A better way to walk – four upgrades you’ll love
The greenways are changing the way we travel around Cambridgeshire – making it safer, greener and ultimately more enjoyable. Already, improvements to popular walking routes across Meldreth, Fen Ditton and Linton have made walking more accessible for leisure and journeys into work and school. With many of you looking to get more of your steps in this year, Cllr Elisa Meschini, Chair of the GCP Executive Board, takes a look at the four main ways our greenways are helping to improve walking around our fast-growing region.
1. New or improved paths between places
For many of our rural communities, country roads are the only way to get from A to B. If these roads have pavements alongside them, they can be patchy, give up at big junctions or disappear altogether.
The greenways reconnect our rural communities – bridging gaps, creating new paths alongside bridleways or next to roads. Our work upgrades existing paths – take Newmarket Road in Little Abington as part of the Linton Greenway. Our work has ensured better and safer journeys along the road to the Granta Park roundabout to east of Bourn Bridge Road, Additionally, our work over in Melbourn to connect the village to Meldreth Station now means users can cross over fields and under the A10 safely and with ease.
2. Improved bridges and crossings over roads, railways and waterways
We’ll be installing new bridges and crossings where people need them as part of the greenways. We’re also working hard to make some of our existing bridges on our greenways accessible to all who want to use them – from making older bridges step-free to installing smaller bridges to connect more rural walking routes.
But it’s not just bridges. Across the region we’re planning to implement modern, safer traffic-light-controlled crossings. We’ve already put new safer crossings over key slip-roads and installed new zebra crossings outside schools in Comberton and Fen Ditton.
3. Safer roads with 20mph limits, improved pavements across junctions and shorter crossings
A core part of the greenways will be introducing 20mph streets, like the section introduced in Comberton Village. While we’re lucky to have low rates of injury, the fear of it puts a lot of people off walking and makes our journeys by foot or bike more stressful. For many parents, safety on the school run is a top concern.
Our 20mph streets in many places will be accompanied by small things that add up to make a big difference, like ‘raised tables’ where the raised speed hump covers a whole junction so there’s a level surface to walk or wheel across and, importantly, remains free of puddles.
4. Places for people and wildlife
The greenways are also about making the most of the spaces along the routes for people and wildlife. Whether it’s stretching your legs at lunchtime, going out to play or just watching the world go by, these routes are a gateway to exploring and witnessing the amazing wildlife and natural environment we sometimes take for granted. It is these little features that make walking more enjoyable and enriching.