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Cambridge King's Parade barrier (picture credit Cab Davidson)Cycling campaigners urge rethink of Cambridge anti-terrorism barriers
Camcycle, the cycling campaign for Cambridge, is urging the city council to rethink anti-terrorism barriers which became operational tomorrow on King’s Parade, one of the busiest roads for bicycle traffic in the UK.
The group says that the barriers, which leave a gap of just 1.2 metres for people riding in both directions when shut, will also cause conflict with pedestrians. It also highlighted that the barriers had been installed without consultation with local residents or councillors.
So you're on what may be (and are there numbers for this @camcycle?) the most cycled route in the country. And you see this barrier in front of you. When it's down, there is no gap on the left hand side... pic.twitter.com/UH2lUV2Hx5
— Cab Davidson #Remain #Rejoin (@gnomeicide) January 10, 2020
Gutter, low kerb, quite smooth and relatively grippy cobbles under your tires there. 1.2m of kerb, gutter and cobbles. For a of these cyclists here: https://t.co/7qkG4WZgD5
— Cab Davidson #Remain #Rejoin (@gnomeicide) January 10, 2020
The barriers, installed just north of the junction with Bene’t Street along with anti-terrorism ‘barges’ and just yards from King’s College Chapel, the city’s busiest tourist attraction, will be operational from 9.30am to 7pm.
In a blog post, Camcycle said: “First appearances are, as we expected, that tourist groups are using the cycle gap, as the footway is not wide enough; at the moment cyclists can pass through the gateway, but there will be a lot of conflict from next Monday when the gate is closed in the day time. What’s more, the cycle gap is right against the kerb, with cobbles and a gutter on half its width.
“It seems all too obvious that all the barriers will do is to create exactly the kind of crowds that a terrorist would want to drive into – especially as the Corpus clock (the Chronophage), which already leads to large groups standing in the middle of the road, is outside the closed zone. And if one was dead-set on attacking right in that iconic location in front of King’s Chapel one would just have to wait until 7pm.
“To add insult to injury, it seems that half the funding has come from the Greater Cambridge Partnership, whose mission is to encourage sustainable transport modes like cycling, not to obstruct them.”
The barriers and associated measures will be trialled for 18 months by Cambridge City Council in partnership with the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, ahead of the drawing up of permanent security measures, possibly recessed into the road surface.
Last month, Councillor Lewis Herbert, the Labour leader of Cambridge City Council, said: “As most people would agree, Cambridge is a special place, but sadly, in a time when the UK terror threat level is substantial, the benefits of its global profile are not without risks.
> Anti-terrorism barriers for one of UK’s busiest streets for cycling
“The tragic loss of innocent lives in the London Bridge attacks serves as a further reminder of the need to take appropriate measures to protect people.
“We have recognised this and that is why we sought police advice about King’s Parade, which is our busiest single visitor destination.
“Now that we have received that advice we must act on it in a proportionate way to do all we can to minimise the risks to public safety and help people to move around the city centre as easily as possible.
“We understand that some of the businesses on King’s Parade will feel inconvenienced, but this is a temporary solution and we will continue to discuss the scheme and any potential permanent measures with them.”
Camcycle has pointed out that local residents wishing to object to the barriers can contact the council’s Public Realm Engineering & Project Delivery Team Leader on john.richards [at] cambridge.gov.uk (tel. 01223 458525), or their local councillor whose details can be found at writetothem.com.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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14 comments
Look how far more people are moving on about on bicycles rather than in motor vehicles, even if full and including the bus.
Both this and the busway chicane barriers along another of the most heavily trafficed cycle routes in Cambridge went up within days of each other.
It's a right farce! Way to encourage people to travel by bike.
That video shows why people hate cyclists!!!
Because they're travelling much faster than the cars stuck in traffic.
I think, rather, it shows what a hugely disproportionate share of throughfare space cars take up in comparison to the number of people being moved by them. And what a nuisance they are in in terms of constantly obstructing all the traffic.
Nothing says "we'll beat terrorism" more than making the lives of everyone, more difficult, everyday.
whenever I see this junk, I see that the terrorists have won.
That's exactly how I felt when I saw today's news about there being stronger laws about personal and bag searches at gig venues etc.
Completely undermines civil liberty, and that's not to mention the possibility of it being enforced to smaller venues as well, thereby likely forcing them to close due to associated costs, meaning smaller artists have nowhere to perform/ exhibit their art (which probably doesn't confirm to Tory ideals of culture).
Try being a football fan, it's been going on for decades in that realm. Yesterday's Swansea v Cardiff match had travel restrictions meaning if you lived in Cardiff and were a Swansea fan you had to go all the way to Swansea to travel on official coaches - and had to return on those coaches after the match. And all because a handful of fans fancy a bit of handbags before and after the game.
Really sad to see this. There's other initiatives in the city to make cycling more problematic - the new barriers on the Addenbrookes guided busway bridge, for eample.
There's a petition to fix those, started by a local councillor: https://www.change.org/p/countryside-properties-remove-the-cbc-cycle-bar...
https://twitter.com/colinmcgerty/status/1215652741541957636
I doubt it will have any more effect than most petitions, but it's worth a try.
The previous Cambridge MP supports it; I haven't seen anything from the current one: https://twitter.com/julianhuppert/status/1215603013584334849
(And CamCycle: https://twitter.com/camcycle/status/1215640974829006848)
I think that amazing video clearly shows its time for a major re-think of priorities on that road. Time to get the cars out and give the space to cyclists.
What you are seeing is traffic coming along Silver Street & it then becoming Trumpington street. One of the reasons it is so busy is because it is one of only 2 bridges across the River Cam in the area. The next to the south is Grantchester, with the next to the north being Bridge Street all the way past the colleges.
There is a reason why bike are so widely used, other than the fact that students aren't allowed cars, it's because it's practically always quicker to get around by bike than car. Simply because the infrastructure wasn't designed to cope with the volume of traffic that there is. Even worse because the buildings are hundreds of years old. I loved living in Cambridge & as a cyclist I actually felt reasonably safe but that's because I am confident & experienced. Unfortunately you also get cyclists who are confident but not experienced who come into conflict with the cars, who can be stressed due to the traffic levels. Ironically my father used to work in counter terrorism after 9/11 & had a hand in the design of barriers. They need to get better!
It's not quite that bad - you're forgetting the Fen Causeway to the south.
Otherwise I agree with everything you say (though I haven't been there for twenty years).
I think that's the second bridge "in the area". But most of the cyclists in that video aren't using Silver Street bridge, and the few that are won't be passing the King's Parade barriers.
Silver Street bridge does have restrictions on through motor traffic: https://www.camcycle.org.uk/newsletters/50/article5.html
I have a suspicion the video predates those, though the YouTube upload date is later.
(There's also Garrett Hostel Lane, which isn't a road bridge, but does carry cyclists (and all the college bridges, which generally don't - and they aren't open to the public, but most of the cyclists in the video will be students heading to 9am lectures).)