Grit all major cycle routes in Cambridge during winter

According to Cambridgeshire County Council more than a quarter of all transport to work in Cambridge is done on bicycles and it wishes to increase this figure in order to lessen the tear and wear of roads. Yet no cycle routes are gritted during the winter when the temperature is sub zero.

The County Council says that there is not enough funding for also gritting cycle routes other than where cycle lanes form part of a road for cars and that road happens to be gritted. That viewpoint blatantly ignores that a fraction of the money saved on road repairs due to car drivers switching to cycle to work could be used on ensuring road safety on the cycle network in and around Cambridge.

On many cycle routes in Cambridge, like Riverside Road, the density of cyclists is greater than the density of cars on gritted roads such as Northfield Avenue. That no gritting is provided to such routes amounts to the County Council flouting its responsibilities for road safety.

This lack of safe cycle conditions is a real danger to cyclists as seen particularly this winter where many people have fallen off their bicycles on black ice patches on Riverside Road because the road has still not been gritted.

This is a waste of money both in terms of lost productivity by those workers who suffer injuries cycling to work and in terms of their anticipated compensation claims against the County Council. That money would be far better spent on making cycle routes safe.