Political View: City must cater for all modes of transport
I’ve just returned from a short cycling holiday, a three day loop around the Lake District, with my local club, Peterborough CTC. CTC stands for Cycle Touring Club although some say it stands for Coffee, Tea and Cake as we are very fond of our cafe stops, writes Jonathan Orchard of Peterborough Green Party.
Cycling is a wonderful way of seeing the countryside but it is also a great way of getting to work, school or for visiting friends and relations so I am really pleased to see the completion of the Thorpe Wood cycleway which, although limited in its scope, is an indication that our City Council take the encouragement of cycling seriously.
I look forward to the next project which will be a cycleway across Crescent Bridge, hopefully tying in with the Station Quarter development when that goes ahead. This will be a huge improvement on the current situation and make access to the station and city centre much easier and safer for both cyclists and pedestrians.
Although I am a keen cyclist, I am also a car driver and I was disappointed to see that the Labour government has scrapped the A47/A1 junction improvement. I am not generally in favour of new roads but dualling critical sections of the A47 makes sense and this scheme would have reduced congestion on the A1, particularly in morning rush hour. As an added bonus it was also going to provide a new cycle and horse riding route across the A1 which would have allowed access to some more of the lovely countryside we have on our doorstep.
I’m a member of Peterborough Cycle Forum, ably chaired by Councillor Heather Skibsted, and one of the issues that has come up recently is the number of unnecessary and inappropriate barriers across many of the cycle paths in the city. These make it awkward for normal bikes but almost impossible to navigate for tricycles, tandems or bikes adapted for people of limited ability. We are compiling a list of these and hope to remove many of them in the near future.
The Cycle Forum has also raised the question of maintenance of our existing cycleways. In many areas of the city, we have an excellent network of shared use cycle and foot paths but a lot of them have deteriorated, particularly with tree roots damaging the surface and overhanging bushes and trees reducing the usable width significantly.
Finally, a word on e-scooters. A lot of people complain about electric scooters and I have seen them being ridden in a thoughtless way that causes alarm to pedestrians, but I can also see that they are a very useful way to get about locally, especially for those that cannot afford cars. I would like to see some sort of licensing scheme that allows them to be used in a legal and safe way, but, in the meantime, I would urge those that use them to think of other people you are sharing the roads, cycle paths and footpaths with.
Peterborough is an expanding city and the roads are going to become more and more congested with cars so it is essential that measures are taken to facilitate other modes of transport.