Friday Reads – 6 December 2019

On By In Friday Reads, History, Maps, Pedestrians

• History of Holborn Viaduct (HydeParkNow)

• London 1933 Underground, Power and Substations Diagram (TransitMaps)

• Repurposed Parisien transport infrastructure (FabricOfParis)

• New Berlin airport & rail link to open, finally, October 2020 (IntlRailJ)

• Why cycling & walking innovations can be bad for disabled (TransportXtra)

• Sir Rod’s, & Neil Young’s, model railway layouts (StereoGum)

• Uzbekistan’s secret Metro seen for first time (RadioFreeEurope)

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4 comments

  1. The Holborn Viaduct article is utterly fascinating, especially given the way the area was again completely re-jigged with the closure of the old terminal station & the Thameslink construction.
    I remember the little roads, hardly larger than alleys on the E side, all now sewpt away, Sea Coal lane in particular.

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    Ah, Berlin Shönefeld/Willy Brandt is finally going to open.
    Perhaps this is the place to re-post the classic programme link for that?
    Here ?

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    Tashkent Metro
    Eat your heart out, Gant’s Hill!
    Superb pictures

  2. I’ve often wondered about the Netherlands and the disabled in relation to cycling infrastructure. I assumed, falsely it would appear, that the Dutch would be rather forward thinking in relation to the disabled. But ultimately, we have to ask, what would they prefer? Do they really find the UK street environment preferable?

    There are some substantial benefits to the disabled of that superb cycling infrastructure. It is far, far more useful for travelling with low-speed vehicles many of the disabled can use than the British equivalent. This results in far more of the disabled using such vehicles. See for example.
    https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/a-continuum-of-mobility/
    If those cycling routes were infested with textured paving and like intentional surface irregularities of the British equivalent, would they be as useful to the disabled? What would they rather have?

    It isn’t just the Netherlands, it is everywhere else in Europe that has good cycling infrastructure – the Nordic countries, the German-speaking area, etc. Their cycling infrastructure likewise is not infested with these surface irregularities either. Do the disabled inhabitants of these places find the British street environment , on balance, friendlier or unfriendlier?

  3. My observation has been that cyclists are harder to predict (and less compliant) where there are only a few of them. Compare the behaviour of cyclists on the embankment (kept in a well defined cycle lane, very high compliance with signals) to cyclists on the parallel A3200 (in evey lane unpredictably).

    However, behaviour in both places is much better than environments which are seemingly designed to ensure that cyclists AND pedestrian compliance is low while mixing them together at angles which ensure both groups are effectively in a blind spot of the other. One great example is the crazy South Lambeth Road cycle lane which is seemingly designed to funnel pedestrains and cyclists into collusions with both parties at fault.

    https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4843584,-0.1229219,3a,75y,162.1h,70.09t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saNr7MZJf6I7RT5XsYxr8nw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

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