Cherry Hinton High Street - worst cyclelane in UK?

Published by Matt Polaine | Filed under Bicycle, Cycling, Cycling infrastructure

I live near Cherry Hinton High street, in Cambridge, and I am very wary of plumbers in vans. Maybe some plumbers are OK, and the ones who I have paid to work on my house have seemed OK, but there must be something in the training that makes the majority of plumbers drive vans like their income depends on killing a cyclist. I reported a plumber once at Parkside Police Station. What a waste of time that was.

Dave the Plumber, who advertises himself from 105 Paget Road Cambridge, CB2 2JG, who can be contacted on 01223 561247, provides a perfect example of why I don’t want my children cycling along Cherry Hinton High Street.

Now for fellow plumbers and drivers who have no idea of how to behave around a cyclist, probably because they rarely cycle on the Highway, or maybe because they are just too thoughtless/selfish to consider other Highway users, I should tell you that cyclists should pass by stationary vehicles a door length away, because drivers have a habit of just flinging their door open and then looking. This either seriously injures a cyclist, or causes the cyclist to suddenly swerve, which can result in a lethal impact from another motor vehicle.

Also in this video, the reason why the cyclist has avoided much of the cycle routing is because it is just so bad. It is never cleaned, so there are bits of road rubbish waiting to cause a puncture, the widths through the bollards are tiny and way, way narrower than recommended standards (forget using a trailer buggy), the cycle lane also puts the cyclist in the worst position possible at the mini roundabouts, it is never policed, so drivers park in it and block it all the time, and finally the cyclelane positions the cyclist right next to parked car doors near shops, just waiting to be opened without looking. Clearly ‘traffic calming’ here means ‘use cyclists to slow vehicles down’.

So Cambridge Highway Engineers think it is OK to have school children (and any cyclist) tailed by people like Dave The Plumber along the length of Cherry Hinton High Street? This situation unusual? No its not. I cycle this route often too, and always get this treatment.

What happened in this video;  Dave The Plumber, having backed into the on coming traffic (well cyclists don’t count to him) parked and blocked off a cycle lane illegally, then tries to gain a few seconds by ‘getting past’ the cyclist, and using his horn to move the cyclist aside and by driving very close, the cyclist is correctly avoiding the cycle lane most of the time as he keeps a correct distance from parked vehicles and their doors.

Dave The Plumber doesn’t like being held up by cyclists, so drives really close behind (so would run over and kill the cyclist if cyclist had to stop quickly).  Dave The Plumber then tells cyclist, who rightly objects to this behaviour, to ‘move now, move’ (and more that I can’t hear/repeat here) because Dave thinks he has priority over cyclists, and believes his actions are justified.

Affronted by a cyclist daring to point out Dave’s perfect ‘driving skills’ have a flaw, he then drives as close as possible to the cyclist to intimidate them, and ‘teach them a lesson’.

The lesson I assume is Dave The Plumber can drive like the hell he likes, and cyclists should get out his way or he will drive at them to make them remember who is boss of the Highway.

Cambridge City Council want my children to cycle on these cycle lanes with drivers like Dave The Plumber about, and think they should be trained to ride safely on the Highway. In reality, children need to be trained in how to cope with the numerous drivers like Dave The Plumber…

Oh yes and Dave, I don’t think I’ll be using you for plumbing services given the amount of care you show other highway users, and I’ll certainly not be recommending you either.