Public footpaths that cross dual carriageways

[jervi]

The A264 North Horsham Bypass has how a at-grade crossing should be done on a dual carriageway.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0889752 ... 312!8i6656
Actually giving people room in the centre reserve. Signage at the crossing point (there are advance warning signs too). However a street light at the crossing point would be good too.

[trickstat]

There is (or was - the footpath seems to have become very overgrown/obliterated after the 2015 resurfacing) one here on the A338: https://goo.gl/maps/ThaVYFo48twxU1Ew6

I presume the sign facing the footpath says something like "I'd just go back the other way if I were you"

The middle of a sweeping bend must be one of the worst places to try and cross. A brow of a hill would probably be worse, I suppose.

[trickstat]

The A264 North Horsham Bypass has how a at-grade crossing should be done on a dual carriageway.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0889752 ... 312!8i6656
Actually giving people room in the centre reserve. Signage at the crossing point (there are advance warning signs too). However a street light at the crossing point would be good too.

It looks like there is a woman in a blue top next to the other carriageway about to use the crossing.

[vlad]

There's one on the A500 here and one on the A34 here. Both are NSL at these points and I don't remember either having "Pedestrians crossing" signs.

[Worcestershire Wolf]

There is an absolutely horrendous one on the A46 Warwick Bypass:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.28276 ... 312!8i6656

I have crossed this one whilst out walking with friends and it's terrifying and I would never do it again!

I guess when the bypass was built there was far less traffic as that was before the M40 was opened just to the South and increasing traffic levels.

[B4444]

Another on the A303 Barton Stacey . There are warning signs 300m away on each carriageway.

[c2R]

...and completely unnecessary in terms of location given the proximity of the massive bridge! I've seem someone use it once, running across the road in front of me - it's just shocking design.

Closing a public right of way across an All Purpose Road is not a simple process, look carefully and you will see several on the A1.

They built a footbridge at Great Ponton but peedestrians still cross the A1 without using it from time to time.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.86298 ... 6656?hl=en

Not to mention the sections of the A1 that have a footpath along one side.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.14928 ... 6656?hl=en

I never said it was, or that there aren't - I have travelled the length of the A1 between Alconbury and Scotch Corner about 50 times a year for the last decade, so am fairly well acquainted!

Great Ponton is a different kettle of fish as the road wasn't a new build, it was an online upgrade. When this section of A1 was built, it would have been relatively straightforward to divert the footpath around and underneath the Wentbridge Viaduct. And it would still be relatively easy to do that here.

[XC70]

Congratulations!

You have discovered the highway industry's dirty (not so) little secret. We couldn't give a damn about pedestrians, cyclists or equestrians. 'If it ain't got an engine it don't count' is our motto, despite some winging about the 'cycle lobby', etc..

I give you the A303. Not the dualled bit, but still...down some steps, across essentially three lanes of trunk road traffic and up some steps. Very inclusive.

Even someone quite sprightly might have to wait 15-30 minutes to find a safe gap there at the wrong time of day.

So as a pedestrian, you have the "right" to use the footpath across the road, but according to the rules of the road, you do not have "right of way". Would there be such a legal argument that - with traffic levels being high - your legal right to use the path was being obstructed? Essentially how long would you have to wait as a pedestrian for you to be able to claim that the footpath was essentially blocked? 5 mins? 10mins? An hour? Days?

[XC70]

On another note, pedestrians regularly cross the M181 at the very end where it meets the A18 at the roundabout. This is despite the fact that there is a bridge provided which is only a tiny bit of a detour.

[trickstat]

Congratulations!

You have discovered the highway industry's dirty (not so) little secret. We couldn't give a damn about pedestrians, cyclists or equestrians. 'If it ain't got an engine it don't count' is our motto, despite some winging about the 'cycle lobby', etc..

I give you the A303. Not the dualled bit, but still...down some steps, across essentially three lanes of trunk road traffic and up some steps. Very inclusive.

Even someone quite sprightly might have to wait 15-30 minutes to find a safe gap there at the wrong time of day.

So as a pedestrian, you have the "right" to use the footpath across the road, but according to the rules of the road, you do not have "right of way". Would there be such a legal argument that - with traffic levels being high - your legal right to use the path was being obstructed? Essentially how long would you have to wait as a pedestrian for you to be able to claim that the footpath was essentially blocked? 5 mins? 10mins? An hour? Days?

I don't think the position is any different from a road that has a crossroads where a more significant road has priority.

[haggishunter]

There are Quite a few on the A9 Inverness stretch of dual carriageway and across the Black Isle. These have helpful "look left" painted on the road and a nice wee break in the barrier.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.47346 ... 312!8i6656

This one has had the footpaths to it removed and blocked up, earth berm / fence etc due the explosion in pedestrian use after the new Uni campus and HIE HQ opened.

[mikehindsonevans]

On another note, pedestrians regularly cross the M181 at the very end where it meets the A18 at the roundabout. This is despite the fact that there is a bridge provided which is only a tiny bit of a detour.

Am I the only member here who remembers hopping across the M62 up in the Pennines, before the lovely arch Bridge was commissioned to safely carry the Pennine Way (long-distance footpath) over the cutting?

"Ee lad, you tell the kids of today... "

[Piatkow]

Hi there,

I think I may have posted about this a few years ago but never got any definitive answers, so I'm posting again as I've now discovered two public footpaths - one of them is even signed - that cross the A12 Brentwood Bypass.

First is here - https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6372647 ... 312!8i6656

Second is here - https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6432454 ... 312!8i6656

As you can see, there are clearly provisions made for someone to cross the road, as they have allowed space in the central reservation and with a barrier alongside the road.

The first footpath is publicly signed alongside the road, but the second isn't, even from the A1023 where it begins, and isn't shown on OS maps apart from this one https://footpathmap.co.uk/map/?zoom=16& ... 5722766904

I saw someone actually cross the first one the other day. Has anyone else had experience of crossing such busy, and usually dangerous roads? Surely they should have been decomissioned, as I presume these footpaths predate the bypass that was built in '66?

Not only can I say I have experience of crossing such busy roads, I can say I have experience of using the very footpath to cross the A12 as used in your first example. I'm from Pilgrims Hatch originally and the footpath starts at the edge of that settlement. I crossed there with two friends, probably about 1979. We didn't do it for a lark or a dare, we were using the footpath to get somewhere and I remember waiting until it was very clear. We did cross at more than walking pace though. Traffic levels have increased since 1979 and I'm not sure I'd fancy it today. You do get platooning though and an elephant race further up the road could easily create a sizeable gap on one side at a time.

I used to cross the A12 near Romford Golf Course twice a day on my way to and from school in the 60s. I had occasion to walk in that direction when visiting my parents early in the century. Even with lights at the Pettits Lane junction the heavier traffic frightened the life out of me.

Some footpaths have been diverted. Where the A12 runs next to the railway at Mountnessing there was a path which crossed the railway on a rather substantial bridge, probably for farm traffic to the fields under the A12, and then at grade across the bypass. Streetmap shows this abolished a new right of way parallel to both to the nearest road bridges.

[XC70]

A66
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tjRSFxMRPhXD3cJg9

I don't know why, but I have always found this bridleway crossing point on the A66 to feel quite dangerous...

[Glenn A]

There used to be a warning sign for pedestrians crossing the A74 near Beattock Services. I can assume you would either have to be suicidal or very brave to even consider crossing the old A74 on foot.

[Al__S]

one of the worst things in British road policy of the last 70+ years has been the effective near severance of rights of way when building 70mph roads by building steps down an embankment (with a stile over the fence at the top) and putting a small gap in the crash barrier on the central reservation and going "look, there you go, sorted".

[Rambo]

There is one here on the St Helens linkway near the M62 junction which is NSL https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4069471 ... 384!8i8192 although i've never seen anybody using it.

[Al__S]

There is one here on the St Helens linkway near the M62 junction which is NSL https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4069471 ... 384!8i8192 although i've never seen anybody using it.

Interesting that that's a split foot and equestrian use one. Although technically the foot side must also be legal to use by bike, the design makes that hard for anything beyond a single standard bike.

[Debaser]

There is one here on the St Helens linkway near the M62 junction which is NSL https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4069471 ... 384!8i8192 although i've never seen anybody using it.

Interesting that that's a split foot and equestrian use one. Although technically the foot side must also be legal to use by bike, the design makes that hard for anything beyond a single standard bike.

Good luck getting anything other than a standard 2-wheeled bicycle through the chicanes. Because of course pedestrians and cyclists can't be trusted not to cross without looking.

[Debaser]

one of the worst things in British road policy of the last 70+ years has been the effective near severance of rights of way when building 70mph roads by building steps down an embankment (with a stile over the fence at the top) and putting a small gap in the crash barrier on the central reservation and going "look, there you go, sorted".

Nowadays we look on enviously at the Dutch as the build longer distance fast cycleways (which can also be used by walkers), but the tragedy is we've destroyed many routes (footpaths and bridleways) which could have been their equivalents. Yes, structures are the most expensive bits of a highway scheme, but bridges catering for NMUs are nowhere near as expensive as those which need to carry 16.5m artics.

The other problem we have - aside from attitudes within the industry - is an odd obsession with keeping footpaths and bridleways 'natural', meaning they're impassible for about 3 months of the year due to the poor surface. A weird fear of 'urbanisation' that makes people blind to the D3M/D2AP being constructed a matter of metres away, but scares them that paving a PRoW and making it accessible will despoil the environment.