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Glasgow City Councillor Matt Kerr said: "The council recognises that cycling has an import role to play in contributing to the health and well being of those who live, work and visit the city and therefore something which we should invest in.
"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-15005067
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"Cycle role for Glasgow's bridge to nowhere"
(24 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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The last I heard about this there was a problem with the owners of the land at the eastern end.
There is a new bit of segregated track near the Cross which is fairly ridiculous. It seems designed to force us to take two lefts and two rights instead of going straight through the cross. I haven't seen the Green - Parkhead route but I knew it was on the way from reading a councillor's web page.
Posted 12 years ago # -
bridge to nowhere.....run valparaiso style video !
Posted 12 years ago # -
For anyone not familiar with the bridge, it's this one:
that ends with a rather splended ski jump into a car park.
Posted 12 years ago # -
The Sustrans site has more info; this was one of their Connect2 projects.
And the Wikipedia page clears up some confusion for me in that "The bridge to nowhere is a nickname given to two unfinished structures" (my emphasis).
That is, it refers not only to the Anderston Footbridge (what we're talking about) and the Charing Cross Podium (Office block on stilts).Ah, lovely.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Charing Cross Podium didn't have an office block on it at one time. Literally it looked like a bit of motorway flyover that was surplus to requirements. Whether it was or not, I have no idea!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Opinions vary. If it was a bit of motorway I'm not sure where it would have gone to/from. There is still a missing bit of the original motorway plan but it's nowhere near Sauchiehall St. It would have gone up the north east to Springburn.
The wiki piece misses out the other unfinished bit at the southern end of the Kingston bridge. You might be able to see two ramps ending in mid air just west of the green area:
The two ramps fall short of the M74 extension. I can't see an easy way to go south across the bridge and then east on the new bit of M74 and I don't think it's easy to go west on the M74 and then north on the Kingston Bridge so that might have been what these bits were made for. OTOH I can't think of a reason why you would want to do that outwith access to/from Rutherglen/Cambuslang. You can do that using the M8 east and then M73/74 south if you don't want to go through town. The town routes aren't difficult or busy for the most part.
My dear old chums Fat Kev and Baldy were once caught on the podium around 1985. The cops correctly assumed that they were students and told them to get down.
Posted 12 years ago # -
...so that might have been what these bits were made for.
Maybe the links in this older post will help?
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=3060#post-32378
Opinions vary. If it was a bit of motorway I'm not sure where it would have gone to/from.
On Pathetic Motorways, there's a comment about it, saying:
"...the building is actually on a bridge [which was] part of another of those wonderful 60s schemes. This one had the bright idea of getting traffic off Sauchiehall Street by running an elevated dual carriageway the full length and leaving a nice bright airy shopping precinct beneath ... The bridge was constructed prior to everyone sobering up and was, in the true spirit of Glasgow bridges entirely unconnected to anything at its finished level."
This is, of course, completely contrary to what the Wikipedia entry says!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Now that's sort of interesting. It looks like the current M74 does run further south from where the original plan had it. The north/south road in the east never happened but there is currently something going in from around Parkhead to the London Rd/Ally Parade area.
Posted 12 years ago # -
As well as the gradient there is a considerable height gain on this bridge. It could be avoided by crossing under the motorway beside Anderson train station. That would put you in Argyle St. The bridge seems to have its eastern end in a hotel car park.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
OpenStreetMap Alba (@OSMScotland)
08/07/2013 13:50http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/185756882
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Posted 10 years ago # -
I read that it took one to Central station, seems to be nowhere near it to my eye!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Neither the road bridge to nowhere that had the offices built on top nor the footbridge took you to central station but certainly in that direction if heading east, both close to Anderston bus station? The footbridge does take you over the motorway so it is less of a bridge to nowhere than the original bit of road which wasn't connected to anything.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I read that it took one to Central station, seems to be nowhere near it to my eye!
It's only a third of a mile from the end of the new (bit of) bridge to Central. The connecting cycle lane along Waterloo Street runs east almost to the junction with Hope Street, but a Toucan crossing is missing there to let cyclists get across to the side entrance of the station. Tulyar and I had a look at it all yesterday.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It's open now. And yes, there are segregated cycle lanes along Waterloo Street from the bridge to Central Station. There are also segregated cycle lanes for most of the distance between the bridge and Kelvingrove Park. All signalled junctions along the route have a traffic light phase specifically for cyclists.
I often get very angry at the lack of progress on cycling in this country, but this really is progress. It's not perfect, but it is a good piece of infrastructure and I'm delighted that it's there.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Getting from west end to central as student was always tricky. I often pushed it through charging cross, also if on a Sunday night doing return I would cycle through sauciehall st as no pedestrians around but this would be illegal. So if this is proper safe cycling route that is finally progress.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It's only a third of a mile from the end of the new (bit of) bridge to Central.
Sir,
You expect me to cycle 1/3 of a mile?!
I remain your humble servant &c,
Sceptical of Bute House
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
A bridge over Glasgow's M8 which has been left unfinished since the 1970s has finally been completed.
...
Big Lottery Fund cash was used to complete the project.
"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23218784
40 years and it has to wait for Lottery funding.
Bit pathetic really.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Posted 10 years ago #
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Wouldn't it be excellent if Edinburgh and Glasgow cooncils got into a cycling infrastructure war of one-upmanship, instead of trying to out-do eachother with naff marketing campaigns.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@kaputnik: Indeed!
I'm daring to hope that this project will raise the game. There is NOTHING quite like it anywhere else in Scotland and its superior quality is immediately apparent.
Glasgow is planning a new cycle route through the Tradeston area of the city. It's early days, but it will be "segregated from traffic". Also, Frank McAveety wants the Sighthill area, which is to be completely redeveloped, to meet Dutch standards of cycle-friendly provision. I'm not suggesting that Glasgow is doing enough (far from it), but I *am* pleased to see that the council does not consider the Connect2 segregated cycle lanes a one-off.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Speaking at the official unveiling Councillor Frank McAveety, Glasgow's "cycling tsar" reiterated his aim to lobby for further segregated cycle lanes to be introduced across the city, a view point echoed by fellow councillor Archie Graham, executive member for the Commonwealth Games.
"We are putting in segregated cycle lanes in other parts of Glasgow too, places like London Road and the route out to Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails," said Councillor Graham. "People feel a lot safer if they are segregated from the buses, lorries and all the other motor vehicles. That is the way forward for us and we are going to be putting in a host of segregated cycle lanes over the coming months and years.
Dependent on funding from Sustrans and the Big Lottery, he said, Glasgow City Council will endeavour to "put in another few miles of segregated cycle lanes every couple of years until we have the entire city covered".
"It's a big ask to expect people to cycle along the main roads in the city centre where there is lots of buses and lorries," he added. "I definitely believe providing segregated lanes will result in a huge increase in the number of people who are happy to cycle. We are heading in the right direction to become a city where cyclists are in the majority rather than the minority."
Posted 10 years ago # -
I know there is currently a parking enforcement problem to sort out, but even so this does seem like quite a momentous step on the way to Scotland being a more civilised country. I'm encouraged.
Posted 10 years ago #
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