Thames Crossing at Dartford

In message <[email hidden]>,
Woody <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Is is possible to cross over the Thames at Dartford with a
bike? I assume pedestrians must be able to cross somehow
but could you ride/push/carry your bike the same way?

The crossing is of course directly part of the M25 however
you can approach from nearby roads. Go to the offices at
either side and they will put your bike on a vehicle and
drive you across.

Check with them on Telephone: 01322 221603

(I don't think ped's can cross except by scheduled bus
service.)

--
dave @ stejonda

"To materialist eyes, India is a developing country; to
spiritual eyes, the United States is a developing
country." Ram Dass

Woody said:

Is is possible to cross over the Thames at Dartford with a
bike? I assume pedestrians must be able to cross somehow
but could you ride/push/carry your bike the same way?

North to south traffic is via the bridge. I think that's all
motorway status without foot/cycle access (?).

South to north is via the tunnel. Cycling it is physically
possible (and quick if you get a draft behind a lorry!) but
illegal. Amazingly, there is a police escort service where
they give you a lift on a back of a lorry or something.
There are sign-posted waiting points.

This subject has come up here before. Find it via Google
Groups, if no-one else fills us in with the full details.

~PB

In message <[email hidden]>,
Pete Biggs <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Woody said:

Is is possible to cross over the Thames at Dartford with
a bike?

Quoted message said:

Amazingly, there is a police escort service where they
give you a lift on a back of a lorry or something. There
are sign-posted waiting points.

Only it's not operated by the police but by Le Crossing
operatives. Both the tunnel and the bridge are private
property and the police have no automatic rights or
responsibilities. (My brother works at the crossing

co-ordinate blocking as many lanes as possible.)

--
dave @ stejonda

dave @ stejonda said:

The crossing is of course directly part of the M25 however
you can approach from nearby roads. Go to the offices at
either side and they will put your bike on a vehicle and
drive you across.

is not motorway.

It's good to know there's a cyclist service over the bridge
as well (although shame it wasn't designed with a foot &
cycleway).

Is the bridge two-way?

~PB

I asked:

Quoted message said:

Is the bridge two-way?

Answer: No.
easyweb.easynet.co.uktour27.htmOpen ↗

~PB

dave @ stejonda said:

In message <[email hidden]>,
Pete Biggs <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Woody said:

Is is possible to cross over the Thames at Dartford with
a bike?

Quoted message said:

Amazingly, there is a police escort service where they
give you a lift on a back of a lorry or something. There
are sign-posted waiting points.

Only it's not operated by the police but by Le Crossing
operatives. Both the tunnel and the bridge are private
property and the police have no automatic rights or
responsibilities. (My brother works at

Quoted message said:

'incidents' to co-ordinate blocking as many lanes as
possible.)

Thanks Dave. I seem to remember seeing "police" signs that
implied the service was run by the police - so these must be
wrong, or it's just because this sort of service would
normally be operated (elswehere) by the police, or maybe I'm
hallucinating (quite possible!).

~PB

dave @ stejonda said:

(My brother works at the crossing

Quoted message said:

co-ordinate blocking as many lanes as possible.)

I thought the M25 did quite a good job of blocking itself
without the need for any coordination ;-)

Tony

In article <[email hidden]>,
junk@raven- family.com says...

Quoted message said:

dave @ stejonda said:

(My brother works at the crossing

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

co-ordinate blocking as many lanes as possible.)

I thought the M25 did quite a good job of blocking itself
without the need for any coordination ;-)

Tony

Yes they will take you across in one of their vans. A friend
of mine commutes that way every day. They have also said to
him that they will cater for groups of cyclists, they have a
trailer for the bikes.

Must admit, I was really surprised they would take you at
all.

--
Mark (MSA) This post is packaged by intellectual weight, not
volume. Some settling of contents may have occurred during
transmission

In message <[email hidden]>,
Pete Biggs <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Is the bridge two-way?

only on bad days (and often the early hours of Sunday
morning when they're doing maintenance on the tunnel)

--
dave @ stejonda

"dave @ stejonda" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The crossing is of course directly part of the M25 however
you can approach from nearby roads.....

Looking at multimap, this clearly shows it as a regular "A"
road rather than a m-way. This being the case could still
see a cycle ban if there is a local bylaw passed, but not a
mandatory ban as is the case for a m-way.

The 1:25000 map shows that it's not till you get as far
south as the A2 junction that you reach the M25, or until
you get as far north as the A13 junction.

Woody said:

Is is possible to cross over the Thames at Dartford
with a bike?

A possible alternative, if it's not too far off your route,
is to take the Gravesend-Tilbury ferry - the crossing point
is about five miles east of the Dartford crossing. I suppose
the viability of this depends which direction you are
approaching from - if you were coming from the west, the
Woolwich ferry might be more appropriate.

d.

Pete Biggs said:

dave @ stejonda said:

The crossing is of course directly part of the M25
however you can approach from nearby roads. Go to the
offices at either side and they will put your bike on a
vehicle and drive you across.

Quoted message said:

is not motorway.

Neither bridge nor tunnels are motorway - there's a little
bit of A-road each side of teh crossing.

However, it's A-road on which bicycles are prohibited.

However, you can cycle to a building at each end and get
carried across in a van / land-rover and they have big cage-
like trailers for bikes (though if it's only one, I guess
they might just wedge the bike in rather than mess about
with trailers).

Quoted message said:

Is the bridge two-way?

In normal operation, tunnels run northbound, bridge
southbound. There's contraflow arrangements in place to use
one tunnel southbound (ie, as it used to be), but I don't
think they're set up to use the bridge two-way even if they
wanted. In principle I guess they could put VCB temporary
blocks down the middle and run two-way, but it doesn't seem
to be part of any routine contingency plan.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

"Adrian Boliston" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<c46k2o$2dp1d1from nearby roads.....

Quoted message said:

Looking at multimap, this clearly shows it as a regular
"A" road rather than a m-way. This being the case could
still see a cycle ban if there is a local bylaw passed,
but not a mandatory ban as is the case for a m-way.

The Humber Bridge is the same. The road across is the A15
with no
motorway in sight, but cycles are banned from the
carriageway. See:

simonmason.karoo.netpage423.htmOpen ↗

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The Humber Bridge is the same. The road across is the A15
with no
motorway in sight, but cycles are banned from the
carriageway. See:

simonmason.karoo.netpage423.htmOpen ↗

From these photos it's obvious that cyclists are treated as
second class citizens. We are *traffic*, not bl***y peds!

"Adrian Boliston" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The Humber Bridge is the same. The road across is the A15
with no
motorway in sight, but cycles are banned from the
carriageway. See:

simonmason.karoo.netpage423.htmOpen ↗

From these photos it's obvious that cyclists are
treated as second class citizens. We are *traffic*, not
bl***y peds!

To ride out to the Dartford Bridge over it and then back was
always one of my must-dos, until it opened with no cycle
lane. I suppose they have the emergency vehicles for the
tunnel so that was the cheapo solution. It wouldn't happen
in Holland! two bike lanes plus a footpath on all
bridges/tunnels

In article
<[email hidden]>, Martinm2
@wcms.org.uk says...

Quoted message said:

It wouldn't happen in Holland! two bike lanes plus a
footpath on all bridges/tunnels

The tunnel I used to go through on my way to work from
Amsterdam 'docklands' didn't have provision for cyclists. At
least none I could see.
--
.paul

if at first you don't succeed... skydiving is probably not
the sport for you

Simon Mason said:

The Humber Bridge is the same. The road across is the A15
with no
motorway in sight, but cycles are banned from the
carriageway. See:

simonmason.karoo.netpage423.htmOpen ↗

Despite the convoluted approach cycling across the Humber
Bridge is a fantastic experience and well worth doing.
Judicious application of the bell will clear the peds out of
the way. The Severn bridge ain't bad either, and neither is
the Golden Gate.

Simon

Simon Geller <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason said:

The Humber Bridge is the same. The road across is the A15
with no
motorway in sight, but cycles are banned from the
carriageway. See:

simonmason.karoo.netpage423.htmOpen ↗

Despite the convoluted approach cycling across the Humber
Bridge is a fantastic experience and well worth doing.
Judicious application of the bell will clear the peds out
of the way. The Severn bridge ain't bad either, and
neither is the Golden Gate.

Have to take your word for the Golden Gate. Did the Severn
last year on a 400; it was hard going even with a sort of
tail wind! and quite steep as well.

Paul <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,
Martinm2 @wcms.org.uk says...

Quoted message said:

It wouldn't happen in Holland! two bike lanes plus a
footpath on all bridges/tunnels

The tunnel I used to go through on my way to work from
Amsterdam 'docklands' didn't have provision for cyclists.
At least none I could see.

I think I have ridden through that one; but could you
actually ride on the road? (not a silly question, it is
illegal on some Dutch roads where there is a parallel cycle
route, honest!)