there. Find them and you can have a direct conversation on local issues.

But, newspapers keep politicians in check

We had a major debate during Levenson about the usefulness of newspapers. They do play an important role in democracy. I wouldn't like to see politicians and pressure groups just put out unchallenged press releases, but what we have in Cambridge News is often worse. They do not put forward all sides of the argument, their primary agenda is create click-thru stories that generate comments, trolls and repeat argumentative visits.

Cambridge News has actually been holding back debate recently. An example of this is how they continuing to put out anti-cycling stories such as red-light-jumping without ever painting the full picture. They do not explain if the law breaker was causing danger to others or just to themselves for convenience, and they have never compared this to the danger posed to others by red light jumping motor vehicles. When a story is biased, correcting the bias prevents us getting to a sensible debate.

CN does not also ask simple questions that we need to know answers for when our politicians fail to ask. The Police and Crime Commissioner has cracked down on cyclists without lights in the name of lowering casualties with road accident data as the justification. I personally analysed the road safety statistics for Cambridge city and found very little statistical support for the crackdown. Cambridge News has not used this information to question our PCC and create an interesting story and be a catalyst for sensible discussion.

My focus is from a cycling perspective, but I also see other groups being treated in the same way. Travellers, youths, the unemployed. The Police, Councillors and Cycle Campaign need to use the press but their - often good - messages are lost to make an enraging article.

It won't make any difference

We don't know until we try. Even if we don't change Cambridge News we can have a debate. We might learn something. We might inspire someone to start a better paper.

I hate this, I disagree, I hate cyclists, grr!

Good for you, come onto Twitter to have a debate. This is not an independent forum, it is controller by me. I can delete your comments when I feel like it. It's just as bad as Cambridge News.

I'm inspired, I want to boycott a newspaper.

Use the #boycott... tag. Add your own ending.

What can I do long term?

You may not want to avoid a paper forever. Many online sites let Google provide adverts for their sites. You can avoid seeing some of these and perhaps reduce advertising revenue by installing a browser plugin called "AdBlock Plus" for desktop browsers. I would advise adding exceptions for sites you like, because they rely on that revenue to run for free. Support them.

Where do I get my local news?

BBC Cambridgeshire. They also discuss many local issues on the radio breakfast shows that do not get published on the website.

Anglia TV News for East Anglia, Cambridgeshire, or Cambridge.

Heart FM carry local stories.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary: News, @CambsCops, @CambsCops_FOI

Cambridgeshire County Council News, Consultations, and transport consultations.

How about Cambridge University News.

Student papers, Varsity, The Tab, Cambridge Student.

Guided Bus Fix? See Travelling the Guided Busway blog.

Twitter. You can make your own mix of people, press releases and banter.

How about a plain search for Cambridge.

RadWagon has compiled lists. See Locals.

There are so many councillors on Twitter, I just don't have a list. One place to start would be @RTaylorUK, he exchanges tweets with many councillors that you can find and follow. You are not limited by political party. How about Nick Clarke and his blog, a favourite for the CN.

If you are not on twitter already, use February to explore and see the news ... unfiltered.

Do add your own suggestions, using the comment box.

Cambridge is a fabulous place with a world class University surrounded by innovative companies and intelligent people. Its prior status as a Cycling City with 25% commuting by bicycle makes it an interesting place to discuss cycling issues. Cambridge deserves better.

Questions and response from Graham Bright PCC

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:21:00 +0000

I asked via email:

Q1a
The Police statistical database "STATS19" shows that in Cambridge City 2009-2011 there were 694 cycling casualties, and 155 pedestrian casualties. Statistical analysis shows that anti-social cycling (without lights; pavement cycling; passing red traffic lights) cause extremely low numbers of casualties.

Will you [Sir Graham Bright] commit the Police to targeting the real dangers posed by motor vehicles to vulnerable road users such as the contributory factor "failed to look properly" which is accountable in 48% of accidents in the city ?

Q1b
Cyclists in Cambridge commonly report dangerous driving but find the Police unable to deal with subjective road safety. Examples of near misses and close-passing are common across the city but Cambridgeshire Police require courtroom levels of proof and thus never follow up with time consuming incidents. They are reluctant to issue fixed penalty notices which alleviate these problems. Can you help get better justice for vulnerable road users in the face of dangerous driving in the city?

The answer is below. The response took 12 days, and is very similar to his press release Road Safety: "You can't cherry pick the law" says Sir Graham dated 4th Jan 2013.

Thank you for your email dated 10 January 2013 regarding road safety.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary have various road safety enforcement initiatives running throughout the year. Operation Pedalo was implemented to tackle anti-social cycling following the expression of renewed public concerns. One of the main thrusts of the operation has been to increase the use of cycle lights across the city through the LIT scheme. This diversion from prosecution scheme allows people to purchase lights and use them rather than pay a thirty pound fine for failing to display cycle lights. information from our officers conducting these operations has been that they have stopped a wide variety of individuals during December, students, local residents and visitors to the city. During the month the Constabulary have issued approximately two hundred and fifty tickets for the LIT scheme as well as dealing with other cycling and traffic issues.

I have stated previously that the law is the law, Whether you are talking about pedestrians, cyclists or motorists - particularly those using mobile phones whilst driving. You can’t cherry pick which bits of the law you will adhere to. The fact is that there are more bicycles per head of population in Cambridge than almost anywhere else in the world and dangerous cycling in the city was brought to my attention during my election campaign. As a result I asked the Chief Constable to tackle it. Dangerous cycling is a risk to all road users, including the cyclists themselves. All road users have a responsibility to Walk, cycle or drive safely.

I hope that this goes some way to ease your concerns and reassures you that this is a matter I am devoting attention to.

Ask a politician a direct question, don't expect a direct answer.

He missed an opportunity to mention his opinion on enforcement of 20mph zones which is looking favourable for vulnerable road users, but we have yet to see any concrete plans or action.

Road Safety Statistics for Cambridge City 2009-2011

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:37:00 +0000

WARNING: Before you start reading, this is a long post that deserves to be read in detail. If you just have a quick look you will likely miss a lot of the context.

Quick links to the tables below:

Casualty numbers.
Pedestrian and cyclist casualties, with other vehicles involved.
Percentage of casualties by light conditions.
Light conditions with street lighting.
Pedestrian and cyclist casualties by age.
Where were pedestrians when injured?
Where were pedestrians when injured? Vehicles and Severity.
Where were cyclists when injured ?
Where were cyclists when injured ? (A/B/C roads)
Where were cyclists when injured ? Vehicles and Severity.
Which roads are dangerous for cyclist and pedestrians ?
Which roads are dangerous for cyclist and pedestrians ? Junction detail.
Which junction features are dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians ?

Whenever I hear a debate about cyclists I hear a lot of anecdotal evidence, some of it plausible and some that is complete nonsense. I like to cut through that and explore objective information that has less bias. The best we have are the STATS19 reports filled in by the Police after collisions they attend.

STATS19 data is used in many sources, here are a few:

CambridgeshireCC Mapped Accident Data.
CycleStreets Collision Map and Reporting
DfT Road Accidents and Safety Statistics
Raw Data for STATS19

Cambridge itself has a very different population to most of the UK, with 25% of commutes by bicycle and a large student population. Any campaign to improve safety needs to back this up with good data specific for this area.

All of the statistical results in this page are based upon STATS19 data 2009-2011 for Cambridge City. This excludes other Cambridgeshire districts such as South Cambs. I chose a three year range as it is used by the council to score accident sites.

What is STATS19 ?

In short, it is the document filled in by the Police for accidents. There is a lot of information and includes:

Location of accident: coordinates: road name(s), junction detail, footway etc.
Casualty information: how many, age range, sex, pedestrian or their vehicle(s).
Vehicles involved

The guide for filling in the STATS19 form is called STATS20.

Important information about STATS19:

Not all accidents make it into STATS19. It is only where the Police atttended or were informed after.
The data does not say who was at fault, only what casualties and vehicles were involved.
Contributary factors are not publicly available for each accident. The DfT have provided me with a document summarising contributary factors in Cambridge City 2009-2011. I have made this available via google docs until it can be hosted elsewhere.

Accident/Casualty Severity

Fatal: Death within 30 days of the accident.
Serious: An injury for which a person is detained in hospital as an “in-patient”, or any of the following injuries whether or not they are detained in hospital: fractures, concussion, internal injuries, crushings, burns (excluding friction burns), severe cuts, severe general shock requiring medical treatment and injuries causing death 30 or more days after the accident. An injured casualty is recorded as seriously or slightly injured by the police on the basis of information available within a short time of the accident. This generally will not reflect the results of a medical examination, but may be influenced according to whether the casualty is hospitalised or not. Hospitalisation procedures will vary regionally".
Slight: "An injury of a minor character such as a sprain (including neck whiplash injury), bruise or cut which are not judged to be severe, or slight shock requiring roadside attention. This definition includes injuries not requiring medical treatment".

Casualty numbers

The tables in this page focus on accidents where pedestrians and cyclists are involved. Not all accidents are listed, such as motorcycles. Car occupant casualties are shown for comparison.

casualty	casualty severity	count
Car occupant	Fatal	2
Car occupant	Serious	19
Car occupant	Slight	348
Cyclist	Fatal	1
Cyclist	Serious	79
Cyclist	Slight	614
Pedestrian	Fatal	1
Pedestrian	Serious	32
Pedestrian	Slight	122

2011 Census data shows 31.9% of people who live in Cambridge commute by bicycle. Travel for Work which asks people who work in Cambridge, and therefore include residents living outside the city estimate 22-26% of commutes are by bicycle.

Pedestrian and Cyclist Casualties, with other vehicles involved. (no blame attributed)

casualty	casualty severity	vehicle type	count
Cyclist	Fatal	Taxi/Private hire car	1
Cyclist	Serious	Car	52
Cyclist	Serious	<null>	9
Cyclist	Serious	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	6
Cyclist	Serious	Taxi/Private hire car	3
Cyclist	Serious	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	3
Cyclist	Serious	Pedal cycle	2
Cyclist	Serious	Goods 7.5 tonnes mgw and over	2
Cyclist	Serious	Motorcycle over 500cc	2
Cyclist	Serious	Motorcycle 125cc and under	1
Cyclist	Slight	Car	438
Cyclist	Slight	<null>	62
Cyclist	Slight	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	39
Cyclist	Slight	Taxi/Private hire car	30
Cyclist	Slight	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	28
Cyclist	Slight	Pedal cycle	11
Cyclist	Slight	Goods over 3.5t. and under 7.5t	6
Cyclist	Slight	Goods 7.5 tonnes mgw and over	4
Cyclist	Slight	Other vehicle	3
Cyclist	Slight	Motorcycle over 500cc	2
Cyclist	Slight	Minibus (8 - 16 passenger seats)	1
Cyclist	Slight	Motorcycle 125cc and under	1
Pedestrian	Fatal	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	1
Pedestrian	Serious	Car	25
Pedestrian	Serious	Pedal cycle	3
Pedestrian	Serious	Motorcycle 50cc and under	1
Pedestrian	Serious	Taxi/Private hire car	1
Pedestrian	Serious	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	1
Pedestrian	Serious	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	1
Pedestrian	Serious	<null>	1
Pedestrian	Serious	Goods 7.5 tonnes mgw and over	1
Pedestrian	Slight	Car	62
Pedestrian	Slight	Pedal cycle	24
Pedestrian	Slight	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	13
Pedestrian	Slight	<null>	8
Pedestrian	Slight	Taxi/Private hire car	7
Pedestrian	Slight	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	6
Pedestrian	Slight	Goods over 3.5t. and under 7.5t	2
Pedestrian	Slight	Motorcycle 50cc and under	1
Pedestrian	Slight	Motorcycle over 125cc and up to 500cc	1
Pedestrian	Slight	Motorcycle over 500cc	1

The table above does not attribute fault but using other data sources we can infer some likelihood.

With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time. (cites TRL research of data 2005-09)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-accidents-study

DfT data tells us the largest contributary factor in collisions is 'failing to look properly'. For Cambridge City this amounts to 335 of 695 or 48% of accidents involving all vehicle types.

Another DfT document looked at two vehicle accidents and the blame is heavily skewed towards cars and LGVs. Source:
RAS50014 Two vehicle accidents in which a driver or rider had "failed to look properly" as a contributory factor: GB 2011

Fault in each combination:

cycle 18% - 49% lgv
cycle 21% - 45% car
cycle 18% - 30% hgv
cycle 32% - 24% bus/coach
cycle 38% - 22% motorcycle

Percentage of casualties by light conditions:

casualty	light	count	percent
Car occupant	Dark	132	36%
Car occupant	Daylight	237	64%
Cyclist	Dark	173	25%
Cyclist	Daylight	521	75%
Pedestrian	Dark	46	30%
Pedestrian	Daylight	109	70%

It is surprising that cycling appears to be safer in the dark relative to walking or driving. This could be that people cycle less in the dark, or perhaps those without lights are taking greater care because of their vulnerability ?

I have a theory that unlit cyclists keep off the roads at night and cycle on pavements where they are away from the danger of motor vehicles.

The DfT Contributory Factors for Cambridge City 2009-2001, show:

Not displaying lights at night or in poor visibility. 8 of 695 accidents (all vehicle types).
Cyclist wearing dark clothing at night. 14 of 695. [this is not an offence]

The low percentages for cause agree with previous national TRL research summarised by the Guardian.

Light conditions with street lighting:

casualty	lighting	count
Car occupant	Darkness - lighting unknown	9
Car occupant	Darkness - lights lit	112
Car occupant	Darkness - lights unlit	4
Car occupant	Darkness - no lighting	7
Car occupant	Daylight	237
Cyclist	Darkness - lighting unknown	19
Cyclist	Darkness - lights lit	146
Cyclist	Darkness - lights unlit	6
Cyclist	Darkness - no lighting	2
Cyclist	Daylight	521
Pedestrian	Darkness - lighting unknown	4
Pedestrian	Darkness - lights lit	39
Pedestrian	Darkness - lights unlit	1
Pedestrian	Darkness - no lighting	2
Pedestrian	Daylight	109

Pedestrian and Cyclist Casualties by age.

Note: age brackets are different sizes. I have grouped together children under 15. The original data has 5yr brackets to 25, then 10yr brackets to 75.

casualty	age band	count
Cyclist	0-15	54
Cyclist	16-20	106
Cyclist	21-25	130
Cyclist	26 - 35	161
Cyclist	36 - 45	91
Cyclist	46 - 55	72
Cyclist	56 - 65	43
Cyclist	66 - 75	12
Cyclist	Over 75	7
Cyclist	<null>	18
Pedestrian	0-15	26
Pedestrian	16-20	21
Pedestrian	21-25	24
Pedestrian	26 - 35	27
Pedestrian	36 - 45	19
Pedestrian	46 - 55	7
Pedestrian	56 - 65	10
Pedestrian	66 - 75	7
Pedestrian	Over 75	12
Pedestrian	<null>	2

<null> means missing data.

The general casualty numbers in the first table already showed that cyclists are involved in more accidents. In this table we can see how young people are more affected. It is slightly surprising that the peak for both pedestrians and cyclists is 26-35, past what I consider a typical undergraduate and college age.

We can also see that casualty numbers for those 65+ are low in comparison.

The Guardian article also says for child riders, fault lay with them more than three-quarters of the time. This shows the importance of cycle training and providing cycle routes away from motor vehicles where they live and go to school.

Where were pedestrians when injured?

pedestrian location	count
Crossing elsewhere within 50m. of pedestrian crossing	12
Crossing in zig-zag approach lines	2
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	30
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	53
In carriageway, not crossing	18
In centre of carriageway - not on refuge, island or central reservation	7
On footway or verge	28
On refuge, central island or central reservation	1
Unknown or other	9

Crossing the road is an obvious issue, but it is surprising that pedestrian crossings and footway/verge is an issue.

Where were pedestrians when injured? Vehicles and Severity.

Ordered by location, severity, count.

pedestrian location	vehicle type	casualty severity	count
Crossing elsewhere within 50m. of pedestrian crossing	Car	Serious	5
Crossing elsewhere within 50m. of pedestrian crossing	Car	Slight	4
Crossing elsewhere within 50m. of pedestrian crossing	<null>	Slight	1
Crossing elsewhere within 50m. of pedestrian crossing	Taxi/Private hire car	Slight	1
Crossing elsewhere within 50m. of pedestrian crossing	Pedal cycle	Slight	1
Crossing in zig-zag approach lines	Car	Serious	1
Crossing in zig-zag approach lines	<null>	Slight	1
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Car	Serious	4
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Pedal cycle	Serious	1
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	<null>	Serious	1
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	Serious	1
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Car	Slight	15
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Pedal cycle	Slight	5
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Motorcycle over 500cc	Slight	1
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	<null>	Slight	1
Crossing on pedestrian crossing facility	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Slight	1
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Fatal	1
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Car	Serious	6
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Pedal cycle	Serious	2
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Serious	1
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Motorcycle 50cc and under	Serious	1
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Goods 7.5 tonnes mgw and over	Serious	1
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Car	Slight	21
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Pedal cycle	Slight	9
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	<null>	Slight	3
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Taxi/Private hire car	Slight	3
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	Slight	2
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Slight	2
In carriageway, crossing elsewhere	Motorcycle over 125cc and up to 500cc	Slight	1
In carriageway, not crossing	Taxi/Private hire car	Serious	1
In carriageway, not crossing	Car	Serious	1
In carriageway, not crossing	Car	Slight	10
In carriageway, not crossing	Pedal cycle	Slight	3
In carriageway, not crossing	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	Slight	1
In carriageway, not crossing	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Slight	1
In carriageway, not crossing	Taxi/Private hire car	Slight	1
In centre of carriageway - not on refuge, island or central reservation	Car	Serious	3
In centre of carriageway - not on refuge, island or central reservation	Car	Slight	2
In centre of carriageway - not on refuge, island or central reservation	<null>	Slight	1
In centre of carriageway - not on refuge, island or central reservation	Taxi/Private hire car	Slight	1
On footway or verge	Car	Serious	4
On footway or verge	Pedal cycle	Slight	6
On footway or verge	Car	Slight	6
On footway or verge	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Slight	6
On footway or verge	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	Slight	3
On footway or verge	Motorcycle 50cc and under	Slight	1
On footway or verge	Taxi/Private hire car	Slight	1
On footway or verge	Goods over 3.5t. and under 7.5t	Slight	1
On refuge, central island or central reservation	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Slight	1
Unknown or other	Car	Serious	1
Unknown or other	Car	Slight	4
Unknown or other	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	Slight	2
Unknown or other	Goods over 3.5t. and under 7.5t	Slight	1
Unknown or other	<null>	Slight	1

Typical complaints in Cambridge are:

1) Cyclists ignore traffic lights causing danger to pedestrians.
It appears that motor vehicles are implicated in 3.5 times the number of casualties:
'Crossing on a pedestrian crossing facility': 22 motor vehicle. 6 pedal cycles.
There are of course more motor vehicles on the road which results in an almost equal chance of an individual cyclist or motorist injuring a pedestrian at a pedestrian crossing.

2) Cyclists of pavements cause problems for pedestrians.
'On footway or verge': 22 motor vehicles, 6 pedal cycles. The 4 serious were by cars, the rest were slight.

Where were cyclists injured ?

vehicle location restricted lane	casualty severity	count
Bus lane	Slight	1
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Serious	7
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	63
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Serious	5
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	19
Footway (pavement)	Serious	3
Footway (pavement)	Slight	28
On lay-by or hard shoulder	Slight	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Fatal	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	65
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	513

Raw numbers suggest cycle lanes are much safer than roads without. It is difficult to measure their effectiveness without knowing how many journeys were made in cycle lanes, or their length.

Where were cyclists injured ? (A/B/C roads)

This table limits the road classes to A, B, and C roads. They will be the busy routes into the city and are far more likely to have cycle and bus lanes.

vehicle_location_restricted_lane	casualty_severity	count
Bus lane	Slight	1
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Serious	7
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	57
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Serious	5
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	17
Footway (pavement)	Serious	1
Footway (pavement)	Slight	21
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Fatal	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	48
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	397

Where were cyclists injured ? Vehicles and Severity.

vehicle location restricted lane	casualty severity	vehicle type	count
Bus lane	Slight	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	1
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Serious	Car	4
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Serious	<null>	2
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Serious	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	1
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	Car	43
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	<null>	7
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	7
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	3
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	Goods over 3.5t. and under 7.5t	1
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	Pedal cycle	1
Cycle lane (on main carriageway)	Slight	Taxi/Private hire car	1
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Serious	Car	4
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Serious	<null>	1
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	<null>	8
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	Car	8
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	Other vehicle	1
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	Pedal cycle	1
Cycleway or shared use footway (not part of main carriageway)	Slight	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	1
Footway (pavement)	Serious	Car	2
Footway (pavement)	Serious	Taxi/Private hire car	1
Footway (pavement)	Slight	Car	21
Footway (pavement)	Slight	Taxi/Private hire car	3
Footway (pavement)	Slight	<null>	2
Footway (pavement)	Slight	Pedal cycle	1
Footway (pavement)	Slight	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	1
On lay-by or hard shoulder	Slight	Car	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Fatal	Taxi/Private hire car	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Car	42
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	<null>	6
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	5
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	3
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Motorcycle over 500cc	2
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Goods 7.5 tonnes mgw and over	2
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Taxi/Private hire car	2
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Pedal cycle	2
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Serious	Motorcycle 125cc and under	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Car	365
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	<null>	45
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Van / Goods 3.5 tonnes mgw or under	34
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Taxi/Private hire car	26
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Bus or coach (17 or more pass seats)	20
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Pedal cycle	8
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Goods over 3.5t. and under 7.5t	5
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Goods 7.5 tonnes mgw and over	4
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Other vehicle	2
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Motorcycle over 500cc	2
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Minibus (8 - 16 passenger seats)	1
On main c'way - not in restricted lane	Slight	Motorcycle 125cc and under	1

Which roads are dangerous for cyclist and pedestrians ?

Note: The council have an more intelligent algorithm for calculating dangerous stretches of roads and accident cluster sites, based on road length and considers severities.

road class	road num/name	count
U	0	498
A	A1304 Outer Ring	160
A	A1307 Hunt/Hills/Bab	99
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	79
C	Mill Road	68
C	Cherry Hinton Road	49
A	A1309 Milton Road	47
A	A1303 Madingley Road	42
C	Trumpington Street	41
C	Newmarket Road	28
C	Victoria Avenue	23
C	Castle Street	20
B	B1049 Histon Road	19
C	Green End & Scotland Road	19
C	Coldhams Lane	18
C	High Street, Cambridge	17
C	Regent Street	16
C	Arbury Road	12
C	0	6
C	Kings Hedges Road	6
C	Tennis Court Road ?	6
C	Gilbert Road	5
C	Brooklands Ave	4
A	10	2
A	1301	2
B	1047	2
C	Granchester Road	2
C	Lime Kiln Road	2
C	Girton Road	1
C	High Street, Granchester	1
C	Maris Lane, Trumpington	1
Motorway	11	1

Which roads are dangerous for cyclist and pedestrians ? Junction detail.

Of our major routes, roundabouts on the A1304 Ring Road score badly.

road class	road num/name	junction detail	count
U	0	Not at junction or within 20 metres	88
U	0	T or staggered junction	70
A	A1304 Outer Ring	Roundabout	62
A	A1307 Hunt/Hills/Bab	T or staggered junction	43
A	A1304 Outer Ring	T or staggered junction	34
A	A1304 Outer Ring	Not at junction or within 20 metres	26
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	T or staggered junction	26
C	Mill Road	T or staggered junction	22
A	A1307 Hunt/Hills/Bab	Not at junction or within 20 metres	20
U	0	Private drive or entrance	20
C	Trumpington Street	T or staggered junction	19
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	Crossroads	18
C	Mill Road	Crossroads	18
C	Mill Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	16
A	A1303 Madingley Road	T or staggered junction	15
A	A1304 Outer Ring	Private drive or entrance	15
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	Not at junction or within 20 metres	13
C	Newmarket Road	Roundabout	13
A	A1309 Milton Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	12
A	A1309 Milton Road	T or staggered junction	12
C	Cherry Hinton Road	T or staggered junction	12
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	Roundabout	10
C	Cherry Hinton Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	10
A	A1307 Hunt/Hills/Bab	Crossroads	9
B	B1049 Histon Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	9
A	A1307 Hunt/Hills/Bab	Private drive or entrance	8
A	A1309 Milton Road	Private drive or entrance	8
C	Castle Street	Not at junction or within 20 metres	8
C	Trumpington Street	Not at junction or within 20 metres	8
C	Green End & Scotland Road	T or staggered junction	7
C	Newmarket Road	T or staggered junction	7
C	Regent Street	Not at junction or within 20 metres	7
A	A1304 Outer Ring	Crossroads	6
B	B1049 Histon Road	T or staggered junction	6
C	Coldhams Lane	T or staggered junction	6
U	0	Crossroads	6
U	0	Mini-roundabout	6
A	A1304 Outer Ring	Mini-roundabout	5
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	Mini-roundabout	5
C	Arbury Road	Private drive or entrance	5
C	Cherry Hinton Road	Crossroads	5
C	Green End & Scotland Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	5
C	High Street, Cambridge	Not at junction or within 20 metres	5
C	Kings Hedges Road	T or staggered junction	5
C	Victoria Avenue	Not at junction or within 20 metres	5
A	A1303 Madingley Road	Crossroads	4
A	A1309 Milton Road	Crossroads	4
C	Arbury Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	4
C	Castle Street	T or staggered junction	4
C	Cherry Hinton Road	Private drive or entrance	4
C	Coldhams Lane	Not at junction or within 20 metres	4
C	High Street, Cambridge	Mini-roundabout	4
C	Newmarket Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	4
C	Regent Street	T or staggered junction	4
C	Victoria Avenue	T or staggered junction	4
U	0	Roundabout	4
U	0	Other junction	3
A	10	Roundabout	2
A	1301	Private drive or entrance	2
A	A1303 Madingley Road	Private drive or entrance	2
A	A1303 Madingley Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	2
B	1047	T or staggered junction	2
C	Arbury Road	T or staggered junction	2
C	Brooklands Ave	Private drive or entrance	2
C	Castle Street	Private drive or entrance	2
C	Gilbert Road	Crossroads	2
C	Green End & Scotland Road	Mini-roundabout	2
C	High Street, Cambridge	T or staggered junction	2
C	Tennis Court Road ?	Crossroads	2
A	A1303 Madingley Road	Other junction	1
A	A1304 Outer Ring	Other junction	1
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	Other junction	1
A	A603 Barton/FenC/Lensf/Gonv/East	More than 4 arms (not roundabout)	1
B	B1049 Histon Road	Private drive or entrance	1
B	B1049 Histon Road	Crossroads	1
C	Arbury Road	Roundabout	1
C	Castle Street	Roundabout	1
C	Cherry Hinton Road	Other junction	1
C	Coldhams Lane	Roundabout	1
C	Gilbert Road	T or staggered junction	1
C	Green End & Scotland Road	Roundabout	1
C	Green End & Scotland Road	Private drive or entrance	1
C	Green End & Scotland Road	Other junction	1
C	High Street, Cambridge	Private drive or entrance	1
C	High Street, Granchester	T or staggered junction	1
C	Kings Hedges Road	Not at junction or within 20 metres	1
C	Mill Road	Private drive or entrance	1
C	Newmarket Road	Crossroads	1
C	Tennis Court Road ?	Private drive or entrance	1
C	Tennis Court Road ?	T or staggered junction	1
C	Trumpington Street	Crossroads	1
C	Trumpington Street	Other junction	1
C	Trumpington Street	Private drive or entrance	1

Which junction features are dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians ?

junction detail	count
T or staggered junction	305
Not at junction or within 20 metres	247
Roundabout	95
Crossroads	77
Private drive or entrance	74
Mini-roundabout	22
Other junction	9
More than 4 arms (not roundabout)	1

It is not clear in the data which vehicle would be at the T, and which would be at a side road. The top result could be as a result of SMIDSY's (vehicle pulls out into path of cyclists they didn't spot).

The second result, not at a junction, is likely to be the result of overtaking cyclists. Close passing is a well cited problem amongst cyclists.

Conclusions

The statistics are quite clear. If you want to improve safety for cyclists, you should segregate from motor vehicles, or create safer junctions. If segregation is not possible, dealing with the following contributory factors would target 94% of all accidents for all road users:

Failed to look properly: 335 / 48%
Failed to judge other person’s path or speed: 126 / 18%
Poor turn or manoeuvre: 107 / 15%
Careless, reckless or in a hurry: 86 / 12%

Finding a way to crackdown on those rushing out of junctions without care and also close passing, again by people rushing would be the best way to reduce cycling casualties.

These are offences that require an officer to use their judgement before issuing a fixed penalty notice.

Vehicles per hour on the Cambridge commute

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 23:03:00 +0000

Way back in March 2011, the Police did one week automated speed surveys in Cottenham. Here are a few facts and figures with a focus for cycle commuters going to and from Cambridge. Cottenham is 7 miles north of central Cambridge.

The numbers are only for the peak hours Mon-Fri. Vehicles per hour are in one direction. Traffic levels drop off significantly outside of these hours. Averages are median of 5 days totals.

Histon Road 30mph, Southbound towards Cambridge:
08:00-08:59 762 vehicles per hour, one car every 4.7 seconds. 24% >35mph.
09:00-9:59 790 vehicles per hour, one car every 4.6 seconds. 15% >35mph.
The amount of traffic arriving at Twenty Pence Road on the northern edge of Cottenham is 74% and 76% of the Histon Road levels.

Histon Road 30mph, Northbound returning from Cambridge.
16:00-16:59 378 vehicles per hour, one car every 9.5 seconds. 24% >35mph.
17:00-17:59 566 vehicles per hour, one car every 6.4 seconds. 21% >35mph.
18:00-18:59 695 vehicles per hour, ne car every 5.2 seconds. 18% >35mph.
The amount of traffic exiting at Twenty Pence Road is 56%, 60% and 57% of the Histon Road levels.

Before 9am has always had an more edgy and rushed feel to it - my instincts are right. My instincts also tell me that 8:50am is a terrible time for speeding, worse than 8:30am and I have wondered if this is the gonna-be-late-for-work effect.

I have also noticed that traffic in the 4pm slot is running faster and I have suspected the white van effect. A quick scan of the raw data suggests that Category2 vehicles (>6m long) are only 10% of the traffic on Histon Road and do not speed more than other vehicles. Exiting on Twenty Pence Road however, is a very different story, with a much larger proportion of vans and 10% higher speeds than category 1.

I've included the numbers comparisons for Twenty Pence Road as I sometimes wonder how much traffic is passing through the village as an alternative to using the parallel A10 trunk road. The A10 typically queues from just south of Waterbeach to the A14 roundabout and the B1049 offers a parallel route. It is interesting to note the lower percentages of traffic passing in the reverse direction in the evening which gives a little weight to my theory.

The section of Histon Road between the mini roundabout and the beginning of the cyclepath is exactly 1km. This equates to 2-4 minutes of cycling (10-20mph range). Assuming a rate of one car every 5 seconds, you are going to be overtaken by 24-48 cars on this stretch. With typically a fifth of cars speeding at 36mph or more, you can begin to imagine how many unpleasant overtakes a cycle commuter must endure if they cycle on the road. It's not just the speeding cars, there are a lot of drivers simply wanting to overtake and may get frustrated by a slower cycle and oncoming traffic preventing an overtake if you ride away from the kerb. Kerb huggers will have many of these vehicles squeezing through.

You can halve the number of unpleasant overtakes by cycling at a lycra roadie speed of 20mph. If you can't, that footpath must look like a safe haven, a necessity even.

Update:

I thought I might as well record how many cars pass me on this 1km stretch to see how it compares to the Police recordings. I normally spend 2.5 minutes on Histon Road.

Recordings:

October half term school holiday week (i.e. very quiet)

Southbound Mon 08:50am. Just 6 passes in 2.5 minutes.
Southbound Tues 09:20am. 7 passes. Feels like a Ghost Town compared to normal.
Northbound Mon 18:30pm. An unbelievable 5, yes just 5.

November, during school term:
Southbound Wed 8:50am. 12 passes. (plus queue after I pulled onto path)
Southbound Thu 9:00am. 11 passes + 7 queued behind.
Southbound Fri 9:00am. 6 passes.
Southbound Mon 9:30am. 12 passes. (very little oncoming traffic, overtaking easy)
Southbound Wed 8:55am. 8 passes.
Southbound Thur 9:05am. 9 passes.

Northbound Wed 6:50pm. 6 passes (had to wait for traffic to clear)
Northbound Fri 6:00pm. 0 passes (very unusual!)
Northbound Wed 7:00pm. 4 passes.
Northbound Thurs 7:30pm. lost count, was distracted by overtakes at high speed.

I give up! I lost count too many times when distracted by overtaking cars rushing to overtake in gaps that were too small. I'd end up concentrating on staying alive rather than being relaxed enough to count.

Observations:

Southbound, when a normal busy week there is enough oncoming traffic to prevent cars overtaking if you ride out from the kerb. If you ride in the gutter the queuing cars will squeeze through.
Lack of overtaking opportunities because of oncoming traffic leads to frustrated drivers sitting on your tail right where you can't see them and where you feel most vulnerable.
Northbound, at the end of the cyclepath there is often a wave of traffic that has been released by the traffic lights in Histon. Sometimes have to wait for the traffic to clear, sometimes it is clear then you get engulfed whilst on the road.

Dusk 'til Dawn 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:52:00 +0000

The Dusk 'til Dawn (D2D) is a 12 hour overnight cross country mountain bike relay race held early October at Thetford Forest.

I took part in the D2D last year, and it was my first ever mountain bike race. It threw everything at us, rain, mud, cold, I got cramp for the first time ever, I took a tumble, I was ill the week after. But out of this hardship grew a challenge that presented itself not just at a personal level, but also at a team level which pushed me further than I would ever push myself and kept at bay that giving-up feeling. The event is completely devoid of bad attitude and from top to bottom of the leader board there is a really friendly atmosphere. It is such an inclusive event, challenging and fun at the same time with a whole heap of camaraderie.

Last year we put in some terrible lap times, but simply by not-giving-up and continuing as a team we pushed ourselves to just below average in the 3xMale category, 31st of 57. We were unbelievably chuffed with our first-time efforts and spotted that just one more lap would have boosted us to 16th place. We all knew we had room to improve and would have to come back in 2012 and give it another crack. The Falloffalots would return.

2011 Lap times - Falloffalots
Lap 1 includes the pre-lap. My laps in bold.
(1) 01:12:33, (2) 01:15:40, (3) 01:08:16,
(4) 01:14:36, (5) 01:35:17, (6) 01:19:58,
(7) 01:42:49, (8) 02:20:29, (9) 01:35:30
Total time: 13:25:08

31st of 57

Training

My normal training mostly consists of a 25 minute leg-it-to-work-and-back by bicycle in winter, and in summer I lengthen my commute in one direction to 45-60 minutes depending on the time I have available. I may also grab 1-2 hour ride every other weekend.

Some months before the D2D, I and one team mate started riding Thetford regularly together. Our aim was to get used to riding the terrain at a faster pace than we would on a social ride. Our abilities were not evenly matched which had the effect of making the slower rider sprint to keep up then have to go slow to recover, and the faster rider would have a sedate ride. We solved this by having a social ride to warm up and enjoy, testing out a few bomb holes, and then to finish an evenings ride with a full on blast round the full 10 mile Beater Trail (formerly the Red). At the same time we discovered Strava which added a fantastic virtual challenge. In the end I managed to achieve a 7th place overall on the Long Red segment.

As October approached, we got more practice in darker conditions and in the final two weeks before the D2D the car parks in the weekday evenings went from lonely to heaving.

Race Weekend

Logistics began by pitching our tents on the Friday night then returning home. I'm glad we did, it was quite a chilly night. Kudos to those who were camping without heating on the night prior to the race. The third member of our team also arrived in the country, this time with two children in tow. In total there would be 3 racers and seven cheerleaders consisting of 2 wives, and 5 children.

I went first last year, and handed over the responsibility to our foreign team member. This year I was able to watch the start with my family. We all arrived and registered in good time, and from the arena I watched many riders go out to view the course in daylight. Same as last year I conserved energy by not bothering to view the course as I know my way round most of Thetford Forest. The race briefing came and went at 6pm then I watched as my team mates tried to get ready - finding black cycling clothes in a dark tent by torchlight - while bored children chased and screamed around them. Stresses and faff levels were high. Somehow I managed to maintain a zen like state and agreed to meet my wife and children at the start so I could prepare alone and think clearly.

At 7:30pm our lead out rider had escaped the family chaos and had already started queuing at the start line ready for the 8pm start. When I showed, he was on the front row. Last year we achieved similar lap times and considering we were completely average, I was starting to wonder if he had put in some serious training!

Get set, go !

7:55pm and I failed to find my family and bad reception meant I couldn't phone them, but did find my team mates family. At 8pm the gun went and all the riders chased the organiser's quad bike thing on the pre lap (used to spread the riders out before hitting single track). The line of riders went on for aaaaages.

Dusk 'til Dawn 2012 start

I found my family in the break and after about 10 minutes, the lead riders came back through the arena for their first full lap and boy they were flying. I wanted to spot our rider so I could judge how quickly he might return from his first full lap, but failed. As the midfield came through, the audience decided that because they didn't know anyone, they might as well have a guess at names and shouted 'come on Dave!' to every rider. My children loved the start, and my 6yr old boy was inspired - mission one accomplished - he wants to take part next year. I said goodbye to my family who were returning home and very much looking forward to their warm beds and went to gather my things for my first lap. I'll obviously need to work on the family if I am to get a pit crew.

Lap 2 - my first.

I came back to arena, had a chat with Wilburton Dick and my other team mate then rode around a little just to get my legs stretched. Next I went into the corral waiting area in good time and went to find a place to park my bike. It was heaving and there was nowhere to lean a bike on the fence. Every time a rider went out another rider would arrive in the corral and manage to get their bike in the only free slot before I got there. After about 5 minutes I managed to park my bike. I then waited with about 75 riders while bright lights arrived on the top of silhouette heads. After 15 minutes my team mate arrived. We exchanged band, and off I went, turning on my lights as I walked then jumped on the bike and onto the course for the first time.

Almost immediately I noticed I had an issue with my main light mounted on my head. I've got cheapo Deal Extreme torches and I think one of my older batteries has a fault in the circuitry - giving it a bash made it bright again for about 30 seconds. I spent much of the first lap bashing myself on the head.

The initial part of the circuit was hard packed fire trail and was nice to warm up the legs, I was a little stiff and cold from standing around in the corral. I passed a few riders and felt pretty good. The course turned first to a straight grass track with a slightly slippery mud, and then into twistier single track, also with slippery mud. I saw a few fallers in this section. It wasn't raining during the race but had the night before and the course was showing signs of wear, but praise-the-lord not wet!

Dusk 'til Dawn 2012 route

Somewhere around halfway into my lap, sweat had saturated the forehead foam in my helmet and was now constantly running into my eye. This eventually caused me to lose a contact lense and I was having difficulty with depth perception, coupled with my light issues! I locked onto the back wheel of other riders and used them as a guide, leap frogging ahead where possible but not being a hero. I fell at low speed due to slipping on the side of a deep trench and landed on my ribs - ooof! They still hurt if poked three weeks later but not much during the race itself.

I recall Tom's pit being tricky, but managed to exit with only one dab at the top. I locked onto the wheel of a rider going a similar pace to me, following for about 15 minutes and eventually got the confidence to pass after the Double Shocker. Almost immediately I fell again, slipping on a large tree root 45 degrees across the trail but immediately after a sharp corner, with my light I had no chance of seeing it. Hearing the music in the trees I knew the end of my one-eyed lap would be over soon, then through a tunnel of hanging colour array of glow sticks. I came into the arena, whoohooped at the fabulously enthusiastic cow-bell ringers and handed over after 53m55s lap.

My gears were suffering after one lap so I rinsed my drive train under the dog tap, then returned to the tent. First changing into dry clothes, then having a cup of tea and a bagel with peanut butter and a Delia home wife-made energy bar, mmm nutty date apricot chocolate consensed milk yummy calories - no scientific gels or bar things for me. I chatted to our lead out rider before he went out again listening to his worsening cough, not good for the team. I got into my sleeping bag and just as I was dropping off it was time to get up again. We knew that this years better weather would bring faster lap times, and less sleep time, but all teams were in the same boat. Our theory was that it would be harder to get up the leader board with less people giving up.

I got dressed reusing some of my clothes because I don't have four sets of cycling clothes, and nearing midnight, I went to the corral for my second lap. I'd got there 15 minutes too early again and was starting to shiver after 10. Most other riders had brought coats which they left with their arriving team mate. Why had we not thought of that?!? The corral was half as full this time, and many of the riders I would see again for each of my laps.

Lap 5 - my second.

I went out for my second lap, this time with working lights and contact lenses which put me in a jolly mood. I spoke with other riders as I went round and had a great time. In the first 10-15 minutes I recognised and passed many of the riders I saw in the corral. A pattern that repeated with every lap. The course had also dried a little and the course was a lot more fun to ride as a result. I had great fun through many sections, especially Tom's Pit this year, and the join of the Moto Trail and Double Shocker. I'd picked up a couple of following riders and as I was shouting 'watch out for this root, I fell on the last ...' thump. 'Ow, found it!' came the call from behind. 'OK?', 'Yes!' so I carried on.

Last year my lap times had deteriorated through the night. The mud and rain was tough and I didn't know at the time, but I was taking ibuprofen for back ache but had become allergic to it and it may have affected my ability. This year I wanted to put in consistent lap times so did not push too hard. I remember a rider coming past who was breathing so heavily on the fire road I heard his approach about 10 seconds before passing. He was unable to speak, and perhaps in hindsight I was taking it a bit too easy. I remember the speed at which the Giant riders passed and it wasn't a huge amount faster, but they did get on the podium. I'd also found I was just a little faster than many riders but not fit enough to sprint past where small opportunities presented. I found myself overtaking mostly on fire roads. The faster riders just had a knack for overtaking in the singletrack without waiting. The lap was completed one and half minutes slower than the first in 55m12s, now close to 1am.

My break followed the same routine as before: dog-tap, tea, bagel and energy bar, bed. I woke for my third lap feeling chilly. My sleeping bag is a minimal summer one, and even with a silk liner and winter coat over the top it was not quite enough to overcome the chill. Next year I must get a giant motorhome and someone to service my bike. This time I changed into a complete set of dry clothes and took my winter coat to the corral, so much warmer this time.

Lap 8 - my third.

My third lap felt like the hardest due to the low temperatures. In the open sections of the course it was really foggy with visibility below 50 yards and headlamps lighting water droplets in the air rather than the track ahead. The fog made for some stunning views of riders in the distance, with a halo of light surrounding them fading to pitch black. Stunningly beautiful. My third lap was 57m32s.

On my return I checked the leaderboard - we were averaging over 1 hour per lap as a team and we were at 27th of 45. Knowing we had one team member with a chesty cough, hopes of a top 16 place were dashed. I still had a personal aim of keeping consistent lap times.

Dog tap, change, tea, bagel with peanut butter but this time getting sick of them as they were a little dry. I'd forgotten butter and ham which would have been a nice change. I forced it down and had a home made energy bar. After waking I took a few jelly babies.

Lap 11 - my fourth.

My fourth lap started sometime after 6am in the dark with dawn breaking about 20 minutes in. The Air Cadets were stirring and in a great mood, me too shouting 'morning!' to everyone of them. They were fantasticly happy for people who camped out and stayed awake all night.

I knew each of my laps was slightly slower than the last and were getting dangerously close to one hour. I pushed a bit harder on this lap. I'd also got the knack of overtaking on single track which was handy as the solo riders were starting to struggle now. I shouted what encouragement I could for them, 10 hours in and still riding. I flew through the Whoops on this lap, a series of deep roller-coaster dips that which could be cleared pretty quickly with some well timed pumps but lose rhythm or line and you would be at a near standstill.

The last third of my lap was in the early morning light and the forest never looked so good. I worked hard to overtake one rider and she stuck with me for the rest of the lap which had the benefit of pacing us both. We chatted on and off and I discovered she was in a female pair, Cookson Cycles / Velocake, the only entrant in their category. They completed one more lap than our male 3 and were on the podium later - well deserved. We crossed the line in jubilant spirits, happy to complete our final laps and with our personal aims of keeping all our laps under one hour complete. I finished the lap in 56m05s - quicker than the last - and although tired at the finish line, felt that with a little rest I had at least another lap in me.

Our final rider went out and completed our 12th lap in a total time of 12h50m. We had definitely improved this year but to the heady heights of 23rd place of 45, almost exactly average this year! Just one more lap would have boosted us to 13th place ;-)

Lap times 2012 - Falloffalots
(01) 01:04:56 (02) 00:53:55 (03) 01:04:48
(04) 01:02:37 (05) 00:55:12 (06) 01:08:58
(07) 01:07:18 (08) 00:57:32 (09) 01:14:46
(10) 01:10:00 (11) 00:56:05 (12) 01:14:42
Total time: 12:50:49
23rd of 45.

I was pretty pleased with my improved performance this year. My laps times were on a par with teams around 10th place in our category. I have no idea how that might translate into a solo performance, guessing mid to lower table, but nowhere near the winning rider - Paul Fielding - who put in 14 laps alone, 2 more than our three man team, covering 147 miles over the night. Doth's cap. What an effort.

What an event ! I enjoyed every minute. I might have to a race in The Winter Series this year.

Punctures between Cottenham and Histon

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:47:00 +0000

I recently punctured yet again on the Cottenham to Histon cyclepath. A lot of other people have too and finger is being pointed at the stones scattered on the cyclepath opposite Cottenham Skips. It is theee worst location I have known for getting punctures (excluding an offroad location near Aldreth I've nicknamed Thorn Alley), and for some inexplicable reason it has been worse since the path was widened.

This short section of cyclepath has a bad track record for me.

Previously, I've tried my road bike on the Cottenham to Histon cyclepath but after puncturing twice in four journeys I decided it wasn't worth the risk. The stock Bontrager (Trek) 23mm tyres are fine on the road but no match for this cyclepath.

I normally commute on a touring bike, and for the summer I changed its tyres to 25mm Continental GP4000s to see how fast my tourer could go - surprisingly quick on the flat is the answer. I had one slow puncture early on, I think after using them on the C2H cyclepath but otherwise fine all summer until my first night time commute, puncturing again on the C2H cyclepath. I paid the price walking the final 2km home in the rain. I know I watch carefully for sharp stones in the light and dodge round them, but once dark you end up running over the sharp stones.

So, as much as I love the fast rolling 25's, I am hanging them up for winter and going back to my more heavy weight but more puncture resistant 32mm tyres for dark winter commutes.

My touring bike came with 32mm 700c Schwalbe Marathon (not plus) tyres and they have seen action for two winters, mostly on journeys between Cottenham and Cambridge, mixing roads and cyclepaths. This is what they look like now:

Splits after two and a half years of use.

This is the worst section of the tyre but all round there are splits of various sizes in the tyre. Occasional inspection reveals small sharp stones and glass embedded in the smaller splits which would cause lesser tyres to puncture. I recall how one of the larger splits happened: it was whilst cycling along White Fen Drove listening to music I became aware of an out-of-time beat. Removing my headphones I realised the sound was coming from my front wheel and with each revolution an arrowhead flint was being hammered into the tyre. My tyre was soft 10 minutes later in Stow-cum-Quy.

The Marathons have punctured on average every 1000 miles, but I discovered the root cause of most of them was a split that reached the inside of the tyre and would pinch the tube. I have since glued a patch inside the tyre. Once my tyres are truly worn out, I might be tempted by the Plus version as a winter commute tyre despite the heavier weight.

If you don't like punctures, puncture resistant tyres can be worth the investment especially if you get a bike shop to repair your punctures. One tyre that always gets consistently good reports is the Schwalbe Marathon Plus (£40+ per pair), with enthusiastic users quoting how many years they go without puncturing. Recently I've also been told about years of puncture free life from Continental Contact tyres. (It is not one I heard of before but always like manufacturers to have competition or they get lazy and drop quality).

Friends at work also get saved by tyre sealants like Slime. It used to be dismissed by purists like myself but the use of sealants is spreading, as used in tubeless mountain bike tyre systems, and by pros on their winter training road bikes. I've not tried any sealants myself, worrying about potential mess and sealant lifetime I just prefer to fix a flat so long as it is not too often.

And finally, if you've ever had a fight with a bicycle tyre, you need to watch How to Fit a Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyre. This video has saved my knuckles from losing blood countless times and I've not snapped a tyre level since watching it.

What Rural Commuting Lights ?

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:39:00 +0000

I thought this reply was worth a separate post to collect any comments and experiences from others.

Between the villages of Cottenham and Histon it is seriously dark and even with solar edge lighting you'll want for more lighting than the weak £20 set outputs.

It's a bit of a minefield buying lights and the technology moves fast and cost has been astronomical. Bear in mind that my product knowledge is very limited.

I have fair number of lights and would currently recommend those that contain LEDs based on on XPG-R5 technology for the general commuter - having a nice friendly spot and enough brightness. For road bikers who travel at speed or mountain bikers riding offroad at night, I would step up to XML-T6 which is even brighter and has a wider flood beam, but not too friendly for oncoming car drivers because of that flood effect.

I am using some cheap (unbranded) Chinese imports that use these technologies but wouldn't recommend that unless you are the type who owns a soldering iron. I know someone who has Exposure branded lights and they are very good quality and also lots of money but will last you years. There are a lot of other good brands out there that I am not familiar with.

My friend has an Exposure Joystick which is based on XPG-R5 and it is bright enough for mountain biking round Thetford Forest at night. If you were a casual commuter you might be able to step down the range but research carefully. Confusingly the Joystick £145, Sirius £115, Spark £95 all run on the XPG-R5 technology, with different amount of Lumens (brightness). I just don't know which would would compare to my cheap Chinese torch.

The lights are expensive but what I can tell you is that over the last few years anyone I've met over the last few years who spent under £100 on branded lights has been disappointed with the light output. Right now, £150 will definitely get you a branded light that meets commuter expectations, perhaps £100 will too but I just don't know.

I recommend looking for sites that compare light output from different lights. Torchy the Battery Boy's light database is a good place to start. You might find your current light on there and beam shots from other lights so you can compare.

Now you know why a lot of people are taking (quality) risks with cheap Chinese imports. Told you its a minefield! Over to the rest of the internet for opinions.

For more details on the lights I am running, see my previous post Night Riding Thetford Forest

Update: I fell across another set of beam shots linked from this front light buying guide. There's a nifty beam shot comparison feature with prices.

8:35am commute by motorcycle.

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:37:00 +0000

Following on from yesterday's bicycle commute, the other half of my commutes are by motorcycle. People try to make cyclists appear as an out group, something different and unusual but we are like everybody else - I motorcycle and a drive too. I get to relax more on a motorcycle and I'm able to make a lot more observations of the world around.

It's 8:35am and I don protective gear head to toe, helmet, jacket, trousers and boots. If I ever crash, I should get to keep my skin on my body instead of leaving it on the tarmac. I can go into central Cambridge two ways, directly south, or via the A14, M11 and Barton Road. But the A14 is a death trap at this time. If I join at Oakington J30 the left lane is a static queue, then lanes 2 and 3 are 50mph+, its just impossible to merge safely and would be certain death if I made a mistake.

I fire up the engine and the high level exhausts, just two feet away from my nose, deliver a waft of poisonous gasses to my nose, then the wind takes it away. I'm well aware of the pollution I'm generating on the motorbike.

I join the High Street at the Broad Lane mini roundabout, a popular crash spot. It's a T for me and traffic from the left comes over at full speed so I have to eye ball drivers and wait for them to stop even though I have right-of-way.

Once on the High Street I have cars ahead and behind and it feels like we are an unstoppable tidal surge. Past the Post Office and towards Co-Op corner the road thins. A group of teenagers are on the left path which is about 3 feet wide. The car in front just whizzes past without slowing, its wing mirror close shaving the kerb at 25mph. I always fear wing mirrors when walking around the village.

Up towards the village college, children start to dart across the road. There is a child on a bike waiting to cross at the pedestrian reserve so I stop and let him cross. He looks surprised that somebody stopped. I'm slightly earlier today and there is less vehicle chaos in and out of the school but more children on foot. As I join Histon Road, two school children are on bicycles on the path, and wow something I've never seen before, a teenage girl on a bicycle on the road. I can see the traffic overtaking her. If that was my daughter I'd have to think long and hard about letting her cycle on such a busy road.

As I ride Histon Road at 30mph it seems a lot quieter than yesterday. I think it is partly because I am 10 minutes earlier and so there is less traffic, but also because I go at the same speed as the rest of the traffic and nobody overtakes me. As I approach the end of the 30mph zone, a car catches me but is not pressuring me as usual. Beside the cycle path I recognise a female commuter, there are not many. In all there were four cyclists using the path in the minute or two before I get to Histon.

Just before Orchard Road the traffic queue starts. The traffic may be lighter but the queue is just as long as yesterday. I filter past counting 41 cars waiting for the lights. If they got out of their cars and stood in a group, you could probably fit them in the cyclists advance stop box :-)

While waiting at the lights it is heaving with pedestrians and bicycles, so many more teenagers cycling than I have ever noticed before in Histon. There really is a bicycle culture forming here. There are still a huge amount of cars heading in the direction Impington Lane and the school.

South of the green the traffic is static. I filter past it all. It's stop-start filtering because today I don't have my own lane, just the hatched area and central islands to squeeze past. At the next set of lights at Station Road, the lights go amber, then red and cars keep coming. The last car to jump the lights, a BMW, is now blocking two lanes and can't move because of the queue. I manage to squeeze round its nose.

New Road is next, yesterday this was where cars were being let through and people were angry. Again, cars come across without looking for filtering two wheelers. More filtering, more red light jumping cars at Station Road.

I just can't trust traffic lights on my motorcycle. If blindly went across junctions on green, I'm certain I would be dead. The light jumping, amber gambling and follow through by motor vehicles is endemic and a great issue for me as a vulnerable road user. I wish there were red light cameras. I never quite get why the world points the finger at cyclists while ignoring drivers.

Histon Road is moving, that is a surprise, non stop all the way past the Gilbert Road lights. An adult cyclist with child trailer sits in the middle of the junction while traffic either side passes at 30mph. They look trapped and isolated. There are loads more parent and child cyclists waiting to go across from Warwick Road into Gilbert Road. I can't believe all the fuss about the Gilbert Road cycle lanes. These families need them.

The rest of Histon Road is uneventful, until the lights. A car came across when we had green, I estimate about four seconds after the red appeared. At the roundabout at the bottom of Madingley Road I got SMIGAFed by van coming through at 30mph. This happens a lot here. "Sorry Mate I Don't Give a F**k" - they look, they see you, they go, perhaps because they are going too fast or in a bigger vehicle. "If we crash, I die" is what I always tell myself.

The traffic is also moving freely on The Backs, then I enter the 20mph zone. On Pembroke Street I have an Audi accelerate hard and sit on my tail. I am doing 20. As soon as I indicate it dodges round me and speeds up. This would be a good spot to catch speeders, it can be hard to cross this road on foot.

Parking is not an issue, there is always a space for a motorcycle, even on the rare occasion there is no official space, I can find somewhere to squeeze it in.

That journey probably sounds more eventful than it actually was. The big difference having a motor makes, it that I don't have to worry about overtakers and close passing (just the occasional tailgater). Almost all danger lies in front of me and I have learned to deal with that. Statistically it is more dangerous to ride a motorcycle, but you can avoid a lot of that danger with training and experience.

The rush hour journey actually takes 30 minutes, 5 minutes longer than cycling because the filtering is harder with no dedicated lanes. I do arrive ready to work immediately, no cool-down time required, bbut also remembering that I've had no exercise today.

I've always wondered how long it would take if I didn't filter like a car but I don't want to waste my life away. Last time I took the bus it took about 45 minutes once on the bus but waiting for one to turn up was a big chunk of time and £5.70 return. It's £2.50 in fuel for the motorcycle plus other costs of course.

Later that day ...

As if to prove a point I was waiting at the junction with Queens Road and Silver St the lights turned red for all directions and the entire junction turns to a pedestrian phase, you know, the green man and beeping. Out of nowhere a car ripped across the junction obviously accelerating like Amber Gamblers do but it was so late a pedestrian was already crossing in front of them. Thankfully the pedestrian had learned like me that cars cause fatal injuries and kept watching as they walked and saw it and backed up. The car had to go around them at high speed.

The irony is that motorists complain bitterly about Red Light Jumping cyclists (not pedestrians by the way) and this junction is a very popular place to do it. Cyclists every day go on the pedestrian phase to gain convenience and to negotiate the junction without motor vehicles. I have never seen a pedestrian worried about this type of RLJ.

Vulnerable road users feel totally powerless to control the lethal behaviour of a few motorists and there is little point reporting what happened here because the Police require too much proof. There are so many eyes out there, if only they could be used.

8:45am commute. Cottenham to Cambridge.

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:07:00 +0000

I normally commute after 9am but every so often I have to leave a little before. The traffic on the road has a very different feel to it. Everybody is in so much more of a rush, like at 9am the world will end if you are not at your destination.

First up, I have to cross the High Street. There is a constant stream of traffic and often I have to use the pedestrian reserve because I can only cross one lane at a time. Then down the High Street I go, past the Post Office hoping nobody will squeeze through close to blind Co-Op corner - they sometimes do. And past the lady and son on bikes hoping to cross here. They'll have a long wait, I think to myself.

Down towards the green, Village College children darting across the road near the pedestrian reserve. So many cars in and out of the College road, and drop-offs at the bus stop. It's like a small zone of chaotic behaviour with motor vehicles darting around in all directions.

Next onto Histon Road. The traffic really wants to put its foot down now. The mini-roundabout to Dunstall field is not a great place for cycling. Cars often pass here but don't think what might happen if a bus comes round the blind bend. Today was fine.

Down Histon Road, with traffic looking for every opportunity to pass now. Most give a good amount of room but some are within three feet and I hate that. The close passers are usually the ones who set off the 30mph flasher too. I am every bit alert as I am on an adrenaline filled Mountain Bike downhill run. This is not how a like to feel on a commute - I want mundane.

Nearing the start of the cycle path, the traffic gets faster and faster even though we are still in the 30 zone. Then I reach the safety of the cycle path. Time to relax a little.

An uneventful run down to Histon Green, this is the norm. Dull and safe, just keep a careful eye for cars leaving driveways. I wish the whole route could be like this.

Near Ambrose Way I catch all the cars that were in such a desperate hurry to squeeze past me in Cottenham. This is where the exhaust fumes start to build, getting worse all the way into Cambridge. You really notice it on a bicycle and its the diesel fumes you notice most - even from the new cars.

I waiting at the lights at the green now. I watch the last Amber Gambler go past and then we're off. You have to assert yourself over this junction or cars come really close as you go across the junction. Just round the corner is a queue of cars, no need to race me.

I'm following another cyclist down the cycle lane, its only 1 metre wide, not really enough room to dodge obstacles. We weave between wing mirrors and drains then suddenly he stops. There is a flat bed truck with a load too wide, the triangular gable end of a wooden shed is sticking out by about 2ft over the cycle lane, ready to garrotte anyone who didn't see it. I think about taking a picture with my camera and pass it on to the Police but on past experience they are not interested until there is a collision or witnesses.

Now passing New Road, the junction just before the bridge. Queuing traffic next to me, but a driver lets across two cars. Neither look to see if any cyclists are coming and I hit the brakes. It's such a common cause of accidents. At the same time, someone hoots aggressively, unrelated I'm sure, people get so angry and frustrated driving. I don't know why they do it.

I pop over the bridge and down to the Holiday Inn junction. Again, a car comes across, a taxi this time, and I have so much time to watch the driver I can see that as soon as the oncoming driver left a gap, he never looked up the road towards me. It's beyond a SMIDSY, he didn't even look.

Up to the A14 roundabout now and I have to cross the slip road without a crossing. I have a guess as to which cars might be hurtling off the roundabout towards me, I gamble correctly, I'm actually pretty good at reading driving situations, but I've seen so many teenagers who don't yet have the skill.

Today, I think cars might be queuing on Histon Road, so I gamble and take the direct route to Cambridge. Blast! ... they are moving and I constantly worry that a bus might come and attempt to pass. Thankfully not this time. Normally I take Arbury Road.

I watch more Ambler Gamblers at Gilbert Road and Victoria Road, plus a yellow box blocker. From here the traffic gets lighter, as the city is a no-through zone for general traffic. Then its an easy uneventful ride into central Cambridge just watching for the odd lorry back door, and zombie pedestrian.

To be honest, that is a reasonably typical commute before 9am. That's why its still mostly assertive males 30-50 who commute by bike.

The next day I commuted by motorcycle.

OpenStreetMap on your Garmin: OpenMtbMap

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:14:00 +0000

OpenStreetMap is a database full of really useful free mapping data. There are several views of the data, such as the Standard map and OpenCycleMap you may have seen on the web or via a phone app.

Some clever people have also converted the data for use on Garmin GPS devices. There are an overwhelming number of maps which all look different. The best map I have found for cyclists is OpenMtbMap. Screenshots are hard to come by so here are some running on a Dakota 20 ...

The overview map (see on OSM). Note the scale is 8km. The Dakota 20 struggles to redraw the map at this scale, taking around 5s to draw the map. It gets quicker if you zoom in.

Planning a route is too painful on such a small screen so I do that with a paper map or at home, saving a gpx track of a planned route and copying to the Garmin.

Zoomed in to 2km (OSM), the map data starts to come alive. The green, orange and yellow routes are standard roads, primary(A), secondary(B) and tertiary(C).

Solid black is an unclassified and paved road. Eg north from Rampton.

Other OSM-on-Garmin maps show some unpaved routes but not with any great detail, it is really hard to tell the difference between a smooth track and a muddy footpath. OpenMtbMap does a better job. More in the next pictures.

Zoomed to 800m in near Rampton (OSM).

Red is a track of some variety. In the UK this does not mean a legal right of way. All of the tracks on this screen can be legally used. The marking, solid or dashed is telling you something about the quality of the surface. Haven Drove G5 is a Grade5 track in OSM data on a scale of 1(smooth) to 5(bumpy and having a soft surface).

Brown and Grey (in the lower left quarter) is a bridleway. In the UK legal for bicycles to use but not motor vehicles and is an important distinction.

Dotted black is a footpath. In the lower right quarter there are a pair running either side of a drainage ditch (blue).

Very useful is the marking of the National Cycle Network (see on OpenCycleMap). The thick black marking denotes a cycle route.

Note when selected with the pin, the name appears at the top. The menu reveals the full name "Ucl Ncn Natonal Route 51".

OpenMtbMap is of course aimed at mountain bikers. It has a lot of special markup for hills and terrain used much more in Europe. Here in Cambridgeshire, it is an extremely flat part of the country but we have Thetford Forest locally with both marked an unmarked mountain bike trails. The screenshot area is on OSM and the OpenCycleMap layer. There is a lot of detail. Working left to right:

Green dashed is mtb:scale=1. This is what I have marked as good singletrack for mountain biking. It is useful to distinguish from other paths that are either uninteresting or for walkers (appearing as solid dark red but not on the screenshot).

Thick orange is a B road.

The trail marked with a blue edge is a marked cycle route known as the Lime Burner Trail, with this small section named The Beast.

The three brown trails are all highway=path in OSM speak with subtle variation of surface.

The red dashed and straight sections are tracks. The whole forest is on a grid system and these are everywhere. The Fire Roads are wider and harder packed with many marked solid red in OpenMtbMap.

Road names also appear when clicked, such as Lack's Close (OSM). Also note the brown dashed footway which is a useful pedestrian route between houses in my village.

There is some useful data that can be searched. In the screenshot it is displaying the points of interest in the Shopping menu. Not all shops are there, only the ones that are in OpenStreetMap but it is useful having positive information about the location of a shop when cycle touring.

Sadly, additional information such as phone numbers does not make it into the Garmin.

A few nuggets of information:

It is worth noting that postcodes are not generally in OSM data so you cannot navigate like you would with a car satnav. Additionally, address searching by road name also does not work in my Garmin. The reason is because to get OSM into a Garmin format, the data format has been reverse engineered. I believe you can get this working if you upload the map via Garmin's MapSource software. The work around is to find the road you want on the map, highlight it and navigate to it. Also, auto routing is very hard to do when you go off road, mostly because of the data. OpenStreetMap data is going to give you the best chance if you want to do that but you should be aware of the quirks of OpenMtbMap's routing. One example is that it will not route you on Primary Roads (unless specially tagged). This is a good thing in my opinion but a quirk is that it prevents my Garmin routing my over this staggered junction. If you are a road or touring bike rider you probably don't want to install OpenMtbMap. The same author has created VeloMap which should not route you over aggressive mountain biking routes.

I do not rely on autorouting. I prefer to follow a pre-planned gpx route.

You can get contours. I prefer without because they clutter the map.

If you want a plain map for just road use, the Talky Toaster OpenStreetMaps are very good. I switch to these if I need to use the Garmin Dakota on my motorcycle. You can see offroad trails in the screenshots but you'll see they are all simple grey lines.

Installing OpenMtbMap on your Garmin: The way I install this is to download the UK build from OpenMtbMap, run an exe to build me an IMG file, plug in the Garmin via USB, and drag and drop the file onto the Garmin disk.

As a final note. Around Cambridge we are blessed with very good quality OSM data. When I travel to other locations such as the Peak District I find lower quality map data. This is most often bridleway routes marked as footpaths, and occasionally missing routes entirely. My pattern is to plan the route (on BikeRouteToaster) using an OSM map view, falling back to Google Earth if unmapped, then save a gpx file of the planned route. I follow that on the ride then upload the missing gpx data to OSM (you should not copy data from other map sources, this keeps OSM data free).

A cheap way to fix Cottenham's traffic problems

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:12:00 +0000

Cambridgeshire is an ever growing and prosperous area with planned building works at a number of locations guaranteeing an ever growing number of people and traffic.

Cottenham being 7 miles north of Cambridge is slap bang in the middle of the growth area. Three miles southwest is the Northstowe development (definite) to be the biggest town since Milton Keynes; to the east is Waterbeach Barracks (probably), and to the north was Mereham (a distant possibility), and Ely slightly further north has already grown 27% in the last decade.

View Larger Map

Cottenham's High Street - the B1049 - already has a constant stream of traffic in rush hour with school children having difficulty crossing the road. It's bad enough to have its own website, and there are plenty of crashes, at least twice a year I come across ambulances on scene. In 2011 we had the air ambulance.

The B1049 is terrible for cycling. I sometimes cycle north out Cottenham towards Wilburton on the Twenty Pence Road and whilst doing this you get a sense of the sheer number of vehicles hurtling towards Cottenham. There are a couple of brave cyclists coming south but it is hell - to normal folk it is not an option, simply being too dangerous. You see so many more cyclists between Cambridge and Cottenham because of the cycle path. A lot of this traffic is through traffic that is rat-running instead of taking the parallel A10 trunk road.

Come the weekend, traffic levels are much lower and the B1049 becomes a popular route for recreational cyclists heading from Cambridge towards Ely, probably looping back down through the National Cycle Network from Ely, via Wicken and Anglesey Abbey. You might think that few people will cycle this kind of distance, but the Dutch do. There is also a ever growing number of cyclists trying to reach neighbouring villages such as Histon, Waterbeach through the week, and also the Guided Bus giving a regular public transport link. But towards Wilburton there is a obvious lack of cyclists.

There are many ways Cottenham's roads could be re-engineered to calm traffic but it probably would do little to reduce traffic. You won't find many children cycling through Cottenham on their way to school or college because of the high traffic levels.

If we want to be able to safely walk and cycle through Cottenham. Here is one magic solution that wouldn't cost too much:

Why not close the Twenty Pence Road to through traffic ?

I mean leave the road in place, stop general commute traffic coming through from Wilburton into Cottenham. Perhaps restricting the bridge over the Ouse or similar. Buses, farm traffic and cyclists could be let through somehow. What lies between are almost exclusively Fenland farms.

The through traffic could take the A10. It's going to get upgraded and is, or will be better suited to higher levels of traffic. People genuinely trying to access Cottenham or nearby locations have two alternative options. Take the parallel A10, or use the B1050 from Earith through Willingham. The alternative routes really don't add much to a car journey. There is of course the possibility they might cycle or use public transport.

If you worry about additional traffic on other roads, we might find that the phenomenon of Traffic Evapouration happens - removing roads doesn't cause gridlock, traffic vanishes. It's the opposite of building roads and watching them fill with additional traffic.

The B1049 at rush hour is an extra lane of the A10. With the Twenty Pence Road returned to a quiet access road, you've just opened up a whole series of roads to cyclists between Cambridge and Ely and beyond. At the same time, the northern end of the Cottenham's High Street becomes much quieter with the possibility of allowing safer routes to school. Youngsters who can't afford cars in villages start to have the possibility of cycling themselves to work in Cambridge and Ely, or to get to the train stations.

It sounds implausible to start with, but there are not enough downsides to make this idea go away. The biggest disadvantage I can find is a possible increase in traffic on the east-west route between Cottenham and Landbeach. We'll find out what happens to traffic levels the next time there is a crash on the Twenty Pence Road.

So the question for me becomes: Why NOT close Twenty Pence Road ?

Letter re Histon Road in Cottenham News

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:26:00 +0000

A letter has been published in Cottenham News regarding the cycleway:

With regard to the letter in the June/July issue of the Newsletter about the cycle way, it is much needed and appreciated. However, until a solution is found about the path from the edge of the village to the College may I take this opportunity to remind cyclists that this section is a PATHWAY [footway] only and not a cycle way.

I have lost count of the times I have been forced to jump out of the way of a fast approaching bike as if they have the right of way (even worse when I have my dogs with me and they come up behind and startle us). The road is clearly marked.

I am also a cyclist and I must also say a better cycle way would be a good thing as the road can be very busy and when I have been riding on this section of road as I should be I have had drivers open their windows to shout that I should "get off the road and on to the ****ing pavement!" So yes, to another section to the college but in the meantime could both sides (cyclists/drivers) be considerate please.

The author sums up the current situation well and to be honest is a snapshot of cycling that could be from any where in the country. Cycling is on the increase but more safe cycling routes are needed.

Histon Road, Cottenham, within the 30mph zone remains hostile for cyclists. The new cycleway is doing a good job of attracting new or returning cyclists who do not have the desire to cycle in heavy traffic, but at the same time, and because the cycleway starts at the edge of the village, an increase in footway cycling is causing an increase pedestrian/cyclist conflict.

What I wouldn't have wanted to see was a lower quality but longer cycleway. We should wait for more money. Council's have wasted too much time and money (and lives) on useless paint solutions over the last decade.

Regarding "fast approaching cyclists", cyclists should note that the way you feel when close-passed by a car, is how pedestrians feel when you close-pass them on a bicycle (but not to the level of near-death experience). Two people on a collision course need to negotiate and trust each other to feel safe and that means give space or slow down and no surprises - it doesn't matter what mode of transport.

As a final comment, I don't like the use of the phrase 'both sides'. It is a perpetuated myth that there are sides. Many of us mix up: walking, cycling, and driving. Most drivers are patient on Histon Road, but it only takes a few (I estimate less than 1%) aggressive drivers to make cyclists feel directly threatened every day. Speeding traffic (1/3rd) is a bigger problem that adds to the fear which drivers are isolated from whilst in a safety bubble. I doubt that cyclists are any more inconsiderate than drivers - an interesting and related article can be found on the Cambridge Cycle Campaign site.

Ambulance trip avoided

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:32:00 +0000

I am always on bikes and have been for years. In my youth cycling on bmx, trying to pull off silly tricks; had a moped at age 16; and while at University I spent three years commuting through London on two wheels, motorcycle and bicycle. I had a break from two wheels for about a decade and now I currently split my commutes between bicycle and motorcycle, travelling about 3000 miles a year on each, and at the weekends I fit in more cycling: road cycling or off road cycling. If somebody asks me if I can ride a bike, I can confidently say yes.

I think I have been riding bikes through traffic for so long, I have developed a 6th sense, an amazing ability to avoid danger by predicting the mistakes of others, especially those of car drivers. Here is a classic, the approach to a mini roundabout at Madingley Hall.

View Larger Map

Whilst approaching on my motorcycle, with oncoming traffic, I can tell which cars are going to turn across my path without indicating. The cause: I believe the drivers' approach has one of those corners that cancels the indicator, but then a driver is distracted by the grand hall off to the right of the picture, then simply turns across your path believing they have right of way. I can tell who is going to turn across me, not by indicators as they lie, but by assessing their road positioning.

Most cycle commuters have countless tales of near misses, I rarely have moments that close, but today was my turn. I was off my game, feeling a little run-down, the cycling was an effort and perhaps I was on auto-pilot. Arriving at a static queue of cars but somehow carrying plenty of speed I decided to avoid the deviation of the cycle path and the additional effort required, and opt for filtering down the right side of the static traffic queue.

I can tell you from experience that the biggest dangers of filtering past traffic queues are:

Drivers joining the back of the queue panic and decide they want to do a u-turn. They do this without using mirrors. Easy to predict.
A driver in a queue is eyeing up a right turn ahead, wondering if they can use the oncoming lane to get to it. Easy to spot, as their vehicle is positioned slightly to the right of everybody else.
At side roads and driveways, a gap can open in the queue which means a driver has left a gap to let a turning driver in or out. The turning driver never looks for filtering traffic. The most common form of the left or right hook. Easy to predict when you spot the gap.

Today, without warning, whilst I was filtering down the right hand side, a car turned right out of the queue without warning. The car was turning into a track - a road junction I had failed to properly take account of. They might have been indicating but they were obscured by the car behind them, invisible to me. I was probably doing 18mph and had close to one car length of warning. I had failed to predict this right hook. The car came out quickly but not fast enough to get out of the way. I dabbed the brakes but within a split second I knew they wouldn't stop me in time.

Highway Code Rule 189 Turning Right says:

Wait until there is a safe gap between you and any oncoming vehicle. Watch out for cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and other road users. Check your mirrors and blind spot again to make sure you are not being overtaken, then make the turn. Do not cut the corner. Take great care when turning into a main road; you will need to watch for traffic in both directions and wait for a safe gap.

Through motorcycling and mountain biking, I have learned whilst entering a corner too fast, if you panic and simply grab the front brake it sits the bike up and forces you into a straight line. After some time, you learn to not panic and control your bike.

Automatically, whilst on collision course with the side of a car, I release the brakes, lean the bike over and manage to steer round the rear back of the car, into the gap it left in the queue, then slalom right again.

It's an incident that for inexperienced cyclists would have been a panic moment, and a certain accident.

Filtering does come with risk, but also reward which brave and experienced two-wheelers can benefit from. But, with thin on-road cycle lanes, ever increasing amounts of risk-averse cyclists are finding themselves passing slow moving traffic and being exposed to car drivers who have failed to take account of filtering cyclists.

Sadly, in any filtering collision, you will likely find yourself in the hands of insurers. In many cases I have read about, the Police are not interested in ticketing careless drivers. Fault will be a long drawn out process argued by insurers and quite likely the most injured party (the cyclist) will find themselves having to prove that a driver is negligent. Without video evidence I can imagine absolute proof being difficult if not impossible to achieve.

There is an interesting article on Motorbikes Today which reviews case law. The most recent summary is:

"a filtering motorcyclist passing stationary or very slow moving traffic could not be to blame if a collision occurred if the rider had no chance to take avoiding action".

Whatever the law, you are far better off avoiding an accident in the first place. Presumed Liability would help with compensation, but is unlikely to reduce the chances of these types of accidents or physical injury.

Ride safe.

Punks on Bikes

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:36:00 +0000

BBC4 has been broadcasting a whole series of programmes around the theme of Punk Britannia. Interviews with ageing Punks telling their stories of their youth, miserable financial times, dull factory jobs and expensive dull stadium rock. Their elders had created a world that forgot about the youth and what came about was an new generation of DIY garage band musicians doing their own thing, exiting, different and sticking two fingers up to anything that went before them. It was a scene that connected with so many of that generation.

The same day I watched that documentary I had been reading one of those Daily Mailesque Cambridge News articles. Cyclists told: Obey the law if you want to blame motorists.

Cambridge News quote Councillor Nick Clarke:

“We have a powerful cycling lobby in Cambridge, which is quite right, but I want to see that lobby turn its attention to its own members as well because I personally see numerous cases of cyclists going through red lights, not having lights on at night, and not having appropriate clothing to make themselves visible.

“That shouldn’t detract from the responsibility of car drivers but if I was out on a pushbike I would assume responsibility to protect myself, and the flagrant abuse of traffic regulations at the moment is not helping this.”

It's a common complaint. Cyclists are stereotyped as a bunch of unlit red-light jumping law breakers. There is some truth in that, but he was addressing the Cambridge Cycle Campaign. It's a group of well-to-do people trying to affect change in our city design to help cyclists ride safely.

Councillor Clarke spectacularly misses the point. Nobody denies that there are cyclists breaking rules, but they are not going to be the sort of folk who join the Cycle Campaign.

It is far more likely that the law breaking cyclists are acting like the Punks of the 70's.

The last generation have created car culture in our cities which was fine while people aspired to own cars. But now, high youth unemployment and the expense of owning a car, and communicating by text or internet means that many youths cannot or do not want to have a car or are locked out of car ownership. Some are taking to bicycles.

The current rules of the road have been created around cars and even though you see pictures of bicycles in the highway code, mob rules are that bicycles should not be on the roads. Policing of those rules is now virtually unenforced except for speed cameras and ANPR and the cyclist is on the back foot for safety.

If there is one thing that a generation have learned from their parents, its a get-away-with-it culture on the roads. And that's exactly what some do. A red light is an inconvenience, why stop if you can safely make it across? It slows you down. Why have lights if there are street lights, and you can see where you're going, and they'd only get stolen anyway. It's not because they are immoral, the car rules just don't fit with cycles. Why use the road or inadequate bike lane if you can stay safe on the path, council's will happily chuck up some signs on pavements and call it a cyclepath anyway.

Us older folk, the waged, the sensible, have lost the anger of youth and are generally law abiding trying to change the system, but youth don't change systems - they are becoming disaffected. The establishment like Councillor Nick Clarke are the old guard, they don't apply, he doesn't connect and he won't change a thing. To youth, change happens with your own decisions now. They are sensible enough to not chuck themselves under cars. They have worked out how to live alongside the car rules, dodge round them. We've made cycling complicated and too difficult. Youth have found their own way to survive and its two fingers to anyone who tells them to comply with those pointless car rules.

Make cycling easy, safe, and secure their property and they will comply, until then they are uncontrollable.

A road designed by a cyclist ?

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:43:00 +0000

There's a crackingly classic Daily Mail news item tickling my entertainment buds. Also reported on road.cc.

Essentially, Stotfold has gained a cycle symbol in the middle of the road and all the car drivers, and a cyclist who lives in that street, can't work out why it's there. They think the workmen have made a mistake.

Well I looked at it from a cyclists perspective and I could immediately see what problem they were trying to solve - in a very British way rather than Dutch.

Britain's streets are littered with parked cars, and as a cyclist, to get round them you have to merge with traffic going twice your speed. You have to be so assertive to move out or you get stuck, or illegally take to the pavement.

The secondary problem is the door-zone. Cycle too close to the parked car and you risk crashing into an opening door. When I last researched, two English cyclists had been killed in the first two months of this year as a result of dooring.

So, it's obviously a message to drivers that cyclists need to be there (with that current road design).

Back in Cottenham ...

Closer to home, there are cycle symbols all over the place. Some in Histon and the ones I asked for in Cottenham.

I asked for the ones in Cottenham to go in because there was a problem with aggressive drivers trying to force cyclists onto the pavement - the drivers incorrectly thought the pavement was a cycle path. Really, I don't think they thought it through that much, they just wanted that bicycle out of their way so they could go faster and any excuse would do.

Before the symbols, I would be close-passed every other day, and tooted or arm waved at every other week. After the symbols went in the abuse is almost non-existent.

They are also educating drivers who shouldn't need educating about sharing the road safely - they passed a test! It does show how driver skills need to be updated and most of all, the Daily Mail article shows how little Britain cycles and understands what it is like to be a cyclist sharing the roads.

The painted symbols have rather cheaply solved one problem, but of course they are no replacement for a real solution to cycling in rush hour traffic, of which a third has been measured speeding on Histon Road, Cottenham.

A road designed with cyclists in mind shouldn't need a painted cycle symbol, but its become a cheap way to re-educate drivers while we work out how to retro-fit cyclists back into our existing streets.

In praise of: The Mini Track Pump

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:07:00 +0000

I've been through a number of cheap pumps. I have two issues.

1) They fail to reach a decent pressure. Either the physical effort is too much, and your arm falls off first. Or, the valve seal cannot take the pressure and as you pump the air leaks out.

2) You have to hold the pump directly onto the valve. With the pump acting as a perfect lever, you can snap the valve core off a presta valve. And the more effort you put it, the more likely you will snap it.

The one time I did snap a valve core, I had no spare tube and I ended up walking down one junction of the A14 to a rendezvous point for rescue to save a very long walk. With endless trucks thundering past I say never again and I have always carried a spare tube since!

It's taken me a good while to find it, but I think I have found the right pump for me. It's a pump with a hose, and will fill fat tyres on the MTB, and thin road tyres to a good pressure too. The pump is a Topeak Mini Morph. The quality is ok, could be better, but what I am raving about is the design - it's a mini track pump. There are other brands too.

You put the pump on the ground, with one foot on the little flip out piece of plastic. You then pump with one hand. I cannot stress enough how much easier it is to pump towards the ground than in the traditional way.

I bought this pump just before a week long cycle tour. I wanted to be able to get the tyre pressure on a 32mm tyre back up to a high enough pressure to carry me and my 20kg's of kit. For that purpose it works.

I did a test of this pump on my touring bike tyre. 40psi comes reasonably easy after after about 60 easy and quick sub-second pumps. All other pumps I have owned struggle to get 40psi, mainly because you give up due to exhaustion. Another 60 pumps, starting to get slower perhaps once per second now, gets you to 60psi. I would normally give up there as it is enough air to continue a ride with. I have tested to 80psi, that's where you need to put a fair amount of effort really leaning on the pump now and I think the realistic maximum. To get more, you need a pump that puts less air in with each stroke.

With the pressure at 60psi+, you do have a hard time removing the head from the valve. This seems to be a problem on a number of pumps I have tried. My full sized track pump does not have that problem.

Folded up, the pump is a little large. It's just a bit too big to fit in an underseat pack. On the road bike I use the frame attachment it came with. On other bikes it goes in the back-pack or panniers.

The pump is also not ideal for mountain bike tyres with their large volume. You need to do a lot of pumping. It's easy and takes a couple of minutes but you do feel like a pump pushing more air per stroke would take less time. But, it does work and is still much easier to get 30-40psi than a traditional pump.

If you only ride bikes with one size of tyre, or you are prepared to buy more than one pump then you might be able to get a better pump, but as an all rounder the Mini Morph is excellent. I rarely say that about kit after a year. I would definitely buy another mini track pump if it broke, even at £25.

Worth a mention are CO2 inflators. I have not used one, but have watched three people use them. They are impressive, very quick to inflate a mountain bike tyre with zero effort. I think you get, but nobody seemed to be able to answer precisely, about two inflations per cannister. But, that comes at a price - £1.50 or more per cannister.

The Childerley Hall Route

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:14:00 +0000

With the warmer spring weather arriving, I can start to take longer routes to and from work for fun. My favourite way to get between Cambridge and Cottenham is undoubtedly a route I call the Childerley Hall route. A 36km route, about 50% off road.

Cambridge to Cottenham via Childerley
(open on bikeroutetoaster)

I love this route for so many reasons.

Firstly it leaves Cambridge right from the centre on a route thats virtually traffic free. Past the Senate House, and down Garret Hostel Lane, and over the Cam looking out for punts on the river. From here its head west past the University Library and eventually on to the Coton Cycle path. Crossing over the M11 reminds you of the world of rush hour traffic.

Leaving Coton brings on a series of straight but enjoyable and undulating bridleways which I take as far as Highfields Caldecote, just short of Cambourne. The main traffic is out here is well, me and some wildlife, flapping or running off into the distance.

A lot of the route is quite bumpy, and probably too much for some, but I have a full suspension mountain bike, and with the Rockshox Reba setup to hare mode, that's fast reacting and undamped suspension, and running 2.1's at at 30psi, the vibrations are mostly smoothed out. My gears were also running totally slick after treating my bike to a new gear cable and outer.

Turning North, a short section of road brings you over the busy A428 where you take the private and empty no through road to Childerley Hall. It is normally here, where I go from Westerly doubling back to Easterly I find that my good speed was wind assisted. Today I find that wasn't the case and find myself now pushing on to see if I can beat my personal best for this route - a sure fire way to ruin a pleasant ride.

Arriving at Childerley Hall, a pleasant oasis in surrounding farmland, you get a glimpse of the Elizabethan House and garden, then turning left at the Grain Store sign post, then right through the lush green cow field.

On the way out of Childeley and towards Lolworth there is a lovely tree lined byway. I have never seen another soul here. Last week I came through in the dark, and the trees look fabulous when uplit.

Byway between Childerley and Lolworth at rush hour.

At Lolworth I turn left for the smile inducing downhill through Yarmouth Farm (a rare treat in Cambridgeshire!), and edging hedge lined fields with the distant hum of the A14 to Boxworth Manor. This is another hidden gem. I've never quite worked out if it is open to the public or not, I just enjoy passing through, past the lake and gardens, walls and country cottages.

At the road I don my high visibility vest. The road section to the A14 services roundabout and onto the fast 60mph (or is that 80mph!) road to Swavesey is the only unpleasant part of this ride. This time a group of lycra clad but older roadies were out for a group ride. I wasn't expecting to but I caught and passed them doing 30km/h on my knobblies pushing for my personal best. I couldn't help thinking how I should go slower and have a more pleasant ride next time like them, rather than endure lactose legs and strained lungs.

Just before Swavesey I take the gravel tracks on the right (Tipplers Drove and Uttons Drove), and onto the NCN51. It's a road section but quiet enough. The last section of off road is been Longstanton and Rampton. Sometimes I arrive here feeling tired, but today on an endorphin high and the cherry was cleaning (without putting a foot down) the four tall and awkwardly spaced kerbs of the Guided Busway tracks.

Watching the clock and legs burning I pulled in a 1h27m for the 36km averaging 24.5km/h.

A fabulous way to combine commute, gym and totally stress busting. A hard effort, but it makes future group rides easier and longer and therefore more fun.

Response just in from Andrew Lansley MP re CycleSafe

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:35:00 +0000

On the 10th Feb I wrote to my MP, Andrew Lansley asking him to attend the Cycle Safe debate arranged by Julian Huppert. I had given up all hope of a response given his role as Secretary of State for Health and the trouble with the Health Reform Bill, but no, I got a response, a cookie cutter response but at the very least I hope he read my letter and it may in a small way help him to represent my views.

I wrote (in a hurry) on 10th Feb 2012:

Please attend the Cycling Safety debate on the 23rd February.

I have been cycling to work 3 days a week for the last 6 years. It is has been a life changer for me, turning me from an inactive health timebomb to a healthy middle aged man who won't drain NHS resources.

I meet so many people who would like to cycle to work but do not think it is safe enough. The feeling of danger which most normal people feel when cycling in traffic is such a barrier, people do not have a choice but to take to their cars.

Safe routes such as the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus cycleway have proved that if you build good safe facilities, people will cycle.  But it needs more money. Cheap paint-only cycling facilities create danger for cyclists and push them to drive everywhere.

I also support 20mph as the default for residential areas.  My village, Cottenham, has a high proportion of children and the car is the default way for them to get around the village. This behaviour will lead many of them to obesity. Making it safer for them to walk, scoot or cycle will help reverse the obesity trend.

Obesity; air pollution; traffic queues; Health. Cycling solves so many of societies problems. Britain needs more people to cycle, but safety must come first.

Yours sincerely,

[me]

Response: 19th March 2012 (five weeks later)

[you may recognise this]

Thank you for contacting me about The Times campaign on safer cycling in cities.
Firstly, I commend The Times for highlighting this important issue and I know Ministers will consider the points raised as part of their ongoing work to improve safety for cyclists.

The Coalition Agreement contained a key commitment on cycling, stating that the Government will support sustainable travel initiatives, including the promotion of cycling and walking. As part of this, the Department for Transport announced funding of £560 million for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund to finance a range of travel measures which could include cycling infrastructure projects. Ministers announced the first tranche of funding in July last year and 38 of the successful 39 projects in the first wave included a cycling element.

The Government takes the safety of cyclists extremely seriously and I understand that Ministers are taking a number of steps to ensure that Britain remains a world leader in road safety. Ministers have committed to continuing to improve the driving test and driver training and have pledged £11 million for Bikeability training to help a new generation of cyclists gain the skills and knowledge they need to cycle safely.

In addition, the Government is leading discussions at European level on further improving standards for heavy goods vehicles to help reduce accidents caused by poor visibility. Ministers also want to see more innovative measures being put in place to improve cycle safety and, after a successful trial in London, councils across the country can now apply to use Trixi mirrors to make cyclists more visible to drivers at traffic lights. Ministers are providing local councils with the tools they need to improve safety on their roads, for instance cycle lanes and 20 mph zones. The implementation of these will, however, depend on local decisions and need to reflect local priorities.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me about this important issue.

Yours sincerely,
Andrew Lansley

Identical except for two words to: http://www.richardottaway.com/response_detail.asp?RespID=56

I had to format the paragraphs for you. You just can't get the staff these days, well not those who can copy/paste correctly.

I cannot believe he didn't address my concerns re safe scooting to school! ;-)

Thetford MTB Map - an early look

noreply@blogger.com (Cottenham Cyclist) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:34:00 +0000

One of my favourite places to cycle is Thetford Forest. It is 45 minutes away but boy is it worth it if you like twisty single track. I probably go 10 times a year, and I have slowly learned my way round bit by bit.

There are well sign posted routes, the Black, Red being the best for the MTBer. But if you hunt around, there are some fabulous single track routes well away from the crowds. They take time to hunt down but in the end you are well rewarded. They are also a moving target. Sometimes the single track routes fall out of use and become overgrown, and right now they are felling areas all over. But elsewhere new routes are being created as race routes for MTB and Motorcross Enduro.

If you cycle offroad, you come to rely on maps for planning your cycles. Most people grew up with Ordnance Survey Maps which are great, but they have one big disadvantage - you can't update them. That is where OpenStreetMap comes in - it's the Wikipedia of the map world. You can put routes in the map yourself, be it from a GPS recorded track, by tracing over Bing Satellite Maps.

Thetford Forest is mapped as far as the straight and boring tracks go. Somebody has put in most of the main tracks and tree blocks by copying data from maps. The singletrack routes are not visible from the satellite images so you need a GPS to record them. Actually if you know an approximate route you can put that in too, and somebody will improve the data later. It is a collective effort. I have put some of my GPS traces into OpenStreetMap and so have others.

Once the data is in a database, you can do useful things with it. Within just a few hours of adding data, you'll see your updates in the Standard map view. There is also the OpenCycleMap view which highlights the routes a little better. I also use OpenMtbMap, a map for Garmin GPS's which is updated weekly.

Inspired by OpenMtbMap, I thought I could produce an MTB map of Thetford. This time, suitable for printing out.

There are maps of, the Red and Black Routes; Brandon Country Park; and Santon Downham in a Google Picasa Album - Thetford MTB Map.

There is no map key as yet, but effectively the important bits are:

red line is a confirmed singletrack
green line is a path, likely to be singletrack but unconfirmed.
dashed green: overgrown, invisible or a confirmed unpassable without effort to clear
background under-highlighting of marked routes, green, blue, black and red.

Here is one of those maps, the Brandon Country Park side:

Brandon Country Park. A map you (yes you!) could update.
Go to album for full size and other maps.

It's out of date as they have just felled a whole load of sections. It needs updating and that is something you can do if you want this map to be great. Soon I will put this on an automated rebuild once a month and put up more details on how to edit the map if you want to help out.

Creating the maps is based upon so much work of others who have given their time for free. If we all contribute a little, we can make great stuff together.

I have written scripts to control a whole raft of free stuff: OpenStreetMap data, coverted to svg using Osmarender, then to png using Inkscape and uploaded to Picasa using googlecl. And not forgetting the Linux operating system and applications I am using. Flippin' brilliant !

And the end result, is having fun cycling.