- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Cambridge Guided Busway (picturecredit Scania (Great Britain) Ltd.jpgCambridge cyclist died in head-on crash after clipping the kerb that separated him from guided busway
An inquest has heard that Cambridge cyclist Steve Moir died in a head-on crash with a bus when he clipped the kerb separating him from a guided busway while overtaking pedestrians. Ruling the death accidental, coroner Simon Milburn heard the driver "could not avoid" him.
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway connects Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives. There is an asphalt cycle track/bridleway alongside some sections of the route.
Once the specially adapted buses are on the busway, the driver does not need to steer. Guidewheels perform the steering function by engaging with the concrete kerb.
Cambridge News reports that Moir was riding home to Sawston from Cambridge on a section between Long Road and Cambridge's railway station on September 13.
Senior collision investigator PC Peter Bimson told the court that as Moir attempted to pass a group of pedestrians he steered left and his front wheel clipped the kerb between the path and the busway.
The bus driver said he saw "unusual activity" on the pathway and Moir then fell directly into the vehicle’s path, at which point the driver said he "braked as hard as I could".
After hitting Moir, it took a further four seconds for the bus to come to a halt. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The standard speed on the busway is 90kph (56mph), reducing to 50kph (30mph) where it crosses the public highway.
In the wake of Moir’s death, a petition was launched calling on bus companies to instruct their drivers to reduce their speed. In December Cambridgeshire County Council announced that the limit would be reduced to 30mph on the stretch of track from the Hills Road bridge, for a distance of around 875 metres, towards Long Road Bridge.
Speaking after the inquest, Moir's brother Rob said the family welcomed the fact that speeds had been reduced and white lines painted alongside the kerb.
"However, in our view without physical separation the likelihood of this happening again is quite high, especially with the number of people that use that stretch."
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive is ongoing.
A father has appealed for further safety improvements on the busway this week after 12-year-old daughter Lilou Brock was knocked off her bike on the crossing between Kings Hedges Road and the guided busway.
Stagecoach has reviewed CCTV footage of the collision, and claims the schoolgirl 'pulled out onto the road without looking'.
Fletcher Brock told Cambridgeshire Live: "From what I understand, she was cycling with friends back from school. One girl crossed and Lilou went to follow when she was hit by the bus.
"The driver is very distressed. The guided busway is just bad by design. It happened right next to the pedestrian traffic lights. She was hit by the bus going towards the lights, probably thinking the path was safe.
"There are no traffic lights on the busway, no warning signs, no barriers to suggest that the path to and from the pedestrian crossing for the main road is unsafe.
"Yes she should've stopped and looked. But it's not that obvious if you have never been on a guided busway before."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 3 sec ago
This is after a fashion how the UK's road safety numbers have ended up so good. As the roads have become unpleasant for vulnerable road users we...
- Rendel Harris 6 min 56 sec ago
Good to see a V-brake option available for all those people who ride Cosmic Elites with V-brakes...seriously, you must know really that the answer...
- mattw 44 min 55 sec ago
Get thyself over to Buildhub - a community owned forum where I am on the moderation team ("Ferdinand") which is about self-build and renovation....
- Destroyer666 9 hours 53 min ago
Ahem, the recommended lockring is just a common through-axle specific lockring, so nothing Miche specific there, and the required tool for it is an...
- Destroyer666 10 hours 48 min ago
Nonono, not those, but those that have constructed Italian cars and motorcycles that have been driven to hundreds of race and championship...
- RoubaixCube 10 hours 57 min ago
This may well be the case although Im unaware of the brands popularity on their home turf. I used to see them being advertised more in the UK...
- qwerty360 11 hours 27 min ago
Arguably sticking it in a bank account is bad....
- Sredlums 12 hours 26 min ago
I'd counter that those brakes were in fact so inadequate that they eventually developed a whole new type of bicycle that was actually suited for it...
- levestane 12 hours 28 min ago
Unfortunately, Africa is heavily exploited both for resource extraction...
Add new comment
22 comments
It's also not been mentioned thus far that the "asphault surface" is far from smooth. There are a lot of trees alongside & as a result the tree roots have made it quite tricky to navigate, especially when you throw in pedestrians. When going towards the station from Trumpington I & a lot of other cyclists would go as far over to the right as possible as that was the least bumpy...but also closest to death. And when the wind picks up...tree branches/detritus all over the path which made another obstacle.
I used to live almost next to the busway in Trumpington but as soon as the Hills road segregated path was finished I switched back to the road as I didn't feel safe using the path alongside the busway. Go figure.
Chamfered kerbs, chamfered kerbs, chamfered kerbs. Every cyclway must have them. Standard on the continent where they understand cycling.
When you mess up on a bike and hit a chamfered kerb it throws you back into the path. A straight kerb sends you into the road.
You'd hope Cambridgeshire County Council would know about them... https://www.aggregate.com/products-and-services/commercial-landscaping/k...
From the very amusing "Cyclists need more situational awareness and training" (very tongue in cheek, I must point out) from the very excellent At War With The Motorist.
It is very much worth a look, don't however do it whilst still at work, you laughter may give you away.
https://waronthemotorist.wordpress.com/2015/12/
Reading uses cameras to enforce it's bus lanes, hopefully a nice little earner for them as it is not uncommon to see transgressing motorists. It is not unknown for car drivers to attempt to use the guided bus lanes, the newspaper website featured a few on this news page. The rising bollards that are meant to prevent ingress into areas seem to produce hilarious YouTube videos, but must be inconvenient as it will prevent buses using the roads.
And then I give you this-
idiot.jpg
A bit worried that no further actions was taken
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/no-further-action-against-d...
Thanks, it strikes me that there's a couple of considerations they took into account BUT... surely a driver of a bus can drive in a straight line and not hit another bus. In essence, taking the 'skill' out of it has led to them utting a pretty substantial speed increase onto the road and given the driver a sense of not having to do much.
As for the cars etc. surely there are easy ways to prevent this!
Having a guideway means, as you say, the buses can travel much more quickly in a narrow formation without fear of colliding with each other. If I remember correctly, the railway formation in this case is fairly narrow, especially where it passes under bridges and on embankments, so a guideway was the only feasible bus-based solution.
In addition, a guideway gives a smoother ride for passengers and does not require the whole of the right-of-way to be paved, which helps with drainage.
My bad, Kinghorn. I thought that given how poor it is, no thought had really gone into it. Who'd have thought that putting an entrance to Cambridge Assessment (3000 employees) on the cycleway was really a great idea.
Here's a question, why do you need a guided busway?
Because of entitled arseholes parking/driving in traditional bus lanes. Also, guided busways take up less space and don't suffer from mixing with other traffic and negotiating junctions etc.
In this case, it was to provide a high capacity public transport link between Cambridge and St Ives and Huntington in order to support lots of new housing proposed for the area. A decision was made to utilise the old railway formation for much of its length. A guided busway was chosen as it offered better value for money than reinstating the railway. An unguided busway would not fit within the railway formation - a two-way guided busway takes up less space than a two-way unguided busway, as the guided buses can pass each other much more closely without fear of colliding.
Good extra information fennesz.
It was never designed as a cycle/footpath. It's original purpose is a maintenance road, to service the busway. It was repurposed as a cycle/footpath after the design work was done (a cheap win for the council).
A fence can't be installed, as a bus may need to evacuated.
As I understand it, HSE are involved. I can quite imagine access being removed to the maintenance road as it's not fit for purpose for cyclists & pedestrians.
It was in fact designated a service road and cycleway when first designed. The problem we have here, is that it wasn't forseen that pedestrians would use it in the numbers they do. On the Norther section (Cambridge-St Ives), pestrians are not an issue. Where this accident happens, it carries a high volumes of cyclists and pedestrians.
It woud have been better, if the path was wider with a designated pedestrian lane and cycle lanes. The chap was forced in to the kerb because pedestrians wouldn't keep to one side.
When I do encounter joggers and pedestrians on the northern section, they are using the left. As with roads with no pavements, the general rule is walk towards the fast moving traffic on your side( that would be on the right) for pedestrians and therfore you both have eye contact and can adjust accordingly!
As with society in general these days, it's all me me me, total disregard for the rules even if they're not law!
Pestrians deserves to be a real word.
I don't want to comment on this specific incident, it isn't appropriate, not least becase I know very little of the specfics in this case. But in general terms, pedestrains inconsiderately occupying large sections of path does not force a cyclist to do anything dangerous - they are a clear hazard, as is a guided bus way or a dual carriageway or the canal or whatever happens to be next to the shared path. I can understand your frustration with the danger that pedestrians present, but all you can do accept it and take steps to mitigate against it and do your very best to keep yourself safe from them - and be a better pedestrian when it is your turn (and teach your children to do the same).
I cannot quite picture what you are describing. On a road with no pavement, the highway code advises walking on the right, so that you can see any oncomming traffic. I don't see what bearing this has on a shared use path/service road that is next to a guided bus way or a dual carriageway or whatever (or do the guided busses drive on the opposite side to normal roads?).
And people disregarding rules that aren't even rules. We drive/cycle/whatever on the left handside of the road in this country and that is a rule. There is no rule for what side of a path anyone uses, and whilst this is not ideal, it doesn't cause a problem until someone thinks there is a rule and tries to enforce it.
One of the most dangerous things cyclists do on a shared path, in my opinion, is to try and apply the rules of the road - e.g. there's a slow moving/stationary person on your side of the path, so you must slow/stop and give way to me so I can pass - and then refuse to back down and get angry - I've had this a few times with idiots who don't realise that if there is a pedestrian walking on the 'wrong side' of the path, and I stay on the left, slow down and give way to a cyclist who is approaching from the rear of said pedestrian there is one very likely outcome - i.e. they will see that I have given way, and (with unusual courtesy) they'll return the favour, and rapidly move from the right hand side of the path to the left, and in doing so put themselves directly in the path of the cyclist who is trying to pass them. Its a very simple rule that needs to be written into the highway code... on a shared path give way to the cyclist who the pedestrian can see - if you want to give way to an oncoming cyclist, and there is a pedestrian on their right hand side, move over to the right and come to a stop - or the pedestrian may very well giveway to you in return.
Three points to this. Firstly, advocating that cyclists move over to the right is only going to work on a very quiet path, in which case the problem doesn't really arise anyway. "if you want to give way to an oncoming cyclist, and there is a pedestrian on their right hand side, move over to the right and come to a stop" this means you'll be moving into the path of the oncoming cyclist. Not a practical idea and not even particularly safe.
Secondly, no new rule is needed. If the pedestrian is on the right of the oncoming cyclist, then that pedestrian is on your left. Current rules of the road therefore mean you should give way – the "obstruction" is on your side.*
Thirdly, if the situation is already confused, introducing additional, location-specific rules is only going to further complicate matters.
*Edit: The exception to this is, of course, on significant hills.
It really is quite difficult to walk alongside the guided busway and not be aware of how fast and close the buses come by. At one level it is no different to being by a road, but the mixing of pedestrians and cyclists on the same path, or even just the prospect of kids pushing each other in a deceptively "safe" environment was bound to lead to such an incident. A simple chain link fence would be neither expensive or difficult to retrofit along the length of the busway where the path is adjacent.
It worries me when people who should know better state the words " unavoidable accident" because that means no lessons will be learned and those who could be held accountable for making changes to prevent a re-occurence are let off the hook. Maybe that is a sop to the bus driver involved to help him come to terms with what happened, but the idea that it could not have been reasonably predicted and prevented is utter cat burp.
The kerb may also have not been quite appropriate, we have previous experience that highway engineers have a lot of motor vehicle design experience, but seem to lack bicycle provision design knowledge (hmmmm). We often have wildly different needs. The excellent TheRantyHighwayman has discussed this at great length, there are products and indeed design knowledge available.
My deepest symathies to the family and friends of Steve Moir.
Sounds like it's not so much the mixing peds and cyclists, but having buses right next to them that's the problem. Usually if you make a mistake overtaking peds, you end up crashing into someone's garden fence or a lamp-post rather than a massive vehicle.
Surely a simple fence would improve matters?
So no thought by planners into how a small error could end with a person being launched into the direct path of a large fast moving vehicle that cannot swerve/deviate from its path! Yet again infra that is not fit for purpose and also shows that mixing peds and people on bikes is a poor solution and always will be.
Condolences to family