Riding the City
Bridges and Tunnels Are Where a City's Cycle Network Runs Out
A route can be excellent for five kilometres and then meet a river. What happens at the crossing decides whether the whole route is usable.
Everything below about urban pinch points comes from what actually happens rather than from what is supposed to.
What holds up in practice
- Crossings concentrate all traffic into a fixed number of points.
- A network is only as usable as its worst pinch point.
- Detours to a better crossing are often shorter than they look.
Why crossings dominate a route
Rivers, railways and major roads divide a city into pieces connected by a limited number of structures. Every journey between those pieces has to use one of them, which concentrates all modes onto the same narrow strip. Because the structures are expensive and old, they are rarely wide enough for everything now expected of them.
The result is that the most stressful part of a long ride is frequently a few hundred metres in the middle. A rider's willingness to make the journey at all is set by that section rather than by the pleasant parts either side.
What makes a crossing bad
Narrow lanes with no separation put riders alongside heavy traffic in a place with no escape route. Approach ramps and merges concentrate lane changes exactly where a rider is climbing and moving slowly.
Wind is stronger on an exposed bridge deck, and crosswind gusts arrive without the shelter a street provides. Expansion joints, metal deck plates and drainage channels are all common on bridges and all reduce grip in the wet. Steps at either end of a footbridge disqualify it entirely for anyone with a loaded bike, a cargo machine or a trailer.
Tunnels and underpasses
A tunnel removes the wind and the weather and replaces them with poor lighting, noise and a surface that stays damp. Eyes adapting from bright daylight to a dark tunnel take time, during which the surface ahead is genuinely hard to see. Noise inside a tunnel makes it impossible to judge what is approaching from behind, which removes an important warning.
Underpasses designed as pedestrian subways often have tight turns, blind corners and steps that make them unusable on a bike. Where a tunnel is the only crossing, a light that illuminates rather than merely marks your position stops being optional.
Finding the better crossing
Most cities have one crossing that riders use and several that they avoid, and the difference is often not obvious from a map. A detour of a kilometre to reach a calm crossing is frequently faster in practice, because the calm route has fewer stops. It is also the difference between a journey you will repeat and one you will do once.
With a loaded rack, local knowledge is the usual source, since routing software rarely weights stress and often sends riders over the worst structure.
Riding the alternatives once at a quiet time is the only reliable way to find out which one you actually want.
What cities do about it
Reallocating a traffic lane on an existing bridge is the cheapest option and the most politically difficult one. Widening a footway and designating it for shared use is common, cheap and produces conflict with people on foot. New dedicated crossings are expensive, take years and transform the network in a way nothing else does.
The bit that actually matters: lifts and ramps at existing structures unlock crossings that were previously useless to anyone with a loaded machine. Which of these happens usually reflects budget and politics rather than what would work best.
Road law for cycles and e-scooters is local, and enforcement is more local still.
Riding a bad crossing when there is no alternative
Choosing the moment matters, since a crossing that is unpleasant at rush hour can be calm twenty minutes later. Position yourself clearly rather than at the edge, because the worst outcomes come from being squeezed inside a lane.
Do the whole thing at a steady speed without stopping, since stopping on a narrow bridge deck leaves you nowhere to be. In strong crosswinds, an exposed deck deserves a slower speed and a relaxed grip rather than a fight with the bars. If it is genuinely too unpleasant, walking across is a legitimate option and public transport across the crossing is another.
The takeaway
Judge a cycle route by its worst crossing, because that is the section that decides whether anyone uses the rest.
Fix the small rattle. Every large repair began as one.
Questions readers ask
Why does my routing app send me over the busiest bridge?
Most routing weights distance and road classification rather than how stressful a section feels. Local knowledge usually beats it at crossings, and a detour to a calmer bridge is often faster because it has fewer stops.
What makes a tunnel harder to ride than a street?
Eyes take time to adapt from daylight to darkness, noise makes it impossible to judge what is behind you, and the surface stays damp. A light that actually illuminates the road, rather than just marking you, matters here.
