Humber Bridge closed to cycling and pedestrians

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Poacher

Gravitationally challenged member
Location
Nottingham
I do wonder why people go across to Barton-on-Humber to sightsee: there's not much there apart from the nature reserve. And I've nothing against the place; my grand-mother came from the town.
A couple of interesting churches, one anglo-saxon and one norman?
 
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craigwend

craigwend

Grimpeur des terrains plats
For those of you not a member of Cycling UK here is the letter sent to the Humber Bridge Authority. I do hope they sort it soon its a good 100 miler for me, I have various routes some with with a fair bit of off road riding.
Would you know if they've had a response?
 

Venod

Eh up
Location
Yorkshire
Response to CUK and further question from CUK to the Bridge Authority.
 

Attachments

  • 21-04-15_dd_humberbridgeboard_let.pdf
    167.1 KB · Views: 11
  • cycling_uk_hbb_letter_130421.pdf
    62.3 KB · Views: 9
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craigwend

craigwend

Grimpeur des terrains plats
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/new...kCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
584302
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
Since the bridge was built in 1974, 200 people have jumped. 5 have survived. That is roughly 5 people a year. In March alone this year 6 people jumped and that is what the paths to be closed. I remember on woman jumped with her 2 children and one guy jumped from the bridge onto the dual carriageway below. People have been talking about caging the bridge or putting a net under it. They did this on the Golden Gate Bridge in 2014. It is 500m longer than the Humber Bridge and cost £54 million to put a net under it. There would be a feel good factor for the Humber Bridge board if they spent this money and stopped people jumping off the bridge. But suicide numbers would not decrease as Hull has other bridges, train stations and a whole host of other ways of killing yourself... What annoyed a lot of people is that they closed the bridge with no thought of those who need to cross it to get to work by foot or bike and made no provision for them. I have not seen how many people actually commute over the bridge this way. Very few I would imagine. Hopefully a solution will be found. But I do not think throwing millions of pounds at it is the answer. I am sure some lessons can be learned from the Golden Gate Bridge.
 
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craigwend

craigwend

Grimpeur des terrains plats
Sadly - In 2009 there was a solution found which would have cost £4.5 million, never actioned...

https://archive.is/20130505080143/h...cide-bids/article-1644192-detail/article.html

There are also estimates the 200 number is much lower than the actual number who have committed suicide off the bridge. A friend of mine a young colleague of his, they found his car on the south side, though they couldn't find any video of him on the bridge / doing it.
 
Since the bridge was built in 1974, 200 people have jumped. 5 have survived. That is roughly 5 people a year. In March alone this year 6 people jumped and that is what the paths to be closed. I remember on woman jumped with her 2 children and one guy jumped from the bridge onto the dual carriageway below. People have been talking about caging the bridge or putting a net under it. They did this on the Golden Gate Bridge in 2014. It is 500m longer than the Humber Bridge and cost £54 million to put a net under it. There would be a feel good factor for the Humber Bridge board if they spent this money and stopped people jumping off the bridge. But suicide numbers would not decrease as Hull has other bridges, train stations and a whole host of other ways of killing yourself... What annoyed a lot of people is that they closed the bridge with no thought of those who need to cross it to get to work by foot or bike and made no provision for them. I have not seen how many people actually commute over the bridge this way. Very few I would imagine. Hopefully a solution will be found. But I do not think throwing millions of pounds at it is the answer. I am sure some lessons can be learned from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Round here the Silver Jubilee Bridge between Widnes and Runcorn has been closed for 3 years - only fully re-opened fairly recently
While the footway was closed - which was for about 2 years - the Local Authority provided a bus service to take anyone who wanted to go across round to the far side using the new Mersey Gateway bridge
Bikes could be taken as well
This seems like a reasonable temporary solution - until a permanent solution can be implemented
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
Sadly - In 2009 there was a solution found which would have cost £4.5 million, never actioned...

https://archive.is/20130505080143/h...cide-bids/article-1644192-detail/article.html

There are also estimates the 200 number is much lower than the actual number who have committed suicide off the bridge. A friend of mine a young colleague of his, they found his car on the south side, though they couldn't find any video of him on the bridge / doing it.
Even if it higher and I doubt if it is much higher. It is not the responsibility of the Humber Bridge board to prevent people from jumping. The bridge is perfectly safe for what it was designed for. It is a pity that a few individuals are forcing the hand of the board.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
CUK have a thing on their website about it
https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/humber-bridge-reopens-cyclists-and-pedestrians


Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, commented: “For over a month the Humber Bridge has been closed to all pedestrians, and anyone cycling except those commuter cyclists who managed to get through a cumbersome registration process, so the reopening is welcome progress. But the tragic loss of life along the bridge has been a chronic problem for more than a decade, requiring investment in long-term infrastructure and intervention measures. Banning people on foot or a bike from crossing the bridge was only ever a knee-jerk reaction which didn’t address the causes or long-term solutions.

"Cycling UK hopes that the Humber Bridge Board will at last recognise the importance of maintaining cycle and pedestrian access whilst improving suicide prevention measures, and if they must have a registration system for people to cross out of hours, make it simple and easily accessible, with registration and other restrictions being time limited rather than permanent."
 
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