Ever wanted to play on the Aston Expressway?

[popmonkey]

In what could be seen to be a very delayed April Fools day story, it appears that the much loved A38(M) Aston Expressway in Birmingham will be closed to traffic from 10am up until 4pm on Sunday September 22 as part of International Car Free Day.

Full Story here

This seems to me to be a bit of a strange use of highways infrastructure, but could be an opportunity for some people to get an up-close look at one of the stranger roads in the country.

[Big L]

Looks like a once-in-a-lifetime chance to travel along at walking speed. Oh no, wait....

[ais523]

"The flat and smooth surface of the road means it is also accessible for those with mobility challenges." — does it have any accesses that are flat, though? From memory, every entrance from the road network is sloped, and I'd be surprised if any of the maintenance accesses (even if there are any) are on the level.

It's also likely that most of the entrances from the road network will be hard to reach due to busy traffic passing the slip roads (presumably the slip roads will be closed, but the roads going past them will still be open). The most plausible options for pedestrian accessibility include entering at the intermediate junction in Aston (which is a pretty sleep stope), or entering from the slip roads to/from the A5127 at Spaghetti Junction (this is probably doable for an able-bodied person, assuming that the motorways' closed and you're allowed to ignore the motorway regulations, but both crossing the road and navigating the junction afterwards seem difficult for someone with mobility problems).

"Further details on the event, including the exact stretch of the road which will form the park and how organisations can get involved, will be announced at a later date." – you only have three options (closing the whole motorway, closing from Aston to the Birmingham end, closing the area underneath the A4540 roundabout), and the first of those options is the only viable one (the closure from Aston would dump a large amount of traffic at a local junction, and closing just the area under the roundabout would leave the pedestrian area pretty much inaccessible).

I don't think it's impossible to make something like this work, but I'd have preferred that the details would have been worked out before the announcement. Motorways aren't typically designed for pedestrian access, after all.

[Lockwood]

SABRE AwayDay?

[Bryn666]

Flat as in no steps. That's pretty crucial for many mobility impaired people.

It's an interesting idea and we need to start realising there is life after frequent car use even if you don't like it.

[FleetlinePhil]

Just wait for Sky to move a Villa home game to the Sunday afternoon, which they won't announce until well into August...

[danfw194]

I'm guessing they are planning on some sort of security for this? The flat and smooth road surface could soon go for a burton if you don't control what people bring onto the carriageway.

[Debaser]

If they can do a Ciclovia in Los Angeles, Birmingham should be a push-over...https://thecitypaperbogota.com/bogota/b ... eles/20255

[vlad]

Some people have criticised the idea already (link)

Flat as in no steps. That's pretty crucial for many mobility impaired people.

Ah - but how steep is the step-free access? I know several people for whom a ramp may as well be a 10' wall.

[Bryn666]

Some people have criticised the idea already (link)

Flat as in no steps. That's pretty crucial for many mobility impaired people.

Ah - but how steep is the step-free access? I know several people for whom a ramp may as well be a 10' wall.

Anything worse than 1 in 20 is bad - but motorway slips should be much shallower than that.

[IAN]

Hope that the surface isn't damaged - Remember the AWPR event. IIRC correctly it was oil spillage that caused the problems there.

Ian (M5 Driver)

[mikehindsonevans]

Some people have criticised the idea already (link)

Flat as in no steps. That's pretty crucial for many mobility impaired people.

Ah - but how steep is the step-free access? I know several people for whom a ramp may as well be a 10' wall.

Anything worse than 1 in 20 is bad - but motorway slips should be much shallower than that.

Surely it is not beyond the wit of humankind to rent a forklift truck to form a temporary elevator to get mobility impaired participants down to and back up from the road surface?

[Bfivethousand]

I'd be surprised if the event were to take place on the elevated section between Spaghetti and Victoria Road, simply due to the fact that it's obviously some 25 feet up in the air with edges protected by quite low, readily climbable barriers.

[JF2309]

Flat as in no steps. That's pretty crucial for many mobility impaired people.

It's an interesting idea and we need to start realising there is life after frequent car use even if you don't like it.

Still amazes me that people struggle with the difference between Flat and Level.

[JF2309]

Some people have criticised the idea already (link)



Ah - but how steep is the step-free access? I know several people for whom a ramp may as well be a 10' wall.

Anything worse than 1 in 20 is bad - but motorway slips should be much shallower than that.

Surely it is not beyond the wit of humankind to rent a forklift truck to form a temporary elevator to get mobility impaired participants down to and back up from the road surface?

I think anybody in a wheelchair would rather take their chances on an open Aston Expressway over being lifted up and down by a Forklift truck.

[HandShandy]

Road maintenance hat on here...

It would be a great opportunity to carry out detailed inspections and any maintenance activity in daylight. Opportunities like this don't come often. As long as all the hippies don't mind the smell of asphalt and dodging road sweepers then I'm all for it.

[Peter350]

Anything worse than 1 in 20 is bad - but motorway slips should be much shallower than that.

Surely it is not beyond the wit of humankind to rent a forklift truck to form a temporary elevator to get mobility impaired participants down to and back up from the road surface?

I think anybody in a wheelchair would rather take their chances on an open Aston Expressway over being lifted up and down by a Forklift truck.

Or if you’re a daredevil, live life to the full and freewheel down the slip roads

[trickstat]

Road maintenance hat on here...

It would be a great opportunity to carry out detailed inspections and any maintenance activity in daylight. Opportunities like this don't come often. As long as all the hippies don't mind the smell of asphalt and dodging road sweepers then I'm all for it.

I'm rather partial to the smell of asphalt.

[the cheesecake man]

Who wouldn't want to explore the Aston Distressway?

Err, anybody normal. It's going in my diary right away. It's like when at university I used to love walking along the middle of the road at 3am just because I could.

If access is an issue could an accessible bus be provided? Having been in a fork lift truck cage in use as an improvised lift it certainly doesn't seem safe for anyone less than fully mobile.

I'm sure there will have to be security to stop things being left behind or vehicles being driven along the closed road (in both cased either accidentally or otherwise).

SABRE away day?

[Chris5156]

If access is an issue could an accessible bus be provided? Having been in a fork lift truck cage in use as an improvised lift it certainly doesn't seem safe for anyone less than fully mobile.

I don't think access is an issue at all and I'm slightly baffled that anyone thinks it is. No matter how you get on the Aston Expressway, you will be using a sliproad that is considerably wider and far more gently sloped than most wheelchair ramps. Who exactly is going to have such difficulty navigating a smooth, gentle slope that they will need alternative access arrangements?