By Simon Usborne
Like the first balmy day of spring, when girls start dressing like it's mid-July (and boys try not to drool) the first warm-ish winter's day heralds an event you won't spot in your diary: the return of the fair-weather cyclist.
On my commute from Forest Hill in south east London to Indy Towers near Canary Wharf, that day came a couple of weeks ago (before last week's cold snap sent pedallers scurrying back to their tubes and trains; they'll be back soon).
More the merrier, I say (as long as they stay out my way) but there's one place along my seven mile ride where the seasonal influx causes problems: the Greenwich foot tunnel (pictured).
Opened in 1902, the subterranean slinky, which hangs 15 metres under the Thames between the hulk of the Cutty Sark and Island Gardens, was built to give residents of south east London an easy route to work on the Isle of Dogs.
Today, it serves much the same purpose, except that the docks have become skyscrapers, the dockers bankers (plus the odd journalist) and, increasingly, the flat caps have morphed into bike helmets.
After descending the spiral staircase or wood-panelled lift housed under a red brick and glass dome, riders choose one of three ways to travel the 370-metre, white-tiled tunnel:
- Be naughty and cycle (ignoring several "no cycling" signs and, usually, incurring the wrath of the grumpy lift attendants and fellow tunnellers);
- Be good and walk (feels righteous but takes longer and the grey flagstones are murder for anyone with cleats on their shoes;
- Put one foot on a pedal and scoot down to the half-way dip, where the Thames seems to drip through some days, before walking the slight incline to the far end.
The third option is by far the most popular, which is fine if there's no one about, but pedestrians who walk through the tunnel (which narrows from 9ft wide to just 6ft at the north end) at rush hour do so at their peril.
The lift doors open like the stalls at Newmarket, unleashing a barrage of scooting bikers on unsuspecting pedestrians coming the other way. People walking ahead look back with fear in their eyes, having heard the echoing rattle and whirr of an approaching peloton.
I apply the same common sense to tunnel etiquette as I do on the roads - I break the rules if it's safe or safer to do so (and thank anyone kind enough to suggest I'm wrong, which I am). So, just as I jump red lights at deserted junctions, I cycle through the tunnel when it's empty. If it's busy, or there are children, I walk.
I'm being forced to walk more often as more commuters take to two wheels, but many reckless riders scoot or cycle how ever busy it is, often exceeding 15mph as they pass within inches of children or groups of tourists.
I haven't seen a crash yet, but as spring beckons it won't be long before it starts getting nasty down there. There's one thing you can be sure of - it will happen on a sunny day.
When is the government going to order a few more walking, skating and cycling bridges across the Thames?
I am just amazed that when the "millennium bridge" was commissioned, nobody thought of insisting that it should be for cycles and skateboarders too. The end result is a bridge that is too narrow even for the foot passengers to cross with ease and style, no seating for the less able to sit and look around and a hideous squeaky surface for anyone wearing trainers in the rain. What a missed opportunity!
Posted by: Vélonique | Wednesday, 06 February 2008 at 07:59 PM
Ah, the delights of the Greenwich foot tunnel I have yet to sample. This morning, being in a hurry to get from the bikeshop at Decathlon in Surrey Quays to Canary Wharf, I braved the heat and the fumes of the Rotherhithe tunnel. Muffler over the nose, head down, ride like hell along the "pavement" (where no pedestrians are ever seen)Actually it was OK. The ordeal only took two minutes. I'm surprised so few cyclists brave it.
Posted by: bumsteer | Friday, 15 February 2008 at 06:57 PM
I & my parents used to walk this foot tunnel during the 2nd W/W as as the Ferry's were not operating & as a small child it seemed to take forever ! The lifts were at that time never working so we had to go down & up the stairs at either end. I am glad to know it is in use today.
Posted by: R Bossom | Monday, 27 October 2008 at 05:03 PM