Council orders safety review of Cambridgeshire Guided Busway after deaths of cyclist and pedestrian

You can't run a shared anything alongside a railway.  The boundary of the railway is always fenced.  Basically because train signalling assumes a completely sealed environment and trains can't stop very easily, even in the dry.

A tram/light rail system operates to different regulations and signalling to trains taking into account that they interact with road users of all types.  The busway uses road type traffic signals as the buses are just, well, buses. Trams can stop much quicker than trains.  Just not as quickly as buses.

The busway has a speed limit similar to a rural road, so it's like having a shared use path along side a rural single carriageway road, with the only vehicles being buses.  So not really like the hard shoulder of a motorway at all. EDIT - just read that the section where the cyclist was killed had the speed limit reduced to 30mph 3 years ago in response to the fatal collision.

I have no idea about the circumstances of this incident.  But the issue to consider with fencing off the path from the busway is that fences can both keep people out and keep people in.  Having the potential not only to discourage or prevent people straying on but also to trap people when they are there, as well as encouraging drivers to behave as if they're on a sealed system. Like a railway.

This was reported before Steve Moir - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-42806874.  Who would have thought that bus drivers exceed the speed limit?

And this piece after his death highlights some important points - https://katiethornburrow.com/2018/09/how-can-we-make-the-guided-busway-s...

Manchester appear to have the right idea, IMO Cambridge have just got it wrong

DoomeFrog wrote:

Manchester appear to have the right idea, IMO Cambridge have just got it wrong

Cambridge have got oh, so much wrong about cycling. It trades on its reputation as a cycling city, but - having lived here for nearly 20 years now - it's by far the worst place I've lived for cyclists.

Nixster wrote:

The busway has a speed limit similar to a rural road, so it's like having a shared use path along side a rural single carriageway road,

Except that on a rural road a bus could deviate to avoid someone who stumbled into the carriageway, whereas on the guided busway, they only have control over speed.

wycombewheeler wrote:

Nixster wrote:

The busway has a speed limit similar to a rural road, so it's like having a shared use path along side a rural single carriageway road,

Except that on a rural road a bus could deviate to avoid someone who stumbled into the carriageway, whereas on the guided busway, they only have control over speed.

Or they could deviate to pass at a safe passing distance - not that they ever would - but the fact that the bus track is 'separate' from the shared use path, does not negate the need for passing at a safe distance.  Just like an on-carriageway cycle lane does not.

jh2727 wrote:

wycombewheeler wrote:

Nixster wrote:

The busway has a speed limit similar to a rural road, so it's like having a shared use path along side a rural single carriageway road,

Except that on a rural road a bus could deviate to avoid someone who stumbled into the carriageway, whereas on the guided busway, they only have control over speed.

Or they could deviate to pass at a safe passing distance - not that they ever would - but the fact that the bus track is 'separate' from the shared use path, does not negate the need for passing at a safe distance.  Just like an on-carriageway cycle lane does not.

and yet people have fallen into the busway and been hit, so either there needs to be more seperation betwen the busway and the shared path, or there needs to be a barrier between the two.