Reason/ Options Considered: Cycling England (CE) has been tasked by the Government with delivering a national programme to increase cycling levels. Initially Cycling England provided funding of £3.6m up until April 2011, which is to be match funded. In addition a further £210,000 has been secured, with further funding likely based on our record of delivery.
A scheme in Gilbert Road was included in the programme because for some time it has been recognised as an important part of the cycle route from villages to the north of Cambridge such as Histon, Impington, Cottenham and Rampton into central Cambridge, as well as being a key route on many school bound cycling journeys. An improvement of the current cycle facilities has been an objective of the Council for many years and has been contained in a number of policy documents such as The Northern Corridor Transport Plan which was adopted in 2003.
On 23rd February 2010 Cabinet approved 3 schemes in Cambridge - Madingley Road, Cherry Hinton Road and The Tins. The Gilbert Road scheme which was the fourth of the schemes considered was deferred to allow Members the opportunity at a Policy Development Group (PDG) to discuss the matter further since the scheme proved much more controversial than the other three before a report came back to Cabinet for any decsion.
Gilbert Road is currently used by 900 cyclists per day from villages north of Cambridge and parts of north Cambridge, who may be heading to the east of the city and destinations such as the rail station. With Chesterton Community College, four local primary schools and the new development on the NIAB site to the west, there is potential to grow cycling trips markedly in the future if a safe environment can be provided for them.
Currently there are 1.3m wide advisory cycle lanes along the whole length, and on both sides of Gilbert Road vehicles can legally park. Surveys have revealed that typically 20 vehicles are parked in these cycle lanes at any time, with a concentration at the Milton Road end, who are believed to be commuters rather than residents or their visitors. This increases the risk of accidents, particularly for children and discourages people from cycling from the wider area. The majority of houses on Gilbert Road have at least two off street parking spaces. The cycling scheme is not just about the safety of road users in Gilbert Road as the road forms part of a wider network of cycling provision as well as being an important route for motor vehicles including buses. As part of the Cycle Cambridge proposals, the Cottenham-Histon-Cambridge corridor has been identified as a key route for improvement. One of the fundamentals of encouraging modal shift, removing the perceived danger of cycling and encouraging an increase in cycling is to make routes continuous by improving the safety on the whole route. The Gilbert Road scheme is one section of the above route.
There have been 10 reported accidents in the last 5 years, of which 6 involved cyclists. Many cyclists perceive Gilbert Road as a dangerous place to cycle and many use the footways, coming into conflict with pedestrians. For these reasons, the improvement of cycle facilities along Gilbert Road is considered to be particularly important and will not only make safer provision for all using Gilbert Road, including residents, but will provide significant benefit to users from a wide area who use the road to access Cambridge.
Having considered a wide range of possible options the options considered feasible and put forward to an extensive consultation exercise were
Option 1 Increased Width Advisory Cycle Lanes
The existing advisory lanes (bounded by a broken line) could be widened to 1.7m with double yellow lines to prevent cars parking in them. In this case, the enforcement restrictions would need to be undertaken by local authority parking attendants. (If a solid line were used to create a mandatory lane, police enforcement would be necessary. Vehicles would not be able to park on the verge).
Option 2 Mandatory Cycle Lanes.
The existing lanes could be widened to 1.5m and converted to mandatory lanes (bounded by a solid line). Vehicles are not permitted to enter or park in these lanes, and it is the police’s responsibility to enforce the restrictions (there have been enforcement problems in mandatory lanes in other parts of the city). Without double yellow lines, motorists would be permitted to park on the grass verges, which has become a common practice in recent years.
The results of the consultation as detailed in the Cabinet report demonstrated that overall, there was a high degree of support for the principles of the scheme. However, in Gilbert Road, although a significant minority of residents did support the proposals, the majority do not, principally due to the loss of on street parking. The police had expressed a preference for option 1.
PDG and Cabinet were particularly interested in the views of local schools so further work was carried out to ascertain their views. All except one of the schools was very supportive of the proposals for improved cycle provision on Gilbert Road.
Since the last Cabinet meeting and at the time of the preparation of the report there had been some further engagement with the petitioners who had presented opposing views at the February meeting with those petitioners opposed to the proposals still believing that there was no need to change the status quo although indicating that if measures were necessary, these should be through speed control but not through raised tables or cushions, whereas the Cycling Campaign was still of the belief that the current situation was dangerous and that the proposals should be implemented.
The local member for West Chesterton supported the provision of improved cycle lanes but believed they should be accompanied by speed reduction measures to help protect the safety of cyclists.
Cabinet Members expressed concerns regarding whether traffic calming measures were necessary as these were not found to be necessary in other parts of Cambridge or indeed other parts of the country which operated successful cycle lanes.
Following careful consideration of the report content including the details of:
· the consultation exercise previously undertaken,
· the views expressed at a Members Policy Development Group,
· the views of local County Councillors for the electoral divisions affected,
· the views of the local schools and the police,
· further representations made at the meeting by a petition from residents north of Gilbert Road,
· further views received from the Cambridge Cycling Campaign
Cabinet agreed that option 1 was their preferred choice as being the option that was more likely to be enforced and should be progressed but without additional traffic calming measures as in the current extremely unfavourable economic climate such additional expenditure could not be justified when there was the strong possibility that such measures might not be necessary. The approval given was on the basis that the speed of traffic along Gilbert Road should be monitored on a regular basis and that if there were concerns regarding the speed of motor vehicles, a report could come back to a future meeting. |