Email sent to John Sayers and Graham Newman Hi John I have been busy the past fortnight and had no sight of the Suffolk Free Press or EADT so I have only just caught up with this story. The following issues surrounding cycling on this path and cycle infrastructure in Cornard Road need to be addressed. 1) The signage is indistinct and the path markings were poorly done. The small blue signs are ok but the stencilled pavement markings are both poorly done and incorrect as they make it look as if it is a cyclepath only. These need correcting as a minimum. 2) The cycle path still makes the Toucan crossing impossible to legally use as there is no cycle path on the north side. A Toucan crossing is one a cyclist should be able to ride across but if the North Side of the crossing has no cycle path then a cyclist legally has to dismount when reaching the other side. Why was no consideration made for a cycle path on the North Side at this point (a cycle path on the North Side of Cornard road between Belle Vue Junction and Ingrams Well Road would be highly dangerous) but beyond Ingrams Well Road should have been considered especially as it is a lightly used pavement. 3) There is no cycle path into Sainsburys. Given Sainsburys put in 43 Sheffield Stands it would clearly have been sensible to have a safe cycle route for a cyclist intending to use these. 4) The cycle path is only practically usable from East to West as the path does not go as far as the Belle Vue roundabout meaning a cyclist travelling west to east has to ride down Cornard Road for many metres before crossing 2 lanes of traffic to join the path. So a cyclist has to either stop (To wait for a break in traffic) just after a corner of a major junction without good site lines (obscured by the wall) which is highly dangerous, or a cyclist has to keep cycling until the traffic has parted sufficiently to cross the two lanes at a point with a dropped kerb. Neither scenario works well. 5) The Shared nature of the path and the lack of signage means it is quicker for a cyclist to ride on the road. I tried this path on my bike and will not try it again as pedestrians block the path all along its length. It is thus faster for a cyclist to use the road and ignore the path. This entirely defeats the object of the cycle path. Why when many thousands of pounds was spent by Sainsburys creating and remodelling the road the best practice of a kerb segregated cycle path was not created is beyond me. A shared cycle path is NOT the same as shared space and problems with them are well documented. Why is Best practice ignored? 6) The footpath is wide enough in places not to be shared. The footbath is variable in width, some sections are wide, wide enough for a dedicated cycle path whilst others are very narrow. When the road and junction work was done the opportunity to make the footpath width as consistent as possible should have been taken but was not. This is clearly a planning failure in that a cycle path was intended from the outset but not considered in the plans bar the unusable Toucan Crossing. You may already have these items on the list of improvements if not I am happy to add to the debate.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 12:20:55 +0000
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