Cycle barriers

[fossyant]

They've recently been removing them from the TPT near me but this has led to motorbikes using it again.

It's a general issue near me anyway, motorbikes or the electric ones. Burnt out scooter near one of the A frames a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes the 'removals' don't have much of a negative effect - the Fallowfield Loop used to have them every half mile or so, and you'd have to negotiate them - think I had 6 to get through. These have all gone, and there doesn't seem to be any additional 'abuse' of the path. Certainly opens it up to trike, trailer etc bikes.

 

[a.twiddler]

A couple more barriers that I encountered while out the other day on the Weaver Parkway.
I had to stand the recumbent on its back wheel and walk it through the kissing gate -no real problem as it's pretty wide. You could probably get a low trike through the left hand end of the main gate. This barrier seems pretty innocuous, tempting you to use the trail. Note the collection of warning signs.

The other end is another matter. This is looking back in the direction I'd cycled from. You might squeeze a very very low trike under the RH end.

Here is the measurement between the gatepost and the round pole.

I didn't manage to take the pictures on the day as I was rushing to a meeting but It was such a struggle to get through the second barrier that I went back today and took some.

 

[Mike_P]

Sustrans blog article https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blo...-there-barriers-on-the-national-cycle-network

 

[a.twiddler]

I returned to this second barrier as it was somehow so annoying. If I was on my upright drop bar tourer it would have gone through easily. Any other conventional bike with flat bars would struggle. If I was some kind of sporty recumbentist with over seat handlehars perhaps narrow "hamster bars" or tiller steering would have gone through but then I wouldn't have been riding that sort of surface. Wider cockpit type bars would struggle too. Wheelchair users or those with mobility scooters would have been blocked. I've never been in agreement with those who suggest radical action with a battery angle grinder but here is something that just invites that sort of thing. However, behind me in those photos is a caravan park so it would be a brave or foolhardy person who followed such a noisy, attention getting course of action there.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I have noticed that most of the barriers that I normally see on the trails and paths around here have been removed and now there is just a gap wide enough - easily - for a wheelchair or trike.

I means that I can actually ride my normal circuit and only have to pass one actual barrier - and as that has a 5 foot gap at the side of it (and always has - no idea why they replaced the barrier and left the gap a few years ago!!!) so in theory I could ride the whole route without stopping except for traffic (foot and wheeled)

WHich does make it more pleasant to ride!

 

[Pale Rider]

The pics in the OP of the barriers with a dog gate indicate the trail is for pedestrians only.

I suspect parts of the Trans-Pennine Trail are the same.

Around here - Tyne and Wear/County Durham - some barriers have been removed to improve wheelchair access.

But as has been observed, it's a battle between ease of access and yobbos on motorbikes and quadbikes.

 

[a.twiddler]

What is annoying is that the cycle trail ends with no warning or indication of an alternative route, especially as it re starts on the canal towpath several miles further on. Having ridden the route once, I could sort out a diversion in advance if I were to do it again. Equally annoyingly, even Pearson's Canal Guide makes no reference to any change of status at that point, when that section of canal has been dry since about 1936, and judging by the overgrowth and age of the barriers, has probably been restricted for decades before other sections of the Montgomery Canal were incorporated into long distance leisure routes.

Cycling has not always been welcomed on towpaths. I can remember applying for a (free) towpath cycling permit a couple of decades ago. There were loads of terms and conditions back then.

 

[Pale Rider]

Cycling has not always been welcomed on towpaths.

That's true.

There's a section of riverside shared use path near me which is used by anglers.

They routinely barrack cyclists, and have been known to scatter hooks on the path presumably in an effort to cause punctures.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I went on my normal but longer route the other day and kept a note of barriers

I used to have to put my foot down to wiggle through barriers quite a few times on the ride
now - once I get past the pedestrian/cycle crossings on the big junction at the bottom on the road - I only have to put my foot down once

several gates seem to be left open deliberately and all the cycle barriers have been dug up and replaced with gaps big enough for wheelchairs and mobility scooters - and hence bikes!

it does make the ride more pleasent

 

[a.twiddler]

Afew days ago I came across this. The entrance to a green area amongst some fairly modern houses. Not your average zig zag barrier. it has not two, but three fence like panels to get round in passing through. It gives access to a path, and on the other side is a similar barrier.

And yet, if I'd continued a hundred yards down the road, I'd have found this. Another entrance to the same green space which is so wide as to make the other two pointless (after I'd struggled through the first one!).

There must have once been another bollard in the middle, but even if that was in place, it's still not much of a deterrent.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

The main point in these things is whether or not a mobility scooter can get through

If I have to wiggle my ebike through a bit but it is perfectly possible then that is not too bad
but I think it is silly to have barriers that prevent people on mobility scooters accessing the park!

but certainly thinking behind having different barriers to the same place that block different things is just silly

In a way it is discrimination

There is a similar problem on the "black path" behind us
by us there is a main entry to it - blocked by a gate that someone has welded a bit of metal to so it can;t be opened - judging by the quality I would say it was "just some local bloke" rather than something official
and there is a 4 foot wide gap at the side
not enough to block scrambler bikes

at the far end there are a series of 3 "A" frame types that I can get my bike through but only if I stop and wiggle it a bit

turn right and you get to the Co-Op and teh entrance up there is wide enough to get a car or van through with no attempt to block it

and there is also an unblocked entrance off the end of our road which "someone" has blocked with some bigish stones - again doesn't look official


thinking doesn't seem to be much in evidence in path design as far as I can see!

 

[Psamathe]

but I think it is silly to have barriers that prevent people on mobility scooters accessing the park!

or wheelchairs (my guess wider at least around shoulder height). Or a locked gate with a radar key as an option for the relevant authorities?

Ian

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

or wheelchairs (my guess wider at least around shoulder height). Or a locked gate with a radar key as an option for the relevant authorities?

Ian

Good Point
and that would certainly be in the relevant area for a complaint to the local council if disabled people were prevent from accessing a local amenity