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£5.9m pedestrian and cycle bridge opened in Reading with game of Pooh SticksReading pedestrian and cycle bridge (image taken from YouTube video)

£5.9m pedestrian and cycle bridge opened in Reading with game of Pooh Sticks

Reading Cycling Campaign express wish for separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists
by Alex Bowden
Wed, Sep 30, 2015 17:54
10

A new £5.9m bridge for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the River Thames in Reading has been officially opened. Mayor of Reading, Councillor Sarah Hacker, marked the occasion by playing an inaugural game of Pooh Sticks.

Work started on the 123-metre bridge with its 37-metre high mast in October. Linking Caversham to Norman Place and Reading Station, it was paid for using the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) which has also given rise to the ReadyBike hire scheme in the town.

The bridge features 234 LED lights and deputy leader of Reading Borough Council, Tony Page, told Get Reading that he was excited by the prospect of people coming to see it lit up at night. He also pointed out that the bridge was at present without a name.

“An important part of the process for finding the right name for the bridge is that people experience and use it. The council feels strongly the name should be either related to local historical events, or something relevant to the local surroundings. Names relating to key people or events in Reading’s history help to give residents a sense of place. We are sure there are many more examples out there and invite the public to come forward with other suggestions.”

From today, people can either comment on the names already put forward or come up with their own suggestions via a page on the council’s website. The deadline for responses is December 18 and the council will then select a shortlist of up to six names for a public vote early in the New Year.

Reading Cycling Campaign welcomed the opening, but told the BBC that they would like to have seen segregated lanes for cyclists and pedestrians.

One bridge that will presumably not be opened with a game of Pooh Sticks is the Garden Bridge further up river. The game is one of 28 prohibited activities in a list that also includes 'making speeches' and 'releasing balloons'.

Reading
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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10 comments

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skaterboy | 8 years ago
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New Strava segment up for grabs!

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ct | 8 years ago
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Out of interest, does anyone know how wide the bridge bed is? We have a similar looking bridge down the road, sadly when it was built in the dim distant past it was only installed with a 1.5 metre wide bed (if that) and had [and still has] blue oblong 'Cyclist Dismount' signs at each end...

Causes no end of challenges...

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Kadinkski | 8 years ago
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Grrr....bridges. We hate bridges. We hate them with gardens and no cycle lanes and we hate them with cycle lanes and no gardens. Grrr. Etc.

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P3t3 | 8 years ago
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I never liked the scheme, a single flagship scheme like this is never going to make any difference to cycling numbers and is a lot of money. But having cycled over it last night, its a nice bridge.

Its shared use which is not good but all the access routes are shared as well and it very specifically isn't part of a strategy to provide for cycling. It connects to the area round the station which is the same: loads of room therefore shared use. I think it was originally a walking bridge that they couldn't quite manage to stop bikes using. Reading cycling campaign might be negative and tired but its hard to describe how anti cycling Reading council and specifically Tony Page really are.

If you had 5.9 million and were serious about cycling in Reading then there are lots of things you would do first, bridge capacity (for cycling) is not really a problem, they just need to be a bit more inventive to utilize whats there to reduce the river/road/rail line severance problem in that area.

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CStar replied to P3t3 | 8 years ago
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P3t3 wrote:

I never liked the scheme, a single flagship scheme like this is never going to make any difference to cycling numbers and is a lot of money. But having cycled over it last night, its a nice bridge.

Its shared use which is not good but all the access routes are shared as well and it very specifically isn't part of a strategy to provide for cycling. It connects to the area round the station which is the same: loads of room therefore shared use. I think it was originally a walking bridge that they couldn't quite manage to stop bikes using. Reading cycling campaign might be negative and tired but its hard to describe how anti cycling Reading council and specifically Tony Page really are.

If you had 5.9 million and were serious about cycling in Reading then there are lots of things you would do first, bridge capacity (for cycling) is not really a problem, they just need to be a bit more inventive to utilize whats there to reduce the river/road/rail line severance problem in that area.

To be fair they are pretty anti-car and everything else, except buses. This obviously has nothing to do with the Council owning the local bus company.

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geargrinderbeard | 8 years ago
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Who wants all those elderly and disabled people strutting about on level pavements like they own the place!!! 26

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skaterboy | 8 years ago
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Positive comment from Reading cycle campaign, as ever!

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bobbypuk | 8 years ago
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5.9m could have done a lot more for some sort of Local Sustainable Transport. RBCs spending of this money has been a joke. We've got enormous traffic signs saying which car parks are full that occasionally say "Ride a Bike". We've got a bike hire scheme that completely ignores anything west of the town centre. They've replaced pavements and cleaned statues. Pretty much anything except cycling or walking infrastructure.

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bikecellar | 8 years ago
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Best of luck with the Separate lanes it never worked on Gatesheads Millennium Bridge (despite the local authorities best efforts) and became ped lane on one side shared use on the other.

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hawkinspeter | 8 years ago
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I'm in two minds about separate lanes for cyclists and pedestrians. Separate lanes can work well for long stretches where pedestrians can learn to stay on their side, but for short stretches having no lanes can force cyclists to moderate their speed and expectations.

When there's separate lanes, I find that I get less tolerant of pedestrians even though they have priority (on either side of the line, no less). Where there's just a shared path with no lanes, I go slower and am far more observant of the peds to watch out for those erratic walkers and feel less aggravated with their lack of awareness.

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