close to residents' front doors in Cottenham
There are people who live close to it in Cottenham, Histon and Impington, there are people who cross it and there are people who use it, on bikes, in cars and in trucks. And none of them are happy. It’s noisy and dangerous, it’s often congested and when it’s not congested users exceed speed limits, and it doesn’t serve anyone very well.
In Cottenham its a busy and noisy thoroughfare running along right through the centre of the village. In places it runs just a metre from residents’ front doors. In Histon and Impington it bisects the community presenting a barrier between one half and the other. And down at the A14 junction it becomes a bottleneck delaying commuters on the one hand and offering a dangerous route into Cambridge for cyclists.
It’s not a great road and ’something must be done’ but the County Council seems disinclined to do anything so it’s time that we bring everyone’s opinions together and make a case for change. This is what this blog is about, enabling anyone who has an opinion about the B1049 to express it so that such a case can be made.
Over the next weeks we will focus on different sections of the road. When you have an opinion join in. Comment is free!
Note that the councy council is reviewing speed limits on all roads and is due to report on the B1049 in February 2009.
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Leave the speed limits as they are.
It’s the design and enforcement of the current limits that is required.
Slowing the limits will only cause further misery to road users and more offenders breaking the speed limits at greater levels.
Cottenham currently has a 30 MPH and ‘reminders’ which a few observe. However those who do not have little to fear as rules without enforcement only encourage them.
It is pointless going through all the bureaucracy involved in obtaining a 20 MPH if it is not to be enforced.
The section of the road through Histon is a 40mph zone. I’d like to see this dropped to 30mph to reduce the noise polution within the village, especially overnight.
Cars regularly travel way in excess of this limit. Lorries make my house shake as they hit the lumps and bumps on the road, this would also be reduced if they weren’t travelling so quickly in the small hours and they are forced to stick to the limits.
I get the impression most drivers feel that 30 limits mean they can get away with up to 40. Our 40mph limit mean they feel they can do 50mph. Most people break the limits but only by so much. While I can’t ever see them being enforced I can see that a drop will mean the majority will go slower even if they do still choose to break the limit.
Going through Histon at 30 instead of 40mph will add how much to a journey time, practically nothing.
I attended your meeting on Friday 28th November. It was very interesting to hear the reasons for the proposal and other residents’ arguments for and against. After hearing many views, I remain unconvinced about the need to drop the speed limits.
In the matter of the village roads (excluding the B1049), I’m not sure a blanket 20mph limit is necessary. Maybe on the High Street, Station Road and New Road. Elsewhere, maybe not. I would be swayed to support it everywhere if, as one chap suggested, the 20mph limit replaced the accursed speed bumps and chicanes we currently suffer.
As for the B1049 itself, I am wholly unconvinced that the 40mph limit is the problem. The anecdotes of accidents and problems through Histon and Impington would indicate that the problem isn’t the motorist obeying the 40mph limit, but the late night minority that decide to race at 70mph+ through the village. Dropping the speed limit won’t stop this problem. I would support enforcement of the current limit, not dropping it to 30mph.
I don’t think the speed limits should be dictated by an imagined worse case scenario, as if taken to the extreme every road in the country would be set at 10mph. There has to be a balance with the practicality of moving traffic along what is, whether we like it or not, a significant arterial road. The 40mph limit suits its design. Maybe the crossings can be changed to give a higher priority to pedestrians. And if teenagers on their bikes are not following the rules of the road, the road planners shouldn’t have to change the roads to suit people who are unpredictable and irresponsible. It wouldn’t be tolerated by a motorist, so why by a secondary school cyclist who, by that age, should know better?
On the positive side though, the Cottenham-Histon cycle path money is very good news, and of everything that was discussed I think this is the most urgent issue that needs to be addressed. I don’t like the implication that cycle paths can give, that the cyclist should not be on the road (as demonstrated by Mr Howard Warren’s comment elsewhere on this site), but along this stretch it will make life significantly easier and safer.
I’ve already posted a couple of times to this site, so apologies for yet another. I could not see a counter petition at the meeting one could sign against the proposal, so this is the means by which I’d like to register my opinion. 20mph in the village – maybe (instead of speed bumps etc – yes); 30mph on the B1049 – no.
Thank you.
PS. It was interesting to hear why the no entry into Station Road from the High Street experiment was rescinded. I was under the impression it was only because of pressure from traders. If the increased congestion was as bad as reported, that seems like a better reason. Still a shame though – that part of the road was so much easier to use when the four wheeled traffic was all but one way.