http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/wp-content/ipc/uploads/projects/TR010018/2.%20Post-Submission/Application%20Documents/Environmental%20Statement/A14%206.1%20ES%20Chapter%2015.pdf wrote:In order to contribute to improved safety, journey time reliability and capacity on the strategic highway network, the Highways Agency proposes to place restrictions on the A1 and A14 trunk road ...
The proposed restrictions would prohibit pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians and horse drawn vehicles from using the trunk road in these locations. The proposed restrictions have been put forward where there would be suitable alternative routes for these types of road user. ... new NMU [Non Motorised User - a strange phrase meaning "people"] route parallel ... existing A14 ... and new local access road ... NMU route parallel
On the basis that very few NMU currently use the A14 and that the Huntingdon southern bypass does not currently exist as a route for NMU, together with the availability of alternative routes more suitable for NMU (i.e. less hostile than the trunk road traffic conditions), the effect of the proposed traffic regulation orders on NMU is considered to be neutral.
In other words, most cyclists have been scared off the A14 by failing to protect them, so they'll deal with the remainder by banning them, plus they'll extend that to the adjacent bits of A1! Meanwhile, in the absence of any design standards for cycleways, I fear what the "new NMU route"s will be like.
Then, for the icing on the cake:
...de-trunking would introduce opportunities for NMU in the future by Cambridge City Council, although any such plans for improvements for NMU or public transport are not part of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme.
In other words, the existing cycle-hostile A14, which is claimed to be a suitable alternative route, isn't going to have anything done to it before they dump it on Cambridge City Council (huh? Isn't Cambridgeshire County Council the highway authority?) and it becomes their problem.
Have I missed something or should the area's MPs - including Julian Huppert chair of All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group - be horribly embarrassed by how their Highways Agency treats cycling in one of England's highest-cycling areas?
If you walk or cycle in this area, you've until 12 March to register your cycling group or yourself as an interested party and make an initial representation. Please let others know.