Spen valley way A644 crossing: why toucan rather than existing ?bridge

[SA_SA_SA]

Where the spen valley greenway crosses the A644 Huddersfield road ( on a bridge) for some strange reason the (not very well signed when approaching from West) westsideofbridge fork onto the calder valley crosses the A644 at grade, rather than use the bridge then have an(other) fork on the east side... There is an toucan to cross the A644 but no shared use signs I could see to get to it (googleearth shows them so were they added/removed/I missed them?).... but anyway surely an eastside ramp would be cheaper with less maintenance (toucan sensors etc) than 20,000ish pounds of leccy consuming puffinish-toucan?

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.681375,-1.6515404,22z

[rogerzilla]

Why not ask the council? But if there has to be a ped crossing anyway, making it a toucan would be far cheaper than building a ramp.

[jb]

Sorry, lost interest when I zoomed into your map, saw my Grandma's old house and went off on a trip down memory lane. There were certainly no cycling lanes at all back then.

[thirdcrank]

What prompted this query? Although I live only a few miles from this location I had no input into this.

I fancy that the location of the toucan may be something of a coincidence and evidence of a lack of joined-up thinking. I think the cycle route was intended to go straight over the bridge

On a personal note, in the run up to retirement in 1997 I unsuccessfully applied for a job at Kirklees Highways for a job managing the CCTV which was all the rage in those days. The chair of the interviewing panel was the head honcho of the highways department and he was interested in my opinions as a cyclist. He asked me what I thought of the Greenway and I didn't impress him when I said that as I'd be cycle commuting Leeds - Huddersfield on the A62, a leisure route from Ravensthorpe to the outskirts of Bradford was no use to me. (It wasn't that that lost me the job.)

IIRC, the cycle farcilities on the A62 and A644 came a bit later - when Two Jags was paying highway authorities by length of cycle lane installed on a "never mind the quality ..." basis." I've posted before about cycle lanes on those roads which narrow alongside traffic islands.

[Tigerbiten]

Don't know the area, so I'm working off maps and street view.
Looks like from the north the cycle track splits in two just before the bridge.
One arm goes over the bridge and then on to the canal.
The other arm goes down an incline to the toucan, then a left/right and on the the route beside the river.
That the only point it can come down because once over the bridge there's a factory and then a river to your left.

Luck.........

[SA_SA_SA]

What prompted this query? Although I live only a few miles from this location I had no input into this.

I fancy that the location of the toucan may be something of a coincidence and evidence of a lack of joined-up thinking. I think the cycle route was intended to go straight over the bridge

On a personal note, in the run up to retirement in 1997 I unsuccessfully applied for a job at Kirklees Highways for a job managing the CCTV which was all the rage in those days. The chair of the interviewing panel was the head honcho of the highways department and he was interested in my opinions as a cyclist. He asked me what I thought of the Greenway and I didn't impress him when I said that as I'd be cycle commuting Leeds - Huddersfield on the A62, a leisure route from Ravensthorpe to the outskirts of Bradford was no use to me. (It wasn't that that lost me the job.)

IIRC, the cycle farcilities on the A62 and A644 came a bit later - when Two Jags was paying highway authorities by length of cycle lane installed on a "never mind the quality ..." basis." I've posted before about cycle lanes on those roads which narrow alongside traffic islands.

What prompted it was coming across it on the way to York (and missing the turn off , cycling over bridge then retracing steps and coming across toucan)

[thirdcrank]

Thanks

I've had a good think and I cannot remember much besides what I've already posted. I have a feeling - and nothing more - that the Greenway (which preceded Sustrans) began at this bridge. I fancy that the route beyond the bridge ie heading east was part of the later Sustrans route which goes round the houses into Dewsbury avoiding the much more direct A644.

Sorry I can't do better - perhaps somebody who knows more may post