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news
Ramboll's illustration of Sustrans bridge to Canary WharfGovernment says cycling bridge across Thames to Canary Wharf "worth looking at"
A proposed bridge across the Thames for cyclists and pedestrians between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf is “worth looking at in more detail,” according to the government’s National Infrastructure Plan (NIP), published on Thursday.
Proposals for the bridge were first announced in 2006 by Sustrans. The plan seemed to have been dropped, but recently the sustainable transport charity said it would be launching a competition for a new design.
In October, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, responding to a question from Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, said “I do agree there should be a crossing in that area.”
He also asked her whether the planned crossing is “a sort of curly-wurly Fisher-Price thing?”
The reference to the bridge comes in a section of the NIP that outlines major infrastructure projects in London. It said:
TfL has consulted recently on options for a new river crossing in East London, with options including crossings at Woolwich, Gallions Reach and Belvedere. An interesting proposal made by Sustrans, and worth looking at in more detail, would be a new pedestrian and cycle bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf – which could be called the Brunel Bridge in tribute to one of the great figures in the history of UK infrastructure.
Besides the bridge and mention of the Cycle City Ambition scheme, there is little specific mention of cycling in the NIP, in part because in detailing the pipeline for specific infrastructure projects, it focuses on those with a value of £50 million and above.
Annette Jezierska, Senior Business Development Officer for Sustrans told road.cc: "Sustrans launched the idea of London's first major, purpose-built cycling and walking bridge over the Thames nearly a decade ago. Since then the city has changed immensely and we feel now more than ever is the time to bring it to life. We're still at an early stage for the current plans of the "Brunel Bridge" between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf, however we'll be discussing our plans, to launch a design competition, with the Mayor's office in December."
"Currently East London is starved of walking and cycling crossings, which is a shame because many trips could be easily completed by foot or bike. The Brunel Bridge would be a hugely important transport link between people's homes in Rotherhithe and the south and places of work in Canary Wharf and the City. This will enable thousands of people to get to work in a healthy and sustainable manner."
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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18 comments
1/ There are a number of people who work in Canary Wharf and live across the river in Rotherhithe. They all commute by ferry, but pray for a bridge. The bridge will make their lives so much easier, it will save them time and money.
2/ There are a lot of new homes being built in Rotherhithe. Most people who move there are young professionals working north of the river. The bridge will make them better connected to the other part of London.
3/ The bridge will make Rotherhithe more lively, attractive to live in, and it will help local businesses.
I really hope the construction goes forward.
Mmm that would be nice... have been working in Tower Hamlets since September, I got so tired of carrying bike plus pannier plus violin upstairs in Greenwich when the lifts broke last time, and it would free me to use speedy bike without trashing shoes walking under river on no-violin days
Funny, the delay of the walk annoyed me to begin with, so I started off scooting it, but as this term progressed, I sort of came to terms with it and am now quite happy walking and look down on the naughty cyclists!
Having lived nearby (in the recent past) I can tell you waiting for Tower bridge to raise and lower is a lot less of a wait than the waiting for the DLR (or a river boat) to get across the river. A bridge at Rotherhithe to CW would be well supported by the local cycling community and well worth the tax to pay for it
) ramps rather than decrepit stairs/broken elevator
While we are at it...... Greenwhich tunnel needs a re-bore out to 4 lanes (two cycling, two walking with some 21st century (AD or BC
Having lived nearby (in the recent past) I can tell you waiting for Tower bridge to raise and lower is a lot less of a wait than the waiting for the DLR (or a river boat) to get across the river. A bridge at Rotherhithe to CW would be well supported by the local cycling community and well worth the tax to pay for it
) ramps rather than decrepit stairs/broken elevator
While we are at it...... Greenwhich tunnel needs a re-bore out to 4 lanes (two cycling, two walking with some 21st century (AD or BC
Cycling in London is also strongly biased towards commuting, I think it's safe to say that this use case would meet that description. A ferry or train service can be quite difficult to match against such a need. Even today the DLR doesn't allow bicycles during commuting hours, only during off-peak travel.
Some form of swing bridge sounds preferable to me, but I don't know enough about the river traffic. Presumably the river is managed so that large ships don't need to pass at peak commuting hours?
The tide decides when the river traffic moves
Ah, yes, that's so obvious now you say it!
After I posted I checked on Tower Bridge, and they publish their opening times in advance - http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/lift-times/
That's not too disruptive, and I personally think that waiting occasionally might be preferable to a steep climb every day. If opening can be banned for at least the morning between 8->9am, that would avoid the worst problem, which is the risk of arriving late at work.
That's because the public transport planners have antediluvian mindsets. They're supposed to be running a public transport service, so if 25% or more of the commuters are on bikes and need to get across the river more easily then the planners should arrange to meet that need with bike coaches on shuttle trains and ferries, instead of pretending we don't exist
Or a bridge!
They aren't, but about half are coming from south of the river and need to cross.
How do you cost justify the building of any bridge? One has to assume that on average a cycle commuter contributes at least as much as any other commuter to the economy. A bridge designed for pedestrians and cyclists will be cheaper to build than one for motorised vehicles because it doesn't have the same load bearing needs. A cycle bridge is therefore probably easier to cost justify.
Nope. Trust me, I'm a seasoned bike/train commuter and as soon as you add a dependency on a scheduled service as part of your commute you add a level of complexity and frustration into the equation. You have to meet their schedule which removes the freedom of when you can decide to travel, and with the rail service, their appalling punctuality means they seldom meet your schedule.
I've no idea how to cost justify a bridge, but Boris has asked for a business case, so somebody thinks they can do it. I'm not opposed to a new bike crossing per se, but I think there are better cycling things to spend my tax on. If there's a business case for it let the banks and the bike shops pay for it - it sounds as though they're the ones who'll gain.
Our bike shop opened 6 months ago on Isle of Dogs and we are making inroads with the banks on the Wharf. Some of the banks have garages with 400-600 bikes parked and they tell us its growing every season.
I have no idea if these cycle commuters are crossing the river or coming in from the north side of the river. I commute every day from NW onto the Isle and there's no shortage of people on bikes coming in from different directions on the north side of the river. Road traffic can be horrendous and the new development just green lighted will only make this worse.
I've used the Greenwich tunnel a number of times recreationally and its a pain to walk in road cleats. See quite a lot of cyclists doing the same on Saturday and Sunday I've used it after getting coffee in Greenwich and crossing to get onto the Isle.
So yet another crossing West of the Blackwall. Any chance of any Politicos noticing the large population East of Blackwall that might want/need to travel North-South rather than just radially?
No? Didn't think so!
A cycle bridge at Canary Wharf is a great idea.
At present the only ways to cross the Thames in that area is to risk exposure to CO, NO2 and PM10 particles caused by exhausts in the Rotherhithe tunnel, or use the Greenwich foot tunnel.
Neither options are good for cyclists. Rotherhithe tunnel for obvious reasons and the foot tunnel must be walked which makes it unsuitable for cleated shoes. Then there's the lifts! I haven't used the foot tunnel for at least a year now, but I used to be a daily user and unless they have fixed the reliability of the lifts, expect to port your bike up or down one of the stairwells at either end. Doable, but not a great option for those with panniers or touring loads.
There's also a foot tunnel and a ferry at Woolwich, and the cable car on the peninsula. You can also now take your bike on the DLR to cross the river - that also involves lifts and escalators and recently they were out of action for several months. And there are underwater overground trains between Rotherhithe and Wapping.
A bridge over the river somewhere between Rotherhithe and Greenwich would have to be very high so that river traffic, including bloody great big things like aircraft carriers, could pass underneath, or would have to open like Tower Bridge. In either case there will be lifts and stairs, or escalators, and no reason to suppose that any lifts will be more reliable than those at the foot tunnel.
I live in Greenwich, so crossing the river isn't an issue for me. The longest bike ride you'd have to make from any point on one side of the river to the other between Tower Bridge and Greenwich is about 6 miles, which is not much for a cyclist, although obviously a bigger deal on foot.
I don't believe there will ever be an economic case for a cyclists and pedestrians bridge in that stretch, and I don't think I'd be happy to have my tax money spent on it, so if it ever gets built it I think it would be somebody's vanity project.
Come to Hull, there is a 1mile stretch of the A63, called Castle Street, that is going to be placed in a cut within the next few years if the Government doesn't renage again,because of 4 unsyncronised pedestrian crossings. It has no cycle paths or Toucan crossings,neither of which are included in the plans for the cut, which is due to be built below the water table in a flood area so will no doubt flood. Now that will be a waste of money.
I disagree. Canary Wharf is the 2nd most travelled commute destination in London after the City, and given the fact that each of its office towers holds the population of a small town, it may well be the 2nd most travelled commute in the UK. It certainly has the commute volume to merit a solution. Experience in Holland and Denmark shows that if you want to encourage people on to bikes you need to make cycling the path of least resistance in terms of convenience. None of the existing methods of crossing the river at that point do that.
You have a point with the shipping requirements but if a swing/cantilever bridge could be built of sufficient height to allow most craft to pass underneath and only be activated at about the same frequency as Tower Bridge it would be a good option.
I don't think those commuters are all coming from the same place, on bicycles. The number that matters is how many would cyclocommute via a new crossing. My bike commute takes me over Blackfriars Bridge and I learned recently that about 25% of commuters using that bridge are cyclists, which is a very impressive number, and they all overtake me. So perhaps the numbers using a new crossing would be high but I'd still be amazed if the numbers justified the cost of a bridge.
And a bridge would be no more convenient than something like a fast, frequent ferry on one of the clippers, or a special bike carriage on the trains, or even a cyclists' shuttle train between Rotherhithe and Wapping because the height of such a bridge, swinging or not, would require lifts, escalators, stairs and/or a curly-wurly ramp which would be a serious pinch-point, bringing the commute to a stress-inducing halt.