There’s been trouble with the bridge for about a year now. In October it abruptly closed for all traffic, including pedestrians, but luckily reopened for cyclists and pedestrians only hours later. It was closed for a fair while! And when it reopened for cars, it came with a weight restriction, and after a while it kept one lane closed for quite some time. Over summer it was entirely open again, but the council warned it would partially close again in autumn. And it did!
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| Traffic lights! |
It was immediately obvious; if one lane is closed that means traffic lights just before the bridge, and traffic backing up. It's slower for everyone, be they cars or cyclists. But it would be nice to get the bridge fully fixed.
One thing that I am a bit apprehensive about is that with these traffic lights, I can end up with lots of cars behind me on the mainland side of the bridge, going home. What I do there is turn right off the road that comes off the bridge, and get onto a road that is not accessible to cars. I think few drivers realise there is a junction there. So I have to get in lane in order to turn off. If you do that somewhere where drivers expect cyclists turning off, my experience is that a fair percentage will let you through. But it has never happened that any driver slowed down even the tiniest bit in order to let me pass in front of them by that cryptic junction. That can be quite frustrating! If there is a lot of traffic coming from both ways, I feel very vulnerable in the middle of the road with lots of impatient people behind me. And no-one coming the other way letting me slip through. The road isn't really wide enough for cars to pass me.
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| A guided tour of the repair work? |
I digress. There is work on the bridge again, and it has implications for wider traffic! Let's hope they get this repair work done in not too much time…
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