Removal of anti-cycling gates. How?

[ferdinand]

So, on my circuit this morning I counted the number of these (or the Notts/Derby version):



(Picture stolen from a similar thread here).

In my 15 mile circuit there were about 15-16, but I can make that more like 22 by a slight variation of route, and perhaps 30% of the route was on road, and another 30-40% on an excellent trail along a former railway. There is one particular section of perhaps a mile which forms a route for several thousand people from their houses to our town centre and main suopermarket, avoiding some dodgy roads and at least one box junction, which has a number of these, a flight of steps up a bank, and at least 2 chicanes that I can't cycle through on my hybrid.

I think our Council (Ashfield) has a typical "positive to cycling" policy in place, and to be fair has done a good job of re-purposing former pit railways as bridleways and creating Country Parks (and visitor centres with cafes, butties, and lots of scones. Oink.). Our Local MP is Gloria de Piero, a Labour front bench equalities-wallah, who does not take a *particular* interest in cycling.

Does anyone have any practical experience of getting these removed? How did you do it? Is it written up anywhere? Suspect a lot of hard work is involved, involving residents, dog walkers, police and council research etc.

Do I need to get some Councillors involved? We do have a particularly active Lib Dem candidate / party who reduced the Lab Parl. majority to under 200 last time, so the time may be opportune.

I'm quite tempted to try and get the local paper to do a video short about a parent and sprog going shopping with a trailer down this particular cycle path. It would be fun, and may make a small difference.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Ferdinand

[mjr]

Start at http://www.fixMyStreet.com and don't take no for an answer. Use any briefings from CTC and Sustrans about barriers. Challenge them to explain what problem they're trying to prevent and whether those barriers prevent it (my argument that no barrier can block motorcycles without blocking common cycles is on the other thread).

An equalities-wallah as an MP may be useful because blocking some types of bike from an off-road route may be discrimination (although it's a clearer argument when they block trikes and recumbents, which those A-gates usually don't).

Contacting your councillors may be useful, especially once you get the first brush-off or get ignored by officers. http://www.writeToThem.com may help. You should also be able to ask a question in council if you're getting nowhere: combining that with some press activity can be effective.

Coordinate with your local cycle campaigns. I expect there's a way to find the CTC campaigner on http://www.ctc.org.uk and I know there's a way to find your nearest CN group at http://www.cyclenation.org.uk (under Get Involved)

Fellow riders are starting to have success getting them removed locally, as you can read at http://www.klwnbug.co.uk/2014/09/11/gre ... portunity/

I'm going to start work on another set now. Let's see who succeeds first!

[ferdinand]

Are such groups best organised on a local authority or community base?

What is the experience of others?

Thanks

F

[Mistik-ka]

This is noble work, and will be much appreciated by cycle tourists from other countries. If you have councillors involved in the tourist and service industries, it may interest them to know that cyclists such as Mrs. M-k and I now plan our travels to avoid cycle paths and the communities through which they run because of the unpredictable barricades ("tandem traps" we call them) which make progress slow, inconvenient, frustrating, frequently painful … and sometimes flatly impossible.

[gaz]

Previous thread that may provide some insights: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=78304

[MartinC]

...............Does anyone have any practical experience of getting these removed?..............

An angle grinder is usually very effective in dismantling this sort of construction.

[Si]

I am led to believe that one local to me was removed by a gentleman with a hacksaw. His excuse was that it was stopping his disabled wife getting her wheelchair into the park. When the council heard this, instead of going after him they removed the one at the other end of the park.

[Mark1978]

God speed in your quest!

I suspect when the council is done with their excuses as to why the barriers are there, the last resort will be that they don't have the resources to do the removal work. Or they'll promise a 'study'.

[Mark1978]

I guess a good starting point to your campaign will be to get some good mapping 1:25,000 perhaps - you can view it at http://maps.bing.com/ then mark on the map the location of every gate - and it's type, in your local area. It's quite possible even the council won't have this information.

From there you can show if the gating is excessive or not or if it exists for any good reason.

[Redvee]

There is a barrier like this on a new stretch of cyclepath linking the B2B path with Yate. When it was first installed the width of the opening was far too narrow for my shoulders to pass through on the bike, after much exchanging of emails etc with the local council their response was that whilst the path was still under construction the gate would be set narrow but widened to a suitable width once the path was fully constructed.
The gate in question was a much simpler design with a bolted adjustable frame opposed to what looks like a fixed welded frame in the OPs pic and increasing the width of the opening was just a question of undoing a couple of bolts on each side.

[Psamathe]

I would try and establish the reasons why they were installed in the 1st place before trying to get them removed. Whoever put them in must have had a reason (as they would have had to justify the expenditure). If you are going to argue for their removal you have to argue against the original reasons. No point is saying they should be removed because of <x> and <y> when the council (or whoever) replies "true but they were installed because of <z>".

Then, when you know why they were installed, depending on the reason you have to work out your counter argument, probably that either the situation/requirements have since changed or that the original reasons were wrong.

Ian

[Mark1978]

I would try and establish the reasons why they were installed in the 1st place before trying to get them removed. Whoever put them in must have had a reason (as they would have had to justify the expenditure). If you are going to argue for their removal you have to argue against the original reasons. No point is saying they should be removed because of <x> and <y> when the council (or whoever) replies "true but they were installed because of <z>".

Then, when you know why they were installed, depending on the reason you have to work out your counter argument, probably that either the situation/requirements have since changed or that the original reasons were wrong.

Ian

That assumes there is a rational reason in the first place for that location? I would imagine for many it's just "This is being designated a cycle path, therefore gates need to be installed" with no more thought process than that?

[mjr]

I guess a good starting point to your campaign will be to get some good mapping 1:25,000 perhaps - you can view it at http://maps.bing.com/ then mark on the map the location of every gate - and it's type, in your local area. It's quite possible even the council won't have this information.

The councils don't have this information - or at least, they can't extract it from their records in reasonable time. I'd suggest marking them on http://www.cyclestreets.org/photomap/ (if you have photos) or http://www.cyclescape.org (if you want to track it) or http://openstreetmap.org (if you just want it on a base map)

[Mark1978]

I guess a good starting point to your campaign will be to get some good mapping 1:25,000 perhaps - you can view it at http://maps.bing.com/ then mark on the map the location of every gate - and it's type, in your local area. It's quite possible even the council won't have this information.

The councils don't have this information - or at least, they can't extract it from their records in reasonable time. I'd suggest marking them on http://www.cyclestreets.org/photomap/ (if you have photos) or http://www.cyclescape.org (if you want to track it) or http://openstreetmap.org (if you just want it on a base map)

Photos are a good idea. I don't know what sort of phone the OP has, but with my iPhone if you take a photograph you can then go back and view where it was taken on a map. So the process could be as simple as riding to the location, taking a photo then plotting the map when you get home.

It would be an interesting exercise, particularly if you can show, for example that one route has a lot more barriers than the other.

[axel_knutt]

When I was riding the Rochdale canal towpath a few years ago I came to one of these and found a girl there struggling because she couldn't get her bike through. I lifted it over the top for her, but whilst we were there a bloke turned up on a quad bike, wheeled it straight under the barrier, and rode off.