Election campaign 2024
It is important that we engage with the candidates at each election, scrutinise their views, and press for commitments to active travel and sustainable transport.
Issues
This section lists issues - problems on the street network and related matters.
Issues always relate to some geographical location, whether very local or perhaps city-wide.
You can create a new issue using the button on the right.
Listed issues, most recent first, limited to the area of Cambridge Biomedical Campus Cyclists:
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Social Media Hostility
I have noticed that especially since the congestion charge there has been a lot of aggression towards Camcycle in social media comments. Notably on Facebook, Nextdoor, etc. I am aware that angry aggressive people have always been on the internet but I do feel the level has increased since congestion charge notoriety, with many people's opinions degenerating into conspiracy theories about Camcycle and the council.
I do worry about the effect this can have on increasing "us vs them" mentality and increasing aggressive behaviour towards cyclists on the road.
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Election campaign 2023
It is important that we engage with the candidates at each election, scrutinise their views, and press for their commitments to cycling.
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Route for Festive Lights Ride 2022
We need to finalise the route for the Winter Lights ride on 10th Dec
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Removing exclusionary barriers across Cambridgeshire
Camcycle's time and energy is consistently taken up removing exclusionary barriers (e.g. Biomedical Campus, A14 active travel bridges, Warren Road). We need to consider long-term ways to prevent new barriers going in and remove existing ones which prevent people of all ages and abilities cycling.
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Tagalongs, FollowMes and child-adult tandems/triplets
I'm writing an article for the next Camcycle magazine on family cycling options with pedalling kids (so FollowMe, Tagalong and tandems/triplets). Could anyone share their experiences of using these?
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21/05431/FUL: 2no flats, Greenlands
21/05431/FUL | First floor side and single storey rear extensions to create two self-contained flats. |
17 Greenlands Cambridge CB2 0QY
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Delivery robots
A pilot of delivery robots may be coming to Cambridgeshire.
What are our views/policies about delivery robots?
What do we know about other places they have been trialled?
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Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority
A new thread for discussions related to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, the strategic transport authority for our region.
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Cambridge Children's Hospital
A children's hospital is planned for the Biomedical Campus (Addenbrookes) and is planned to open in 2025.
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CBC Wayfinding Survey
Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) is currently in the process of developing a new wayfinding system for the communal, external spaces within the campus. This system will include new maps and signage to improve navigation in public spaces for staff, patients and visitors to the site and help to reduce stress when visiting the campus. In order to fully understand how the campus is currently used and the key issues, we would like to gain your invaluable input.
Note that the new wayfinding system will be focussing on the public space rather than the internal space of individual buildings, please limit your feedback to your experience of finding your way through the external public space on campus. Thank you in advance. -
Zero Carbon Streets
Cambridgeshire communities must work together for a green recovery from Covid-19 and to play our part in reducing carbon emissions. Zero Carbon Streets is the campaign that brings local groups together to do this.
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Map of planned projects
It's hard to know where (and when) all the future cycling-related developments are, so a map showing them could be very useful. This issue is to discuss this idea, if it is useful, or already exists somewhere, and how it might be done.
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Government transport strategies (not specific to cycling)
Issue to collect various government strategies related to transport that might impact cycling but are not specifically related to cycling.
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Living Streets Cambridge
There is a new Living Streets group in Cambridge.
To find out more visit: https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/get-involved/local-groups/cambridge
What can we do to help promote the group and support campaigns for more, better and safer walking?
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Greater Cambridge Local Plan
The Local Plan is being replaced to a new version.
This is a multi-year process, involving several stages of consultation, research, and review.
This will replace the 2018 Local Plan. Discussion on that was at:
https://camcycle.cyclescape.org/issues/72-local-plan-2018-creation-and-review -
Strategic city-wide traffic reduction to facilitate LTNs and better main roads
There is increasing concern about growing traffic levels in the City (and indeed around the UK), and growing calls for Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods and closing rat-runs and roads suffering unduly heavy traffic.
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Review of the Highway Code
Goverment Review of HWC
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New Joint Development Control Committee
From the previous thread:
Key information:
The establishment of the new JDCC, composed of members from both South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council have now been completed and the previous JDCC has been dissolved...
'In terms of the remit of the new Committee, some cross boundary sites have been included that were not within the remit of the previous Committee ... both Councils have adopted Local Plans which include specific policy designations – some of which overlap the Administrative boundary of the two Councils. Whilst both Councils have created a shared planning service, this does not change the statutory position of the two Councils as distinct “local Planning Authorities” ... The additional sites include the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan areas within both City and SCDC, Cambridge Biomedical Campus/Addenbrookes site and the extension of Peterhouse Science Park/ARM on Fulbourn Road.'
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Key terms
We're working towards a glossary of key terms to help members and the public.
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England's Economic Heartland
http://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/
"About us
Stretching from Swindon to Cambridgeshire and from Northamptonshire to Hertfordshire, England’s Economic Heartland brings political and business leaders together in a strategic collaborative partnership with a shared commitment to realise the region's economic potential.
We provide the region’s voice on strategic infrastructure and services. Our leadership is focused on addressing barriers to realising our potential.
• We are the Sub-national Transport Body for the region. Our overarching Transport Strategy will be a 30 year strategic vision for our transport system that puts the needs of businesses and individuals at the forefront of investment decisions• Our work on wider strategic infrastructure is focused on making sure investment in transport, digital and utilities infrastructure is ‘joined up’
• Our work with our delivery partners is focused on identifying investment priorities, getting the funding secured and then delivering improvements to budget and on-time.
Working in collaboration with Government and partners across the Heartland, we are committed to creating places where people and business realise their potential, and are able to compete on the global stage for UK plc.Our 5.1m population and 280,000 business together generate around £155 billion GVA. We have a 21st century economy, particularly rich in high value engineering, science, technology and research. Most of our firms are small or medium sized enterprises with many based in rural or semi-rural areas.
Overall, our economy is successful and we’re a net contributor to the exchequer. However, the National Infrastructure Commission believes our economy could double or even triple in size. But it also warns this opportunity cannot be taken for granted.
Indeed, our success already comes at a price. Economic growth combined with underinvestment in infrastructure and services means that the pressure on our transport, digital and wider infrastructure networks has grown to the point where they operate close to capacity most of the time. The resilience of our networks has dropped, affecting business productivity and making travel for individuals increasingly challenging.
Our transport system continues to be dominated by the legacy of investment that left us with a largely radial pattern of strategic networks centred on London. Travel across the Heartland – and in particular east-west – is hamstrung by poor connectivity and poor integration.
Digital connectivity remains a challenge at a time when lifestyle and business changes mean our demands and expectations of digital infrastructure continue to increase. And economic success brings with it further pressure on wider strategic infrastructure, including power and water supplies.
England’s Economic Heartland is the response of strategic political and business leaders to overcome these challenges, with investment in strategic infrastructure and services key to realising our potential."
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Vision Zero Partnership
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Partnership has been renamed 'Vision Zero Partnership' for the next stage in its strategy, spanning 2020-2030.
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Public rights-of-way mapping
On 1 January 2026, historic routes in England that aren’t properly recorded will be lost to the public forever. We are looking for people to volunteer their time to help us identify and register these routes before it is too late.
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Cycling advice
Collection of advice for people who cycle or are thinking about cycling.
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GCP Tranche Two (2020-2024)
The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) has secured up to £400m of funding for the second stage of the City Deal.
This map shows all issues, whether points, routes, or areas:
The most popular issues, based on the number of votes:
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Should Cambridge 'Go Dutch' (or Danish)
London Cycling Campaign has reorientated its policy towards a 'Go Dutch' approach.
This aims to learn from best practice abroad rather than continuing with the 'hierarchy of provision' that, in 20 years in the UK, has arguably failed to deliver meaningful change.
This is an overarching issue for conceptual discussion of this issue.
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Public rights-of-way mapping
On 1 January 2026, historic routes in England that aren’t properly recorded will be lost to the public forever. We are looking for people to volunteer their time to help us identify and register these routes before it is too late.
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Cambridge Cycling Campaign's "Project Orange"
Project Orange is an attempt develop our general strategy during the year 2013.
It involves
1) Should Cambridge Go Dutch (or Copenhagenize)
2) A more assertive stance in our interactions with agencies: Demanding of them to make feasible what seems infeasible
3) focus on a regional area 10 miles (15 km) around Cambridge and a dartboard network structure to connect villages,
4) the development of a Bicycle Infrastructure Assessment Tool (BIAC) which will allow us to grade and praise provision
5) Priority over sideroads as part of a Dutch-style approach
5) Development of Visualisation Tools for major projects (Chisholm Trail, Newnham to Newmarket Rd, Mitcham's Corner)
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AstraZeneca to move to Addenbrooke's site
AstraZeneca have announced they will by 2016 move to the Biomedical Campus on the Addenbrooke's site. We need to engage with them.
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Addenbrooke's Road extension to Robinson Way
The new road between Addenbrooke's Road and Robinson Way has some poor design features.
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Injustices for the peace.
What to do about disgraceful decisions like this:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Driver-ran-Cambridge-cyclist-mistakenly-thinking/story-24555273-detail/story.html ?Clearly, the magistrate erred seriously in matters of both fact and law - all the prosecution had to prove was that the way he drives falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver.
Equally clearly, it did - nobody who could possibly be described as "competent and careful" would run over something the size of a cyclist without even being aware of it. He even admitted that he was talking on the phone at the time.
It staggers the mind to think what on earth the magistrates were thinking - or what with. Maybe they slept through the case, so didn't hear the prosecution, but were woken up for the defence (how there can be any defence for that is beyond me). Maybe they are dangerous drivers themselves, so sympathise with others of the same ilk instead of adequately discharging the responsibilities they are charged with? Mark Tyler also deserves complete contempt for not pleading guilty, and so preventing this gross miscarriage of justice. He should have been thanking his lucky stars that the police and CPS are so incompetent as not to pursue Dangerous driving, which it equally clearly was.How can we get rid of incompetent idiots like Phil King (the lead magistrate in this case) who asserted that "there were “significant gaps” in the evidence". It is obvious to me that this dangerous idiot is perverting the course of justice by remaining in his position.
Presumably his colleagues on the bench conspired with him in this perversion - they could (and should) have over-ruled him unless they were parties to the conspiracy, surely?The evidence was all there - there was a cyclist in front of him - whether the cyclist was upright or on the ground is irrelevant. Mark Tyler drove over him. Neither of those facts were in dispute. That is not the action of a competent and careful driver, and it should be beyond question that a person being in front of the vehicle is something which the driver should be expected to be aware of, which means the test in s3ZA of the Road Traffic Act is satisfied, and the accused is guilty.
The evidence also meets the test in s2A (Meaning of dangerous driving) so there is no excuse whatsoever for clearing him of even the lesser offence of careless driving. With driving like that, it is clear, beyond reasonable doubt, that he should not be in possession of a driving license, and the magistrates failed in their duty to relieve him of it.As long as dangerous criminals like Phil King are allowed on the bench, the roads will never be safe for anyone.
As a footnote, from the report is appears that this dangerous character commutes from Whitchurch, Hampshire to Clifton Way, Cambridge. What length does that make his effective working day?
It's about 120 miles each way, so at least 4 hours driving (considerably more if in the "rush hour") on top of a full workday. It's utterly moronic to make a commute like that - when I worked anywhere near that far away, I commuted weekly. But this happened on a Wednesday. -
inaccurate "no through road" signs, missing "except cycles/pedestrians"
I've noticed a few of these around Cambridge where there's a "no through road" sign but it's a through road for cyclists and pedestrians. As there's a post already, if the council had a ready-made stock of plates saying "except cycles", "except pedestrians", a single operative could affix the plate below the sign to made it correct. It is highly deceptive and not serving those using non-motorised transport if they go the long way round not realising they can get through a quicker route.
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Rumble strips instead of paint
Complete separation of cyclists and cars can't always be achieved. To make sharing of the road safer I would like to propose using rumble strips instead of flat paint to separate the bike lane from the rest of the road. It would act as a physical reminder for car-drivers that they are encroaching the bike lane. This happens particularly near pinch points like road bends or crossroads. So even just a selective application of rumble strips could have a very positive effect, I believe. What's the view of the cycling community? Has it been tested?
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Rate my route - software / app ideas anyone?
For a long time I have wondered about a crowd-sourced cycleability map.
In this, people cycle along a link (accepting the first question of how to define the beginning and end of this) then give it a thumbs up or down. After enough people do this, then others can see how popular it is.
Some people wonder about subjectivity but I think this should be less of a problem with more voters.The reason I am asking is because this method could apply to a potential commercial project for a Council which wants to drive around 100km of rural roads and use a panel of 4 experts to grade meaningful segments on a 1 to 7 scale according to their suitability for HGV movements.
Any views on whether this is already done within an app I am not aware of, or could be it done by anyone as an add-on to something else, or is it something CamCycle could offer as a commercial package (there may well be more than one local authority looking for this sort of thing)
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Babraham P&R to Addenbrookes cycleway
Out of the A1307 Linton Greenway consultation has come a plan for the section between Addenbrooke's roundabout and the Babraham P&R, which the county/GCP are keen to move forward. There was an initial invite-only consultation event on Thur 31st Jan for local residents/residents associations to comment.
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E-scooters and micromobility
The government has announced it will hold a consultation on the introduction of the battery-powered scooters to British roads.
What are the implications for people cycling, walking and scooting?
What is Camcycle's position/policy about e-scooters?
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Hostile driving on Red Cross Lane
"Daily parking wars make Red Cross Lane dangerous"
See: https://www.camcycle.org.uk/newsletters/146/nl146.pdf
Need to improve this area for cycling and walking.
Red Cross Lane and Greenlands are marked for 20mph and they're very narrow streets barely two cars wide.
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DfT consultation - HGV speed limit rise to 50mph on single carriageways?
http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-releases/dft-press-20121109a
A DfT consultation to see whether speed limits on single carriageways should be introduced for HGV's. This will clearly have implications for cycle safety.
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Removing exclusionary barriers across Cambridgeshire
Camcycle's time and energy is consistently taken up removing exclusionary barriers (e.g. Biomedical Campus, A14 active travel bridges, Warren Road). We need to consider long-term ways to prevent new barriers going in and remove existing ones which prevent people of all ages and abilities cycling.
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Greater Cambridge Partnership (City Deal)
"The Greater Cambridge City Deal was signed by Central Government, Council leaders, businesses and the University of Cambridge and aims to secure hundreds of millions of pounds for the areas of Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire.
The Greater Cambridge City Deal aims to ensure that the success of the area continues by investing in the transport infrastructure, housing and skills needed to see future economic growth.
The first £100m of funding will be made available for transport improvements in the five years from April 2015."
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Regional Campaigning
How can we support the growth of local initiatives ?
How can we overcome the division urban and rural cycling?
Would it be useful to establish a network of regional groups?
Could such a network become an interesting partner for the county planners?
Would politicians be able to hear us better if we speak from a position of regional awareness, a a group of groups?
Would it help the elected to understand that things are changing on our roads?
Could such a network support constituent groups, facilitate exchange between these groups, become a more important player in the national context?
Could such a network attract its own funding?
What would be a good name for such a grouping (NAMES ARE IMPORTANT)
We have CTC, Ely, A10 Corridor, Martin T thinking about something in Bury St Edmunds, "Routes around Chatteris", Wisbech forum (set up by the County), - anything else ?