Ridgeway 6 April 2017

Regarding the gates installed on the Ridgeway walking and cycling pathway

West Cambridge Active Travel is a group of university members who advocate for inclusive and high-quality infrastructure that helps to promote both walking and cycling as modes of transportation in and around the West Cambridge site.

The gates appear to be a strange and ill-advised method of keeping cars off of the newly built path, a method that the latest standards say should not be used.

We are worried that the gates will exclude people from using the path, such as families with tandems and trailers, novice riders who may find tight manoeuvres difficult, or persons with disabilities using tricycles or mobility scooters.

The gates will cause unnecessary conflict between path users, and the obstacle they pose will distract people from the junction ahead of them, potentially leading to crashes that could have been avoided.

The normal solution is to use thoughtfully selected and designed bollards, as found on cycling routes all around Cambridge. We will be asking the Northwest Cambridge project team to remove the gates and replace them with properly placed and clearly visible bollards.