South Central Hertfordshire Growth and Transport Plan – Response from CycleHerts

CycleHerts member organisations have been busy responding to the South Central Growth and Transport Plan. The public engagement closed on 30 March 2020 and we submitted a couple of response documents. PDF versions are available on the CycleHerts website:

• Response from St Albans Cycle Campaign (STACC)
• Response from WelHatCycling and South Herts CTC

Transport for New Homes Charter

Transport for New Homes believes that everyone should have access to attractive housing, located and designed to ensure that people do not need to use or own cars to live a full life. They have produced a single-page Transport for New Homes Charter, dedicated to the memory of Simon Norton, sponsor of Transport for New Homes.

CycleHerts response to A414 Corridor Strategy

The CycleHerts response to the A414 Corridor Consultation is now available on the CycleHerts website. CycleHerts only made general comments, but this document also includes detailed comments from St Albans Cycle Campaign on the proposals for cycling in the segments covering Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, and connections to St Albans.

WelHatCycling submitted detailed comments on the segments covering Welwyn Hatfield, which are available on the WelHatCycling website.

Smarter Cambridge Transport

At our last meeting we had a presentation about Sustainable Travel Towns, which are a key part of Hertfordshire County Council’s Local Travel Plan. Anyone looking to put together a bid for their town might want to take a look at Smarter Cambridge Transport, a team of over 20 unpaid volunteers whose agenda is about “seeking out, developing and promoting the optimal balance of transport-related ideas for making Cambridge and the surrounding region a great place to live, work and study”. Lots of interesting articles there.

First Meeting of 2019

The first CycleHerts meeting of 2019 was held on Thursday 24 January at St Albans Council Offices and was well attended, with 4 people from Hertfordshire County Council, 4 from State Albans Cycling Campaign, 2 from WelHatCycling and 1 each from Spokes, Start Valley CTC and Sustrans. We had three presentations:

• Lindsey Lucas (HCC) on the A414 Corridor Study
• Trevor Mason (HCC) on Sustainable Travel Towns
• Michael Melnyczuk (Sustrans) on the NCN Review

Minutes of the meeting are available online.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Safer Streets

London Cycling Campaign and Living Streets have produced an excellent guide to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

Interesting to compare it with the 2014 Sustrans policy briefing on their Campaign for Safer Streets.

Operation Velo to Target Close Passing in Cambridge

On Feb 22nd the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit announced the launch of Operation Velo which will be targeting, amongst other things, unsafe passing of cyclists. Initially this will be launched in Cambridge City Centre but there are plans to roll it out across the county as well as Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

CycleHerts has been lobbying for a close pass initiative in Hertfordshire for some time and has been compiling a map showing stretches of road where cyclists are reporting frequent close passing.

Stevenage Cycleway Inspection

On January 16th Councillor Jim Brown of Stevenage Borough Council accompanied HCC employees Ian Davidson (Highway Locality Manager, North Herts and Stevenage) and Mike Moralee (Assistant Highway Manager, North Herts Group) on an inspection of the Stevenage cycleway network. Here is Jim’s report.

Welwyn Hatfield Space for Cycling 2018

WelHatCycling have updated their Space for Cycling document for 2018. The document places the national Space for Cycling campaign themes in a local context, for district and county councillors and other stakeholders.

Air Quality Benefits from Active Travel

Eunomia and Sustrans have been working to develop a model that measures air quality benefits from increased active travel. It is estimated that more than 12,000 premature deaths from air pollution alone would be prevented over 10 years if both England and Scotland reached their respective goals to get more people to walk and cycle. In addition there would be £9.31 billion worth of benefits to the economy over the same time period. Read more.