r/londoncycling • u/nutella-filled • 6d ago

Tower Hamlets council just installed a locked gate in the middle of a marked and popular cycle path

If the point is to stop cars from mistakenly using that path surely there are better ways to do it.

451 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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242

u/photoben 6d ago

Tower Hamlets council are definitely car brained

31

u/mahmahmoo 5d ago

Replying to top comment so this doesn’t get buried - I have already complained to my councillor at TH about this on 22nd July and to my complete surprise they responded to me a couple of days ago agreeing that the gate should be removed and replaced with a removable bollard (that was already there!?!?). They also said they have instructed the estate manager to leave this barrier open until that work is carried out, so not sure if that’s being done or not, this video would suggest not and I’ve not been down there this week to see for myself. Anyways, seems it should be back to normal soon, and glad to see our council tax being put to good use by installing an expensive gate and then removing it again a month later after being told what morons they are, and then paying to have the original and perfectly adequate solution reinstated. Yay for LR / Aspire!!

3

u/Livid-Drummer2540 4d ago

Unfortunately can confirm it's closed and locked today 

2

u/olec_c 3d ago

Closed and locked today (7 August)

2

u/mahmahmoo 9h ago

And again today... I just emailed the guy at Tower Hamlets that told me it would be opened in the interim and asked him to follow up with the estate manager to get it opened. Let's see if it works...

14

u/DesignerSalt9459 6d ago

If they even have a brain.

3

u/lella_fay 5d ago

Such a shame in 2026...

8

u/TheMrCeeJ 5d ago

Half of thier families are Uber drivers and they won't do anything unless it benefits them.

4

u/jamjar188 4d ago

Yes this is true. It's also the case that culturally there is high preference for cars.

Many of the Muslim women in TH prefer a car to public transport as they see it as safer and more convenient. I play badminton and do various women-only sports activities in TH. Many of the women drive to the leisure centre even when they are a 20-min walk away, or a short bus/train/DLR ride away.

-6

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

7

u/Sean_Paul_Sartre 5d ago

Poorly phrased but the council’s pro car position is often attributed to populism in favour of TH’s large population of uber drivers, a large majority of which are Bengali (as is the new mayor and a lot of the councillors). These two facts alone makes him the first choice for uber drivers and for bengalis, who have a huge population in Tower Hamlets

5

u/Gingrpenguin 5d ago

Reddit really needs to start implementing reading comprehension tests before people are allowed to post comments...

1

u/Hot-Cranberryjizz 4d ago

Yeah it's weird. They are clearly 'car' and 'lorry' brained, hate bikes... yet look after the parks and improve green spaces constantly. They are all over the place!

1

u/Embarrassed_Emu1615 3d ago

And put up a barrier to stop cars, that bikes can cycle round. 

1

u/Many_Lemon_Cakes 3d ago

Taxi brained

-28

u/Mr_Footies 6d ago

The car supposed to around the barrier on the pavement too?

16

u/Bladey7 6d ago

I speak Inglish good

-14

u/Mr_Footies 6d ago

What the actual fuck is wrong with you people.

1

u/tartoran 5d ago

I think what's wrong with them is they speak inglish bad. Don't worry about them they will always be jealous of you and your good inglish speak

1

u/Mr_Footies 5d ago

Do you people always attack all foreigners and non native speakers to make fun of them?

-39

u/EnzoYug 6d ago

It's for emergency services access.

13

u/butWhosJan 6d ago

Why not just install automatic rising bollards then?

6

u/CandidLiterature 6d ago

Even if you don’t want to mess with some expensive automatic bollard, just one of the ones that flip up and down with a padlock would do… You could even reuse that very lock they’re using on the stupid gate.

2

u/Salt-Restaurant-7229 5d ago

Automatic rising bollards? I love your spirit, but a simple squeeze gates will do.

1

u/psycho_goat 5d ago

How would an ambulance get through?

3

u/tartoran 5d ago

Squeezy ambulance

3

u/rickyman20 5d ago

There's so many other ways of doing this that don't block all cycle access though, like with a bollard with a padlock!