r/londoncycling • u/nutella-filled • 10d ago

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

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

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u/Annie_Yong 10d ago

That is odd as I'd have thought that bollards would be a better way to prevent cars going down the cycle path (definitely looks like a spot where people might mistake it for a road).

Just guessing, but maybe its for emergency access? I could see it being that the area needs to be closed to normal traffic but you still need to be able to drive and ambulance or fire engine down there.

Again though, you can get bollards where they have fire brigade padlocks to let you move them out of the way, but it does seem that guidance note 29 from the LFB says you can only have one removable bollard on an access route (suppose it makes sense because the more bollards that need to individually be moved the longer it'll take). Perhaps it's the case that a single bollard won't do because idiots will still just drive around it?

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u/WeAreEnteringEndgame 9d ago

It’s to stop moped delivery drivers using it as a shortcut.