Planned cycling and walking bridge across Thames in London would be accessed by stairs and lift, not ramps

After watching the animation they can keep the bridge, fairly pointless, but if they can make it so I can ride straight through the heliport instead of jinking round it, I'll hypothecate all my taxes for a year.

For a while my commute was taking a bike on a train to a platform with a bridge with a bike gutter. I always found it easier just to pick up and carry the bike - but I didn't have a childseat, or bags of shopping. There was a lift, but always busy with a queue, so better left for those who really needed to use it.

More of a rant on gutters, from a disability point of view:

Thing is, gutters are a pain for cyclists to use, and a trip hazard for pedestrians walking up the stairs. For the gutter to be far enough away from handrails for handlebars to clear the wall, they end up where anyone who needs to use the handrail for support would trip over it. This isn't good for a lot of vulnerable population. It's certainly affected me at my local station.

In addition, anyone with limited mobility will have a preference for which side of the stairs they use. For me, I prefer to grip the rail with my left and have my crutch as support on my right.

If I have to leave the rail for some reason - if there's someone else coming down who needs it more than me, or a cyclist using the gutter - it's very scary standing on stairs with nothing to hold and people in a hurry brushing/knocking past. Especially if I'm having a vulnerable day. It's reduced me to tears in the past.

Yes, I know there will be a lift, but they are often busy with bikes, pushchairs, suitcases, other disabled people. Or out of order. Plus, if I'm with a group of people, I don't want to leave them to go to a lift which is usually further away than the stairs, have to wait and have others wait for me too. I'll usually take the stairs instead.

Tbh, as a pedestrian, I'm not a massive fan of ramps either - my particular problems mean walking down slopes can cause sudden and painfully debilitating joint impingement. I normally hold the rail and walk backwards to prevent this. So, places with just a ramp (London Bridge station) can be as much or even more of a nightmare than stairs.

A ramp would need to be wide enough to ride, and clear enough so I wouldn't have to dismount, hopefully not even dab a foot down. 

And this is why I don't get out much nowadays.

Blimey, a bridge that I first proposed about 10 years ago in a BTL comment on an ES story asking for new London projects might actually become reality (I didn't get down to the specifics of access, though).

The Dundee end of the Tay bridge is lift or stairs only and isn't a problem unless you have a large volume of users where by you need a large lift, simples. Ideally yes there would be a ramp but is it better to have a bridge with nominally inconvenient cycle access or no cycle access at all? Given the funding model the perfect solution may be unachievable

When are we going to get a foot/cycle bridge between Canary Wharf and Rotherhithe that's been talked about (and needed) for the last 15 years?

Given the constraints, this appears to be a reasonable compromise; it could have been just pedestrian.

What really concerns me is that it isn't publicly funded.  Why not?  We have a government which is wasting billions on building more roads and HS2 which have no economic case, but it won't fund proper cycling and walking provision.  As others have pointed out, the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy is, to put it politely, effing pathetic, despite the fact that the economic case is absolutely overwhelming.

We've seen what happens when walking and cycling provision is left to charities like Sustrans; it is frequently abysmal, so what we want is a reasonable chunk of transport funding allocated to it, say 10%.

I trust that everyone complaining about this bridge and the appalling infrastructure we have to suffer, will be writing to their MP demanding that 10% of transport investment is for cycling and walking.

Don't knock this. It looks to me that this could be used as an example to set a precedent for future road funding for motor vehicles. Just imagine what would happen if all new motorways had to be financed without touching the public purse and all users had to push their vehicles on and off the entrance/exit slips...

Still much cheaper to build this than the £46.4m of public money spent on not building a garden bridge.

Looking at the map there seems to be quite a bit of access space at either end.  Especially if a curve round to the Thames path were used. may affect the view of the new Lombard tower though.

Quote:

...without partnership with Network Rail the provision of full cycle access ramps is problematic.

So - GET partnership with Network Rail.  Simples.

A cycling bridge with a cycle lane, but which doesn't provide ramps but only stairs or lifts is a bit of a chocolate teapot, isn't it?

https://twitter.com/OWD_architects/status/899587461076090880

Thoughtless design.

Who here has even been able to use a 'gutter' with a loaded bike? Or even an unloaded one? They're pretty useless.

I certainly hope no funds from LA cycling budgets are wasted on this.

Genius, just like the start of grand tour time trials...