Oakington Airfield Road

I cycle through Longstanton quite often, though at quite varying times.
The road from Longstanton to Oakington goes past the former airfield of Oakington Barracks.
The road there, used to be crossed by an actual runway, but isn't any more.
Because of the history, or maybe for other reasons, the law excludes all motor vehicles (except Taxis and Mopeds) from the road.
Note that there's an exception to that exclusion: 'Except for Access'.
There's a farm, some stables and the former airfield gets raced on during the summer.
So the only vehicles supposed to be driving on this road are either taxis or those going to these specific destinations.
What is explicitly excluded is drivers going straight through from Longstanton to Oakington, using this road as a short-cut.

Also of note is that this road is National Cycling Route 51. There are nice signs telling you so and according to the map I just linked to there, this section of Router 51 is allegedly Traffic Free!

Since the law excludes vehicles from routinely driving on this road, those responsible for such things never repair the road: it is pothole city! In fact, in the last year, the road approaching the "No Motor Vehicles" sign was re-surfaced, but the re-surfacing stopped just short of it. :-(

So cyclists using National Cycling Route 51 have to ride a lot nearer the middle of the road than they normally would - no problem, there are no cars to avoid right? ;-)

With any luck you'll understand the points I'm making here:

1. The road is a rat-run between Longstanton and Oakington.
   
2. The vehicles that drive along it do so at great speed (keen, I'm assuming, to get off the illegal road ASAP, or because of point 1 above are in a rush and are choosing to break the law to save some time).
3. Cyclists riding down the road have to move about the road quite a bit to avoid potholes: this drives the illegal motorists absolutely crazy!
4. Everyone responsible for this road (the Police, the local Council etc) disavow any responsibility for the conflict that inevitably arises.
   
5. Cyclists are regularly forced into either potholes or the grass verge to make way for homicidal motorists driving aggressively and at extremely excessive speeds for an unmaintained road.
   
6. Cyclists daring enough to attempt to avoid potholes when there are cars on the road are met with daily threats of violence, highly aggressive and extremely vulgar language and vehicles deliberately swerved into their path.

Regarding point 6: I myself have been threatened with death many times, I was rammed off my bike once by a white van and there's a black Audi S-Line RJ52NXS who drives East to West most mornings who's decided I'm the devil and slows down to spit vulgarities, insults and threats at me every single day he sees me. I've since found out that this utter moron is going to work at J. Kilborn & Son, on the High Street, in Longstanton. I certainly would not want that human being working on my house.

There's a very dangerous blind "S" bend in the road where drivers still overtake cyclists at great speed. They know fine well that should they meet a car coming in the other direction their instinct will be to swerve left away from the path of the oncoming car but straight into the cyclist they couldn't wait 20 seconds to overtake safely.

For me, the most shocking thing is not that drivers break the law and drive along the road in question. What's moist shocking is that so many of those who choose to do so, do so and then take it several steps further, becoming insane with rage, aggression and violent behaviour.

Thus I propose:

1. A series of severe speed bumps would at least slow down the illegal traffic.
   Not just one at each end - drivers will simply speed up in between.
   
2. Repair the tarmac so that cyclists can use this road without having to choose between potholes and veering into the path of speeding, illegal motorists.

The Longstanton Life is a magazine targeted at residents of Longstanton and published every other month. The Letters page is currently hosting a debate where cyclists point out how the law is being repeatedly broken and drivers plea their case that they be allowed to brake the law as there are allegedly no victims and it would destroy the environment and local economy if they were stopped.

Until it happens, I'm going to document all the occasions where it seems clear to me vehicles are breaking the law (driving straight through the road, talking on mobile phones whilst driving etc).