Nasty Bit of Road... Advice Please?

Dear All,

There's a nasty stretch of road in the middle of Cambridge that's given me
cause for concern on many occasions, and I'm trying to find a good way of
getting my concerns taking seriously within the City and County councils.

Here's the problem. There's a really narrow section of road on Magdelene
Street in Cambridge. It's wide enough for one vehicle at a time; it isn't
wide enough for a bike to pass a vehicle coming in the other direction, at
least not with any margin of error. Not safely. Recognising this fact, our
County Council installed nice big, clear signs on one end informing any road
users to give way to oncoming traffic, so if you're coming into the city
centre you have right of way over traffic coming out of the city centre.

All too often, right of way is not given. Especially to cycles. If the
oncoming traffic has already entered the narrow section then, obviously,
I'll wait for it to clear it before entering. If they haven't then I expect
said traffic to wait its turn.

If the oncoming vehicle doesn't wait its turn, and enters the narrow section
after I've entered or when I'm committed to entering, then I have three
options. I can either mount the pavement (a stupid and illegal thing to do,
made even more unappealing by the presence of bollards and difficult to spot
entrances to the pavement for pedestrians), I can stop in the road and wait
for the traffic to stop (never fun), or I can try to scoot down the side of
the vehicle. It it's a car or a taxi then the last option is possible, but
not appealing. If it's a bus then that may not even be possible; it's
certainly not a good option.

I've complained to the local bus company about this, over, and over, and
over again. Every time it happens. Including today. And every time, it
happens again. I've complained to the police, who consider this a road
traffic management issue to be dealt with by the county council. The county
council insist that they've dealt with it; there are, after all, signs. My
local MP has helped me contact the appropriate people, but hasn't really
given an opinion. The last mayor of Cambridge wrote several letters to the
bus company, and has achieved nothing as far as I can tell. The local
cycling and pedestrian officers for the City and County councils are
essentially powerless to do anything on this issue (so why do we have
them?), and the county councils planning office seem, from my perspective,
oblivious to why this would cause a problem for a cyclist. The county
council cabinet member for transport has crawled under a shell and hasn't
responded to me sending her questions about this; she seems preoccupied by
the county councils (unpopular) plans to turn an old railway into a bus
route.

Do I have any other options?

Cheers,

Colin.

In article ,
says...
Do I have any other options?

Mount a one man campaign (Or more if you can convince others to join
you). When you move out into the lane ride straight down the centre of
it. If an oncoming vehicle doesn't give way, stop in the middle of the
lane. Produce a copy of the highway code. Offer to wait until the
arrival of the police who can settle the dispute over priorities. Repeat
until the buggers learn!

Jon

On Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:02:29 +0100, in
, "Colin Davidson"
wrote:

[snip]

It's a brave person to do it, but if you have right of way and some
nutter continues to enter the section of road then take your safe
riding position (in this case the centre or slightly left of centre),
stop, and fold your arms (or shrug shoulders with palms facing up).
Make serious eye contact with the driver.

However, be sure to have an escape plan. In any case, sadly, I don't
think any mororist will be prepared to reverse to allow you to
continue; however you have now successfully slowed down the offending
vehicle which in turn makes progress safer for you.

Folk on here have discussed the motorcyclists' "point" which may have
a place here.

The alternative is to fit some wide pedals and do a nasty scratch dow
the side of the vehicle.

Love and narrow streets from Rich x

--
Boredband: High speed internet access with uninteresting content.

Colin Davidson wrote:

Do I have any other options?


Join the Cambridge Cycling Campaign
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/

Otherwise you could force the issue by creating an impasse with a bus
next time it happens by stopping head to head with it until the bus
reverses or the police arrive ;-)

Tony

See if you can get your local cycling campaign group interested.

Is it possible to get the local meeja involved? Local newspapers, local TV
news? Draft a press release to all of them (one side A4 ideally) brief outline
of problem, outline of who you've already contacted, note bus company
continuing to flout road safety.

It might pique interest - especially of the local cycling *group* as opposed to
an individual highlight the problem.

Take a camera and if you can *safely* get a pic of an individual bus, noting
date/time. Send to bus company personnel or human resources dept, as the above
info should enable identification of the driver, who I am sure would not like
adverse comment on his/her personnel file and may change the error of his/her
ways if something is put on thier file which affects pay or job security - too
many complaints may get them threatened with dismissal

Cheers, helen s




--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
**$om $

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

in message , Colin Davidson
') wrote:

Here's the problem. There's a really narrow section of road on
Magdelene Street in Cambridge. It's wide enough for one vehicle at a
time; it isn't wide enough for a bike to pass a vehicle coming in the
other direction, at least not with any margin of error. Not safely.
Recognising this fact, our County Council installed nice big, clear
signs on one end informing any road users to give way to oncoming
traffic, so if you're coming into the city centre you have right of
way over traffic coming out of the city centre.

Do I have any other options?

Organise a demo, and keep the street blocked all through the morning
rush-hour by organising a continuous stream of bicycles to ride round
the block so there's always a continuous stream moving through the
narrow bit in the priority direction. As far as I can see that would be
entirely legal, and in a University town should not be too hard to
organise. Campaign to have the street made one way only.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Friends don't send friends HTML formatted emails.

In article ,
says...
Campaign to have the street made one way only.

But the smart money would suggest that if that happened, no alternative
would be provided for cyclists. It either needs a separated cycle track
that vehicles cannot phsyically enter, or the priorities need to be
properly enforced.

Jon

"Colin Davidson" wrote in message
...

snip

Here's the problem. There's a really narrow section of road on Magdelene
Street in Cambridge. It's wide enough for one vehicle at a time; it isn't
wide enough for a bike to pass a vehicle coming in the other direction, at
least not with any margin of error. Not safely. Recognising this fact, our
County Council installed nice big, clear signs on one end informing any
road
users to give way to oncoming traffic, so if you're coming into the city
centre you have right of way over traffic coming out of the city centre.

All too often, right of way is not given. Especially to cycles. If the
oncoming traffic has already entered the narrow section then, obviously,
I'll wait for it to clear it before entering. If they haven't then I
expect
said traffic to wait its turn.

snip

Do I have any other options?

You may well be doing all this already, but if not, you may be able to
reduce (though not stop) the incidence of this if you make yourself as
visible as possible by riding right in the centre of the (single track)
road. That usually makes some drivers realise that there really isn't room
for both of you. The usual visibility tips of bright clothing, bright
lights at night, etc. may also help a little. Neither will help with
bullying drivers though.

Chris

Jeremy Collins wrote:

It validates perfectly against XHTML 1.0 so it gets a triple
techie / aesthetic / usability thumbs up.

And a minor thumbs-down for setting body text to 82% of what I want.

http://www.camcycle.org.uk/sitetech/global.css

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:

http://www.camcycle.org.uk/newsletters/47/article5.html

That's the April/May 2003 newsletter. Colin is asking what more he can do,
not what approaches were tried over a year ago without helping much.