To Cyclists living in Hertfordshire or North London

[Ianb]

To Cyclists living in Hertfordshire or North London

Do your rides take you through, to or near London Colney? If so can you spare me a few minutes of
your time, please?

We have a "local Transport Forum" for the village and I am the Cyclists (CTC) rep as well as
being a local resident. I would like to know:-

What routes do you use as a passing cyclists (i.e. Shenley Lane; Barnet road/high street)? Are there
any places you specifically go to (Savacentre, Garden Centre, Open farm) by bike? Are there any
places in/near the village that you avoid as "too dangerous" etc. (e.g. Bell rbt) or bike
unfriendly? Do you visit/pass as a solo, family or club rider? Are you aware of the new and proposed
cycle paths in and around the new Napsbury (Hospital/ "Arboretum") development, if so do you use or
have you tried any?

We have a small budget to spend as a result of developers work which will probably get spent
on traffic calming measures rather than cycle facilities but I will try to minimize
unfriendly schemes

Thanks for your assistance.
--
IanB

swap my names around to reply to me

 

[John Hepburn]

Regularly travel through London Colney on way home from St Albans to
N.London. Not a particularly pleasant part of the journey. Bell Roundabout is dangerous - traffic
too fast and all trying to beat each other - but the roundabout at the St Albans end is lethal -
too fast, too many lights to beat and too much lane changing.

In daylight I now use the footbridge over the north orbital, down the high street and turn up the
bridleway through Bowmans Farm at the Colney Fox, acrross Coursers Road and join Ridge Hill just
after Salisbury Hall. In the high street you have to keep your wits about you especially at the 2
mini roundabouts on the raised paved sections. Turning traffic ignores cyclists!

After dark (winter)I chance the roundabouts and use the by-pass which I always used to use until
they "improved" the St Albans roundabout. Although traffic's faster there's less danger than the
high street because there's no contrary flows & traffic gives you a wide berth.

IanB wrote:
> To Cyclists living in Hertfordshire or North London
>
> Do your rides take you through, to or near London Colney? If so can you spare me a few minutes of
> your time, please?
>
> We have a "local Transport Forum" for the village and I am the Cyclists (CTC) rep as well as
> being a local resident. I would like to know:-
>
> What routes do you use as a passing cyclists (i.e. Shenley Lane; Barnet road/high street)? Are
> there any places you specifically go to (Savacentre, Garden Centre, Open farm) by bike? Are there
> any places in/near the village that you avoid as "too dangerous" etc. (e.g. Bell rbt) or bike
> unfriendly? Do you visit/pass as a solo, family or club rider? Are you aware of the new and
> proposed cycle paths in and around the new Napsbury (Hospital/ "Arboretum") development, if so do
> you use or have you tried any?
>
> We have a small budget to spend as a result of developers work which will probably get spent
> on traffic calming measures rather than cycle facilities but I will try to minimize unfriendly
> schemes
>
> Thanks for your assistance.
> --
> IanB
>
> swap my names around to reply to me
>
>

 

[Weasel]

London Colney ... Knew him when he was a vicar .....

"IanB" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> To Cyclists living in Hertfordshire or North London
>
> Do your rides take you through, to or near London Colney? If so can you spare me a few minutes of
> your time, please?
>
> We have a "local Transport Forum" for the village and I am the
Cyclists
> (CTC) rep as well as being a local resident. I would like to know:-
>
> What routes do you use as a passing cyclists (i.e. Shenley Lane; Barnet road/high street)? Are
> there any places you specifically go to (Savacentre, Garden Centre,
Open
> farm) by bike? Are there any places in/near the village that you avoid as "too dangerous" etc.
> (e.g. Bell rbt) or bike unfriendly? Do you visit/pass as a solo, family or club rider? Are you
> aware of the new and proposed cycle paths in and around the new Napsbury (Hospital/ "Arboretum")
> development, if so do you use or have you tried any?
>
> We have a small budget to spend as a result of developers work which will probably get spent
> on traffic calming measures rather than cycle facilities but I will try to minimize unfriendly
> schemes
>
> Thanks for your assistance.
> --
> IanB
>
> swap my names around to reply to me
>

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On Fri, 30 May 2003 10:45:08 +0100, "IanB" <[email protected]> wrote:

Hey, Ian, thanks for bringing back some very happy memories. I was brung up in Park Street and used
to cycle through London Colney to get to the Mosquito Museum where I helped out in the holidays. I
used to negotiate the Bell roundabout no problem (aged 16 on a gas pipe special) and hack up and
down the A5 as well - much too dodgy now, people seem to want to compensate for the lack of progress
on the M25 by driving at 90 on the little back roads round St Albans. I used also to ride to
Hatfield for club nights, and I had a GF on the Jersey Farm estate which was a good few miles. Those
were the days: have bike, will travel

Guy
===
** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony. http://www.chapmancentral.com (BT ADSL and
dynamic DNS permitting)
NOTE: BT Openworld have now blocked port 25 (without notice), so old mail addresses may no longer
work. Apologies.

 

[Jeremy Parker]

Ian Bardshaw asks:

> To Cyclists living in Hertfordshire or North London
>
> Do your rides take you through, to or near London Colney? If so can you spare me a few minutes of
> your time, please?

I live in High Barnet, so London Colney is well within my riding territory. I wouldn't go to the
Savacentre by bike to shop, and haven't used any London Colney tea/lunch etc. stops (any
recommendations?)

I use the Bell roundabout fairly often, although not at rush hour. I find it not too bad, almost fun
in a perverse way. Traffic lights, I suppose, would improve it, but I wouldn't use a pavement round
the edge for bikes if one were provided, and if a bike lane round the edge was installed, like the
ones in Hatfield, I would ostentatiously keep as far away from the lane as possible.

I vaguely remember seeing that Napsbury was to have bike trails of some kind, but haven't
investigated. Is there any kind of route alternative to the B5378? The B5378 would be my standard
route from Barnet to St Albans - I don't seem to have gone that way for a while, I'm not sure why
not. I think the B5378 was nicer in the days before it had any traffic calming.

I presume that the Napsbury bike paths are built by landscapers or architects, rather than traffic
engineers. Such paths, while usually prettier than those built by traffic engineers, I find are even
less built with the realisation that a bicycle is a human powered vehicle. A vehicle which can't,
for example, negotiate a right angled corner very easily.

The cycle track at the A1081/A414 roundabout I avoid.

I've sometimes wondered aboout your various bridle paths, the one down the R. Colne, for example, or
the one out of the back of Bowman's farm, but from my very brief looks I decided they weren't really
cycleable enough to be interesting (on a mudguarded Dawes Galaxy with 700cx32mm tyres).

Sustrans has plans, doesn't it, to run a route down the Ver, from St Albans to Bricket Wood/Watford.
Could the bridle path down the Colne link up with that?

Is London Colney within the territory of Watling Chase forest? Might they have any urge to construct
bike facilities. They have a project with Hertsmere and the Countryside Commission (or whatever it
is now) to build "greenways".

Jeremy Parker