A ‘parallel crossing’ consists of a zebra crossing for pedestrians (on the right) and a parallel cycle crossing for cyclists (on the left).

In April 2016 Cambridgeshire County Council implemented a parallel cycle and pedestrian crossing over the A1307 Huntingdon Road in Cambridge. The parallel crossing was introduced by TSRGD 2016 and comprises a conventional zebra crossing adjacent to a cycle crossing delineated by “elephants’ feet” markings. Legally it gives the equivalent priority to people cycling that zebra crossings give to people walking. Following some reports of problems, the County Council were keen to see how well their crossing was performing. They commissioned Transport Initiatives to investigate and suggest any necessary remedial measures.

Flows of pedestrians and cyclists over the crossing. There is one dominant movement

…and how long does she have to wait?

The work involved:

• Counting cyclists and pedestrians crossing Huntingdon Road in the vicinity of the crossing, and plotting their paths
• Noting (for a selection of crossing “events”) whether drivers gave way to cyclists and pedestrians
• Measuring the delay experienced by cyclists and pedestrians as they waited to cross
• Recording what drivers would see as they approached the crossing from both directions
• Filming people using the crossing and subsequently analysing the films to measure conflict using a common scale used in other crossing conflict studies.

A cyclist waits as the passing lorry driver fails to give way

The key findings were:

• Cyclists experienced a greater delay (0.91 secs as opposed to 0.49 secs) and more conflict than pedestrians.
• There was less conflict and delay for all users crossing in the north easterly direction than going south west..
• Users on the first half of the crossing experienced more conflict and delay than on the second half
• South east bound vehicles caused more conflict and delay than north west bound ones

The view seen by a southbound driver is of a confusing background on the left.

Whereas the northbound driver’s view is much clearer.

We concluded that the probable causes of these anomalies were that:

• There was less warning from one direction
• Cyclists and pedestrians could appear unexpectedly from Oxford Road
• In one direction cyclists and pedestrians are sighted against a confusing background
• One footway is narrow and cyclists and pedestrians wishing to cross wait in much the same place as people wishing to continue along Huntingdon Road.
• Some cyclists joining the south east bound cycle lane do so via the dropped crossings for the crossing, so that they occupy the same place as people wanting to use the crossing.

This cyclist is turning left onto Huntingdon Road at the crossing point. Possibly giving a confusing message to the driver of the approaching car.

We considered scoring interactions between pedestrians and cyclists on the crossing and on the footways either side. In practice, not enough people passed each other to be able to draw any valid conclusions.

You really do want to find out about this roundabout…

And there’s more…

We’ve undertaken more interactions based projects in Cambridge. Firsty to answer the question whether it’s safe to cycle contra-flow in narrow streets and secondly to answer the question of how well the ‘Dutch Style’ roundabout at Fendon Road works for cyclists and pedestrians