South of Cottenham and after the stretch of national speed limit road between the villages the B1049 enters Histon with a 40mph speed limit and not so much as a ‘welcome to Histon’ sign. There is no village entry feature to slow traffic down as there is north of Cottenham and the 40mph limit is inadequate on 2 grounds. Firstly this is a village with housing fronting onto the road, initially just on one side and then on both sides. And secondly 40mph is in fact a tad fast to take the bends that sweep into the village. Try it one day. Set your speed control on 40mph and feel how safe, or unsafe, it feels as you drive into the village.
Note that the parish council has applied for a reduction in this speed limit (back in 2000) and its still waiting to be processed. You can check progress at:
http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/speedlim.nsf/index.htm?OpenForm
The cycle path from Cottenham continues on the footpath. It;’s wide now but it also becomes very much a dual use cycle and foot path as many residents use it to walk into the village or to the bus stop. Parents complain about using it with a push chair as they avoid the bikes with which they share it.
The bus stop itself is a challenge. There’s no problem wit the stop on the southbound side of the road but northbound it’s something else. Accepting its non-vertical nature of something we’ll have to live with (it must annoy any engineers who live opposite it!) there’s the problem of the footpath or lack of one. Accepting that most bus users will go south from here this is where people will generally get off the bus. When they do so there’s nowhere to stand other than the grass verge. Not so easy when you’ve got a child in a pram to deal with. On a winter’s evening that’ll leave the bus user pretty exposed on a road with a 40 mph speed limit.
When you get into the stretch with houses on both sides, just after the houses with the service road you enjoy the site of Tony Hillier’s sculpture. Tony is very welcoming and is always pleased when people, especially children, visit to admire and talk about the amazing pieces on display.
A little further on Cottenham Road splits; it continues as Glebe Road with ‘old’ Cottenham Road going into the village. The junction exemplifies one of the road building standards of recent years which is frankly wrong. The incredible splays allow traffic to make the turn into or out of the junction at speed. That’s frankly unnecessary. The junction should be tightened up so that motorists are encouraged to drop their speed. A narrower entrance to the junction might also discourage rat running through the village.
Just after the junction the cycle path comes to an end. It wasn’t a great cycle path I know but I can never understand the logic of building a cycle path part of the way along a route. Is cycling on the road, which is still a 40mph road, suddenly safer? No of course it isn’t;it’s just difficult to take it any further bit no matter the few miles north of it will count towards one of the council’s performance indicators.
Finally as Glebe Road approaches The Green and it becomes an increasing nuisance to the people living on either side who have shorter front gardens than those further north and live with the same noise, vibration and pollution as the residents of the High Street in Cottenham. Residents talk of the fear that one day an HCV will lose control and end up in somebody’s front room!
Looking at the B1049 note that it splits Histon and Impington here and all the way to the A14. And there isn’t a single pedestrian crossing point north of The Green. There isn’t even a central refuge. Given that roads on the east used to connect with roads on the west that speaks volumes about what planners and road builders thought of the relative importance of the car and the pedestrian when this bit of road was built.
I have many opinions on the B1049, none of them good. I have seen many accidents due to excessive speed, and even my house has been damaged due to careless drivers and speeding.
I fear the danger of pulling out onto the B1049 from my driveway and also the fear of having a lorry plunging into my house. Every day my house shakes because of the weight and speed of lorries. So my first main issue is that the speed limit should be reduced to 30mph from entering the village from Cottenham all the way through to bridge road where the football ground is. Perhaps speed bumps installed as well, rather like every other entry route into the village except this one!
Secondly, try to do something as part of a bigger picture that takes traffic from this route onto others designed for the job (ie. upgrading of the A14 or the A10).
I think the Glebe Road/ Cottenham Road junction width is a feature rather than a problem; indeed, the ability to merge onto the main road at a slightly higher speed is much safer, as traffic on the main road is starting to speed up after crawling through Histon and is largely unsighted for the junction.
There is no need to reduce the speed limit to 30 mph; the current speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum. The number of traffic lights on the stretch means that it is unusual to reach the maximum speed anyway at peak traffic times, and I don’t believe the police have found many victims when they have surveyed speeds on the stretch.
I for one DON’T want speed bumps – they damage and wear out the car suspension, which leads to safety issues when travelling on higher speed roads. By all means apply for a weight restriction on the road if you wish to curtail HGVs, but bear in mind that there are businesses along the road that need deliveries.
Finally, commuters are not ‘rats’, they are people trying to get to and from their destinations and go about their business. They have every right to be on the road and are not to be discouraged.
Can I just point out that having personal experience of living on a busy road with speed bumps will make Rawlings’s house shake even more as lorries apply the brakes, hit the bump then speed up again, we had one right outside our house in Birmingham and it was awful!
I wonder if others who have commented here live on the B1049 and have first hand experience of the fear involved with having to endure the 40mph speed limit along this stretch of the B1049?
I too live on the B1049 (actually on this particular stretch of it) and cannot see any reason at all why a 30mph should not be used? why should it remain at 40mph and be a hazard to even a small number of people living along it? I can see absolutely no benefit for it to be 40mph, why are people so against it being reduced?? I just can’t see their logic, other than that they personally wish to drive quicker or are not directly affected by the route!?
Reducing the speed is safer for pedestrians, children (its a route to school for some of them), cyclists, animals, car drivers, house owners etc etc. Lorries at 40mph are indeed noisy and extremely dangerous and absolutely thunder down this road.
Also, noone is suggesting removing commuters nor lorries from the B1049 as of course they will need access to their destinations, this campaign is simply trying to make it a safer journey for all.
Speed bumps maybe unnecessary, but at least reduce the speed to respect the people that live on that road and all they have to endure.
Please also note, that we are talking about a particular section of the B1049 on this comments board. There are NO traffic lights from the Green to Cottenham, and everyday I see a great number of people heading north (who have been frustrated by the previous number of traffic lights prior to the Green) unable to resist speeding along this particular stretch, eager to make up the time and get to their destination. Of course whether the speed limit is 30mph or 40mph there will always be the fools that speed, however 30mph for the whole stretch of the B1049 will make it a much nicer experience for all.