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Subway - buggies - improvement?
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Anotherjohn


Posts: 376
Joined: May 2005
Post: #1
11-10-2014 10:04 AM

I think I've just come up with an inexpensive and workable solution to improve matters for the many women who currently have to push their children in buggies for 1/3 of a mile in all weather and with all the noise and smoke billowing out of lorries blasting by within 5 or six feet - just to get from one side of the subway to the other.

The main stairs of the subway have a gradient of 31 degrees - so reduce its width by 1/3 and keep 2/3 as is. The narrower part could be 'ramped' at say 14 degrees with very shallow, elongated and slightly-sloped steps, which would be covered in a non-slip tarmac. A similar thing- albeit 3/8 and 5/8 appotionment - could be done at the Perry Vale end and the overall result would be much more buggie-friendly - and maybe even do-able in a wheelchair (?).

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shaman


Posts: 71
Joined: Nov 2009
Post: #2
11-10-2014 12:41 PM

Will the men who currently have to push buggies be allowed to use it?

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Perryman


Posts: 820
Joined: Dec 2006
Post: #3
11-10-2014 01:13 PM

Good idea.
The problem is the over-hanging WHSmiths extension - I think that would get in the way. Otherwise there would be plenty of room for a long ramp starting from underneath the track.

Alternatively, if the South circ was narrowed at the junction - and there is a good case for that anyway - there would be additional pavement width to help accommodate a ramp.

Or they could have embedded a lift in the stair side wall, as was suggested when the council had bucket-fulls of cash from the PV central development.

Or there is the 'anyone with a buggy/disabled/old/and all pedestrians and cyclists can just FO' option, which seems to have been the preferred choice of late. And people do indeed go elsewhere, and our shops suffer for it.

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chica


Posts: 17
Joined: Jan 2009
Post: #4
11-10-2014 03:06 PM

This is a really good idea. If we could do this and get a custom designed ramp to fit on each side of the German bridge life would be so much easier for anyone with a buggy (which is quite a lot of people these days). [/font]

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Anotherjohn


Posts: 376
Joined: May 2005
Post: #5
11-10-2014 05:39 PM

Shaman -
Call me old-fashioned - NO! - it's just for feeble little mothers, au-pairs and other female people who need us big, hairy cavemen to protect their poor little bodies from the harsh realities of life in Forest Hill in the 21st Century. (That's what you wanted me to say wasn't it? (because everyone knows that mens' only association with buggies is on a male-only golfcourse (TOSSER!)))

Perryman -
Thanks. I agree that I may have been a tad over-optimistic but my calculations did take into account the overhang and, at 14 degrees, it is quite surprising how long the ramp would be. However, I bumped into Michael this afternoon and he told me that it's steeper than the maximum allowable gradient of 11 degrees for a pedestrian slope (sorry, I'm not up on the technical terms for these things). I pointed out that my idea wasn't purely a slope, but a stretched-out staircase, which threw the debate open again.

Anyway, I only put this out there in the faint hope that it might work or, if it doesn't, someone cleverer than me might feel INCLINED (ha!) to put their thinking cap on and offer up their their thoughts.

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Erekose


Posts: 557
Joined: May 2010
Post: #6
11-10-2014 07:13 PM

Anotherjohn this is worth pursuing with the apparatchiks at the town hall. A stepped ramp would be better than no ramp.

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clausy


Posts: 73
Joined: Mar 2014
Post: #7
12-10-2014 01:21 PM

It would at least be nice to get those steel runners at the side so you can roll your bike up and down the stairs without having to sling it over your shoulder cyclocross style.

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Londondrz


Posts: 1,538
Joined: Apr 2006
Post: #8
13-10-2014 09:53 AM

The kids used to love it when we pushed them down in their buggies. Stand at the top, a gentle push and down they went. Bump bump bump.

It usually ended well and when it didn't they loved the A&E visits.Wow

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Anotherjohn


Posts: 376
Joined: May 2005
Post: #9
14-10-2014 03:04 PM

Charmin'!

(BUT I LUV IT!!)

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