A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in another thread the latest attempt
by Suffolk CC to kill cyclists, approved by Sustrans. Yesterday I did a
quick survey of the site and got some figures.
The problem is that cyclists heading west on NCN-51 are on a scared use
path on the Exning Road out of Newmarket, and are directed to get off
the path and cross the road to join a 1m wide advisory cycle lane when
they get into Exning. The crossing point is close to the apex of a
corner (TL 622654 [1]). Visibility in one direction is about 250m, but
in the other direction it's 40m. So I took a stopwatch and timed how
long it took between a driver being able to see a cyclist standing at
the crossing point and actually reaching the crossing point. Or a
cyclist being able to see a vehicle coming and being hit by it....
20 timings: min 2.3 seconds, max 3.7 seconds, average 3.0
These cars, vans and trucks were all either on their own or the leaders
of a queue: followers in a queue were ignored.
Of those 20 drivers 2 were on a hand-held mobile phone (and faster than
average) and 1 was eating...
So, how do you fancy your chances crossing at that point?
[1] <http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=tl622654&ll=52.263088,0.375697&spn=0.001845,0.00456&t=k>
Mike