Herts County Council has made available to the public a Cycle-Facility Register, an online graphics information system (GIS) which allows you to see the following cycle-route facilities:

in the county, with the ability to make anonymous comments about them and view already posted comments.  In this context, no facility means a signed route with no special measures to assist or increase prominence of cyclists; the website contains a full illustrated explanation of all the above terms and how to post and read comments. This GIS is designed to help you understand what infrastructure is available for cycling and what is planned. It also provides the way to suggest missing parts of the network which can be considered for future works. HCC hope to build a better idea of the roads and paths with defects of concern to cyclists, and indeed errors in classification, and we urge you make use of the system to help them do this.

Construction work continues on the active-travel project to improve walking & cycling facilities in the area round Marlborough Road, St Albans. The photograph shows the current view from Marlborough Road looking across London Road to Keyfield Terrace.  The scheme will include permanent traffic lights with cycle and pedestrian phases here, and the green boxes are to provide for cyclists wishing to make a two-stage right turn from London Road.  More about two-stage right turns in the Highway Code at Rule 75.  They are an option, you may make the turns in one stage if you wish, Highway Code Rule 61 confirms. Two-stage layouts are also described in LTN 1/20 Cycle Infrastructure Design,  section 10.6.28 - 32.

New proposals have now been made for the development of Woollam Park (the rugby ground by the Harpenden Road) for housing. The land is owned by St Albans School, by the Abbey. Public exhibitions were held on the 3rd & 4th September, but if you missed them you can see the online versions of the exhibition boards here. Two of the claims made by the developers are:

• New pedestrian & cycling infrastructure into the city centre

• A new bridleway linking this part of St Albans to the Hertfordshire Way & Heartwood Forest

The former appears to be improvements to existing paths, such as resurfacing woodland paths & providing signalled cycle crossings over major roads to ease the passage of cycles, and the latter is the conversion of an existing informal grassy path from the west side of the railway bridge over Sandridgebury Lane, heading north alongside the railway line to Ayres End Lane. A welcome proposal is the closure to motor traffic, but not cycles, along the very narrow section of Valley Road by STAGS. However, there will still be a route for motors through the new estate from Sandridgebury Lane which ends at proposed new traffic lights on the Harpenden Road (at the current entrance to Woollam Fields). STACC are concerned that this will make Sandridgebury Lane even more of a rat run than it is already, even though the developers claim that they can put in measures to limit the traffic flow through the new estate.

Path by Sandridge Scout Hut 

In the August newsletter we requested completed evidence forms from STACC members showing continual use over 20 years of the path by Sandridge scout hut so it can be claimed as a public bridleway. The short path links Sandridgebury Lane to the bridleway from Sandridge to Ayres End Lane, and its classification as a public bridleway would preclude the owner, or a future owner, erecting a barrier preventing through passage. As you would expect, equestrians from the nearby riding stables are also requesting completed evidence forms from horse riders. STACC have now received 5 completed forms, which is good but we would like more. If you can help us do this, please do so by downloading this form, printing, completing (a guide for this is here), and sending or delivering it to:

Steve Brazier, 5 The Limes, St Albans, AL1 4AT

The aspiration to improve Victoria Street goes back at least 15 years, but there is an impetus to get on with it now due to:

• collisions at the Alma Road junction 

• It is a BSIP (Bus Service Improvement Plan) priority route 

• route carrying lots of walking and cycling traffic

• identified in Draft Local Plan

• funding is available - but is dependent on there being public support.

The last  point is important: the ideas for what could be done are to come from the public instead of initial proposals from the District and County Councils, and public engagement will be in October.

We urge you you to take part in this and persuade your friends and families to also express support for improving Victoria Street. 

The aim of this style of engagement is to shape the design with community input and thereby harness support for the project ('buy-in'). There will be sessions/displays at the library, the market, the museum and the railway station, and there will be a 'business breakfast'. The public engagement is in October, HCC are meeting first with stakeholders like STACC to help inform the engagement. Indeed, members of the STACC committee had a meeting with officials of Herts County Council in late August to discuss ideas for public-realm improvements to Victoria Street. (Of course, the public realm has already been improved by the demolition of the derelict old police station and the construction of Jubilee Square.)

This is a could-have list from that meeting, some examples to get you thinking of features the community might like to have:

• Tree and flower planting, Benches, cycle parking

• Wider footways, Better crossings

• Protected cycleways on uphills

• Filtering to reduce through-traffic, Better loading arrangements

• Better bus stops, Road-safety measures

• Story / heritage features