This is off our normal patch, but as the Chair of WelHatCycling helped get this route built and as it’s a very useful link to quiet lanes north of Hertford, we are including it here.
Cycling north from Hertford there is a nice quiet route from Benjeo along Sacombe Road. This road used to end at a nasty blind summit crossing of the A602, a 60mph very busy road from Stevenage to Ware. Following some successful objection to poor previous plans, Hertfordshire County redesigned the route into a segregated cycle path which uses the new river bridge as an underpass. So you can now cycle from Sacombe Road to Sacombe Pound and avoid the A602 completely. This excerpt from Open Street Map shows the new route highlighted in blue. Hertford is to the south, Watton at Stone to the west of roundabout.
None of this would have happened without the excellent work by the late Jon Crosby, formerly of Cycling UK’s South Herts Cyclists. So if you use this new route, think of Jon as you do so. The photos shows riders on the new path on the opening day, 26th September 2023, and the route on the north side of the road bridge which is used as the underpass for the cycle route.
It is described as a nice quiet route. It must have been expensive to complete.
In comparison to change the footpath running beside the A1000 between Old Welwyn and Welwyn Garden City to a designated combined footpath and cycleway would have been a relatively cheap and more useful amenity for the Welwyn area. I think priorities are confused.
Hi Mark, we very much recognise the value of upgrading the A1000 footpath and continue to advocate for this. The stretch to the east of the A1(M) indeed looks relatively easy to uplift to dual use; the underpass under the slip-road and the stretch underneath the A1(M) is not quite so straightforward but there must be a way forward.