Northern Section
The Pink Pedalway’s northern section starts for now at Harrison’s Wood on the Salhouse Road. There are plans to extend it to join the cycle ways around Atlantic Way and further along Salhouse Road. It then runs via the Heartsease estate, through Mousehold Heath to St Andrews Plain. This video was recoded in July 2021 when traffic levels were low due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Route Description Northern Section
From Harrison’s Wood (aka Harrisons plantation) it crosses Salhouse Road via a toucan crossing and then by way of Hammond Close, Breck Road and Greenborough Road to Woodside Road. It crosses Woodside Road, which can be very busy, with a toucan crossing. Then via Lishman Road to cross the Heartsease recreation grounds on a segregated cycle track. Then right into Munnings Road, Watling Road and so to Rider haggard Road where the Purple Pedalway joins. Rider Haggard Road can be a bit busy.
We then cross the outer ring road (Heartsease Lane, A1042) where the Purple Pedalway splits off and by way of Valley Drive, a shared use path through Mousehold Heath to Gurney Road, which has no marked crossing of any kind. Gurney Road is often very busy and the traffic moves fast. It then follows Gurney Road on a shared use path, joining the Orange Pedalway at Mousehold Avenue. The Orange pedalway leaves at Britannia Road and the Pink Pedalway turns right onto Dragoon Way, a shared use path with the steepest hill section, down to Heathgate, Cannell Green and a short section of segregated cycle track to the inner ring road (Barrack Street, A147) which it crosses via a toucan crossing. A short section of shared use path takes us to Gilders Way and then to the Jarrolds bridge over the river Wensum. The bridge is very pretty, but is narrow and has a wooden running surface with gaps between the planks which can catch narrow tyres and become slippery when wet.
From there via Riverside Walk and the Adam and Eve pub to Bishopsgate, St Martin-at-Palace-Plain and Palace Street, a busy street with inadequate advisory cycle lanes which are not continuous heading north, to Tombland and a short section of segregated cycle track. Tombland carries the heavy traffic from Palace Street and where the Pedalway crosses the road there used to be a traffic light controlled crossing, but this was removed – according to Norfolk County Council – to improve the flow of traffic. It is now very difficult and dangerous to cross into Princes Street here and most riders either use the road or the nearby pedestrian puffin crossing, this is very unsatisfactory. The Green and Red Pedalway (NCR1) join here and Princes Street runs to St Andrews Plain.
Additional video
Western Section
The Pink Pedalway’s western section connects the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&NUH) and the University of East Anglia (UEA) to the city centre. As might be expected it’s the most heavily used pedalway route.
Route description western section
Most of the route is on traffic calmed streets with a 20mph limit, although some sections can get overloaded with traffic at peak times. There are some good sections of off road shared use paths.
It starts at the N&NUH, joins the Purple Pedalway for a short distance along Colney Lane before turning right and entering the UEA grounds, where the Purple Pedalway leaves, to cross the sports fields . Once over the river Yare it follows Chancellors Drive through the UEA campus and turns left onto University Drive before turning right onto Cow Drive, an ancient lane, now a shared use path.
At the end of Cow Drive it turns left on Bluebell Road before crossing via a toucan crossing to The Avenues. Here it runs in a “cycle street” with advisory cycle lanes on both side with a space between them for one lane of traffic and traffic calming speed humps. Although it works well most of the time, this section can become very busy with traffic and cycles and at peak times can be very overloaded. There is also an off-road segregated cycle track, built in the early 1990’s to a fairly low standard.
It crosses the outer ring road (Mile End Road, A140) and continues along The Avenues without the cycle street arrangement, but with speed humps.
The Avenues becomes Avenue Road and leads into Park Lane, where the Orange Pedalway joins. Park Lane can get badly overcrowded with traffic, making cycling difficult at peak times. It then crosses Unthank Road and enters Essex Street, a narrow one-way road with on-street parking along one side and contraflow cycling. Perhaps surprisingly his works quite well most of the time, but some drivers find it confusing and if a large vehicle drives up it, cyclists coming down have to get onto the pavement.
The Orange Pedalway leaves as we turn left into Vauxhall Street, which leads to the crossing of the inner ring road (Chapelfield Road A147). This crossing was upgraded in 2021 to a high standard. It then runs around the eastern side of Chapelfield roundabout and enters the park. After the park it crosses Theatre Street, into Little Bethel Street, then Bethel Street, St Peter’s Street, Gaol hill, Exchange Street and finally right into St Andrews Street where it joins the Green Pedalway to reach St Andrews Plain.
Because Exchange Street is one-way (and may remain so despite plans to close it to traffic), the return route is via St Andrews Street, Maddermarket and Lower Goat Lane into St Peters Street.
Most of the route is via quiet residential streets or off-road shared use paths, busy streets have traffic calming and a 20 mph limit. There are some steep hill climbs heading out of the city through Mousehold Heath. Most of this route is very good, with some very enjoyable sections. However the crossing of Gurney Road on Mousehold is difficult and recent (2021) works in Tombland have made the road crossing there very difficult if not dangerous.
Additional Videos
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