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15-Minute Cities
The Bedford Independent online newspaper on 3 March published an interesting article called'Opinion: 15-minute ities? Yes, please (see here)
CCNB responded by saying that it need not be a dream.
Bedford has always been a ‘Town of Cyclists’ in the top quartile of UK towns and is already a 15 minute town with cyclists able to reach the town centre from nearly all residential areas within this timeframe.The Bedford and Kempston urban area is fairly compact and, with the exception of the Manton Heights area, is reasonably flat and ideal for cycling.
The urban area has an extensive reasonably safe 150km cycle network started in the 1950s made up of off-road dual use paths, quiet (mainly 20mph) residential roads and cycle lanes along busier roads with a number of routes reaching surrounding villages to make a great cycling experience.
Cycle (and pedestrian) safety is ensured by an exceptionally high number of controlled road crossing points:
• 75 Signal controlled toucan crossings for cyclists and pedestrians
• 2 signal controlled pegasus crossings for horses, cyclists and pedestrians
• 11 parallel crossings for cyclists and pedestrians
• 40 puffin/pelican and numerous zebra crossings which cyclists can use to safely walk across.
Yes - there still some major gaps – Bromham Road railway bridge, High Street cycle contraflow and A6/A421 junction – and some sections which require bringing up to the latest cycle infrastructure guidelines.
Bedford Cycle Network
"Two years agoCCNB published a short video describing the current network.
New Year Resolution
2024 is likely to bring an even greater urgency for us all to take action to help reduce global emissions and our living costs.
One way to do this is for all motorists to consider avoiding the use of their car, even an e-car, for at least some trips and to walk or cycle short distances and cycle or walk in conjunction with public transport for longer journeys. [Between 1 January and 31 December 2024 all single bus fares on Stagecoach, Grant Palmer and UNO buses are fixed at £2].
Cycling is fun - good for your health - great for your fitness - fastest mode of transport for door to door short journeys - environmentally friendly - saves money on parking and fuel.
It offers mobility for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities and creates safer and more pleasant streets.
Christmas Greetings
2023 has not been a particularly good year for people or cycling.
It has seen us getting ever near the point of no return for the climate with every country at some point having been adversely affected by heat, wildfires, floods or droughts. On top of this we also have a cost of living crisis with ever increasing food, energy and transport costs as well as some people still being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In terms of cycling CCNB counts showed a 13% average increase over last year to Bedford town centre due to the end of lockdowns but with the PSPO cycle ban and major store closures this is still only 54% of the average seen in 2017. Counts at the railway station were much better at 121% higher as more people started to go back to work but this was still only 45% of those seen in 2017.
During the year the government issued its cycling statistics for 2021. For Bedford Borough these mirrored the CCNB results for that year and disappointingly placed it only just above average for the UK when previously it had been in the upper quartile.
In the meantime CCNB would like to wish all Bedford Borough current and potential cyclists a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.