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The UK has many similar pedestrian bridges crossing motorways and other major roads. There must be thousands of them throughout the country! Wherever there is a

The UK has many similar pedestrian bridges crossing motorways and other major roads. There must be thousands of them throughout the country! Wherever there is an existing right of way (ie: foot path or bridal path) you can't just block it by building a motorway or other obstruction. So usually that means building a bridge!

pm215 3y ago
True for motorways, but even on busy dual carriageways sometimes the planners just say "the footpath crosses the dual carriageway on the flat", ignoring that this comes pretty near to being an effective closure of the right of way; there are some on the A14 near me like that. This forum thread lists some other examples: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41259 https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41259
- ralferoo 3y ago
  There are a couple of instances of this on the A45 just after you leave Coventry going towards Birmingham. Some of these were later closed off entirely (the A45 has been there a long time, but some roads I used to cycle on 15 years ago and now closed). There's one or two that I would take my chance on when cycling, but there's simply no way to cross safely as a pedestrian because of the curvature of the road restricting visibility and the speed limit. One nice change is that the new road junctions to Birmingham airport now mean that there are more cycleable bridges again. As to the GP's comment, since I got a gravel bike, I've been exploring a lot of random routes that are basically underused footpaths (because they don't really go anywhere useful) that cross the motorway in delightfully over-engineered ways, for instance a narrow path through a field of crops, a stile then a nice tarmac'd two lane bridge and a stile to another field on the other side.
adolph 3y ago
Y’all even have bridges for boats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct
- dolmen 3y ago
  Also for wildlife. France: https://voyage.aprr.fr/articles/ecoponts-au-service-du-vivant https://voyage.aprr.fr/articles/ecoponts-au-service-du-vivan...
Gibbon1 3y ago
Nagging thought of mine that gets brought up by the comment that there are two overpasses on each side of it. Which is those carry car traffic which makes them dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. It would be a good idea to build more pedestrian/bicycle only overpasses one street over from the car overpasses.

pm215 3y ago

True for motorways, but even on busy dual carriageways sometimes the planners just say "the footpath crosses the dual carriageway on the flat", ignoring that this comes pretty near to being an effective closure of the right of way; there are some on the A14 near me like that. This forum thread lists some other examples: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41259 https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41259

ralferoo 3y ago
There are a couple of instances of this on the A45 just after you leave Coventry going towards Birmingham. Some of these were later closed off entirely (the A45 has been there a long time, but some roads I used to cycle on 15 years ago and now closed). There's one or two that I would take my chance on when cycling, but there's simply no way to cross safely as a pedestrian because of the curvature of the road restricting visibility and the speed limit. One nice change is that the new road junctions to Birmingham airport now mean that there are more cycleable bridges again. As to the GP's comment, since I got a gravel bike, I've been exploring a lot of random routes that are basically underused footpaths (because they don't really go anywhere useful) that cross the motorway in delightfully over-engineered ways, for instance a narrow path through a field of crops, a stile then a nice tarmac'd two lane bridge and a stile to another field on the other side.

adolph 3y ago

Y’all even have bridges for boats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct

dolmen 3y ago
Also for wildlife. France: https://voyage.aprr.fr/articles/ecoponts-au-service-du-vivant https://voyage.aprr.fr/articles/ecoponts-au-service-du-vivan...

Gibbon1 3y ago

Nagging thought of mine that gets brought up by the comment that there are two overpasses on each side of it. Which is those carry car traffic which makes them dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. It would be a good idea to build more pedestrian/bicycle only overpasses one street over from the car overpasses.