Join us on #CamRideHome this Friday for a leisurely social ride starting at 6pm at The Mill, Cambridge. Then a pint after to talk about anything worth a good natter about!
The Ben Hayward Cycles inspired rides on with a quick look to the East. A run along the updated Tins path, looking at crossing Cherry Hinton Hall grounds, and a nice back route through to Hills Road bridge from the Cherry Hinton Road side.
We'll look at these and a few other useful links that help riders get through awkward places.
And here's the video of the route, with a few comments below and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds giving an extended version of There She Goes my Beautiful World!
The East and the new Tins path (Go HD see * below)
0:00 Leaving The Mill
0:20 Being overtaken by a car about to turn left
0:23 The joys of a quiet Regents Terrace
0:30 Watching being counted by the Gonville Place cycle counter
0:37 The "wiggly path", the alternate route to Hills Road, quiet but not convenient
1:02 Carter Railway Bridge
1:22 Cut through to Mamora Road going on to Brookside
1:32 Cut through to Natal Road and Brookside
1:53 The recently updated bridge onto The Tins path
2:04 Crossing the railway over poorly sighted narrow bridge
2:21 New The Tins path! Don't blink though
2:26 Back to shared-use
2:29 Back to old narrow path
2:37 Clogged Cherry Hinton Road, just too many people driving
2:45 Back towards Daws Lane and Cherry Hinton Hall
2:54 Daws Lane
3:03 Cherry Hinton Hall, very dark, need a good front light
3:11 Exit to the left of the main gate
3:13 Shared-use path on Cherry Hinton Road footway
3:31 Birdwood Road, always pay attention round parked cars here
3:46 Perne Road roundabout
3:31 Radegund Road, rarely use cycle slips here as parked cars usually too close
4:20 Cut through to Clifton Road
4:34 Odd cyclepath on footway, use carefully to get to front of traffic
4:45 Hills Road bridge, with close bus
4:52 Carefully pulling onto Brooklands Avenue cyclepath, difficult in traffic
5:07 Coe Fen, very dark, need a good front light, look out for dogs!
5:30 Pulling well forward at Fen Causeway crossing to allow passing behind
5:49 The Mill, and a pint!
The Tins.
So, The Tins path itself. It's good. And it's good to see that this kind of thign can be done. It needed private developer agreement. There's clearly defined priority and guidance for both walking and riding. Time will tell if the pedestrian section is wide enough that people don't stray into the riding section too much.
It's, shall we say, quite short! And it was quite expensive. That's almost certainly down to the lighting. I'm guessing the development did try to get a quick gain on this as the rest of the route still remains relatively poor. It's probably that the section after Orchard Estate is still narrow and dark. There is space to improve this area but it may require more agreements than this development was prepared to get.
At the end there's a clear indication that more people need to get on their bikes. Cherry Hinton High Street clogged with traffic. It's clogged because as 2 lines of car traffic join (near the church), it needs to be managed to get two lines of big vehicles together into one. Bikes don't need this space. Thus, the jam is caused by too many people using vehicles that are too big for our streets.
The "wiggly path".
The "wiggly path" from Regents Street/Terrace is a reasonably quiet pleasant way to head this way. It's meant to be a replacement for travelling down Mill Road or Hills Road to the station. And it is, reasonably quiet. However, it's not convenient, involves a lot of twisting and turning. Unsurprisingly, Google Maps (with Sustrans support) take the route down Mill Road, it's over 20% shorter to Brookside.
Cherry Hinton Hall.
Next to Daws Lane is the useful green space, Cherry Hinton Hall. This connects through to the south of Cherry Hinton Road. Good front lights are useful to negotiate the darker paths here. The exit is to the left of the main gate, taking you towards a crossing to the south side of Cherry Hinton Road.The footway on this side is also a shared-use space. Note this shared-use path goes through a bus-stop. Another example of shared space between people riding and using public transport. The new style bus-stop, now on Hills Road and proposed in other pace with cycle space separated would seem a much better idea.Clifton Road Cut Throughs.
Near Clifton Road there are two cut-throughs that help move riders to the front of traffic at Cherry Hinton Road junction onto Hills Road. The last one, along the pavement next to Cherry Hinton Road is very awkward to use and should only be used with great care. There's a good chance that you could end up delivered into trafffic just as it starts to move. It's almost certainly better to use the Clifton Road junction if the lights are green.* How to go HD.
