Barriers to accessible travel

[whole diary]

[CyclingSid]

York Cycle Campaign have shared some specimen letters if there are problems with barriers across cycle paths etc https://yorkcyclecampaign.bike/2021/03/20/taking-legal-action-on-barriers/

[eightonedee]

While I sympathise with the person who has written this article, I can also see the council's dilemma. There is a problem with use of cycle ways by motorcycles (especially the type that are bought for children) and in some parts of the country by invalid scooters that are bought and used by able-bodied folk as fun vehicles (yes, really!). No doubt these measures were implemented after complaints about such use, with no-one thinking about the minority of cyclists for whom pushing their bike backwards a short distance or lifting it over a low barrier would be a problem. To be fair, it would not immediately have occurred to me.

[Bmblbzzz]

Potentially useful to many, thanks for posting.

[Ralph Ayres]

I ended up on a main road rather than a cycle path this weekend thanks to being unable to get a trailer full of stuff for the tip through several of these; I'd have had to empty the trailer, detach it from the bike and take it through on its side then reverse the process at each one.

These barriers so often end up being counter-productive.  They can make a path seem unwelcoming and even threatening, and certainly in my area are often dismantled - presumably by trail-bike riders or similar who come tooled-up for the job with an angle-grinder or similar. The forlorn remains of the barrier then looks even worse.  Unless they are virtually impossible for anyone to get through even with a normal bike, a couple of joyrider types can normally manage to get a motorbike through by working together, and few barriers would stop the child's version with the sort of parent who buys that sort of toy determined to get it through.

The real answer is proper enforcement of the rules, though in an era when our various public services seem more concerned with saying it's not their responsibility than taking it I agree that's not easy. If it's happening often enough to be a problem the police shouldn't have to wait long to catch someone.  Encouraging more use of the paths by legitimate users (ie removing physical and metaphorical barriers) will also help as a busy path is less attractive to those up to no good. 

[Bmblbzzz]

You don't have to be pulling a trailer, or with a child, or riding a trike or tandem, or disabled for these barriers to cause you problems. I've had difficulty using the Stratford-on-Avon Greenway (which follows the former Honeybourne to Stratford line) on a touring bike. There are kissing gates every so often, which you can't get through with panniers – too wide. So you use the horse side, which has a stepping barrier (old sleepers) but these are too high to wheel a bike over and once again, with loaded panniers, it's all a bit too heavy. So you have to remove and then refit the panniers, which shouldn't be necessary on something designated for cycling: would we accept something that made you empty your car boot every mile or two on roads? But it's not even against the law to discriminate against people riding bikes with panniers or trailers or kiddy seats, as long as they're able-bodies.

As for motorbikes, yes, I have seen them on the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. The burn out remains of them. Only ever seen one being ridden and even it was being ridden carefully.