Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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4 comments
those gutters (gutters in general) are rubbish.. using them is harder than just carting you bike...
.... I mean really? It's hardly life or death stuff - like so many real stories are on this site.
- or everyone could just carry their sodding bikes up the stairs as they would in lots of other countries and the time and cash micro-managing a perfect bicycle wheel runnel could be spent on essentials like the NHS instead?
The wheeling ramps also stop at the top of the first step so bikes have to be lifted up and on to them rather defeating the purpose - the ends should extend down to platform level with a flared out end, as the design fine tuned over 20 or more years by York Council does - no need to reinvent this.
The handrail problem arises because the designers decided to fit a second handrail about 40cm below the one at standard height. This also renders the normal position of a wheeling ramp unworkable, because the pedals foul the lower handrail.
There is no requirement for a lower handrail on a staircase, especially here, where the staircase is enclosed.
I prepared the sketches use in Sustrans and other information sheets showing how the channels should be configured, and noted other detail such as the best side to place the U channel or L section - and recommended dimensions. The Cambridge bridge designers did not ask about best design and delivered the original with 2 fundamental flaws - the ramp does not extend down to the platform level and they fitted a lower handrail. The other detail, which accommodates the ramp extended to platform level, is that the external cladding or end of the handrail should extend beyond the riser of the first step to make the flow of users come round the end and be facing the stairs square-on when they start to climb