please empty your brain below

you appear to have mis-spelt 'dangleway' as 'cable car' instead.
It always seemed short-sighted to me that the Woolwich barrier wasn't designed to incorporate a road crossing of some kind, either using the structure as bridge piers or incorporating a tunnel into the cills
We could save £30m by scrapping the garden bridge Joanna Lumley and pals want in central London. These Thames crossings will be much more use to ordinary Londoners.
DG,

You also seemed to have overlooked the comment that TfL know cyclists and pedestrians won't want to use the 1.4km Silvertown Tunnel and that's why they thought ahead and built the dangleway.....

We *KNEW* it had to have a purpose!
Vehicle bridges and tunnels? Pah! How about turning the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels into cycle superhighways?
I see the "some groups" artist's impression of Gallions Reach shows a Float Plane, I wonder if it will take off and be able to land in the short distance to the other bank!
@Julian Bond: I'm not sure there is room for cyclists whizzing past pedestrians in both directions.
That plane is about to hit all those pedestrians...
@ Tetramesh; I used to cycle through the Greenwich tunnel regularly, but one problem was the unreliable lifts, particularly annoying when the one I needed to go up was out of acion and there'd been no warning of this at the other end. as for there being room, I was a considerate cyclist (unlike many today) and it was quite possible to co-exist with pedestrians.
@amber: I don't think cycling through the tunnel is permitted but I've never had a problem when cyclists ride past me down there. I treat it like the canal towpaths where pedestrians and cyclists both using them but with priority given to the pedestrian.
Shared cycle/pedestrian ways aren't a problem - provided EVERYONE KEEPS TO THEIR OWN SIDES OF THE WAY! Cos they don't. Grump!
> "priority given to the pedestrian"

Someone should tell the cyclists about that

Shared cycle/pedestrian route - if that is a problem, then someone made big mistake allowing the bus to share a "bus lane" with cyclists.
@Amber,
There are now digital signs telling you if the lift is working so hopefully you shouldn't get to the other end without knowing if it's working.
I don't think the foot tunnels need to be part of the superhighways, they are already part of the cycle network and most people who need them regulalry already know about them.
Cyclists should get off and push their bike though, it is unnerving as a pedestrian when I can hear a cycle approaching behind at full speed.


On the river crossings I would of though Kent wouldn't be in favour of tolls due to the amount of tourist type trips they could loose out on of people choose not to travel south.
One solution on the tolls could be to make Dartford crossing free therefore encouraging traffic out of London by charging for the mor central tunnels.
The biggest issue is the QEII crossing. Its full. Even when tolling is automated it will soon fill up again. Worse, its the main connection between most of the UK and the continent. A trully strategic link, yet a lot of the traffic is local or sohrt distance, and could use a crossing further upstream..
What with all these strong feelings about what should be done, no-one has complimented DG on yet another impressive piece of reporting. Although I had heard of all these crossing proposals, my mind got a bit fogged when it came to seeing the whole picture. The graphics are brilliant (on my screen anyway), and as such are worth a thousand words. Thanks.

PS. I have no idea what should be done; there seem to be enormous difficulties with every "solution", and also with the status quo.
Why don't we toll the bridges in central and west London to raise money for east London infrastructure.

How many of the Tfl chaps live in east London I wonder?
Ha ha ha, thanks Malcolm, I read the blog post twice and barely noticed all those blue lines, kind of went over my head; Good effort on the graphics DG.

Yes, I agree with tolling all the bridges in London to raise revenues for any new ones; quicker to raise the money and fairer.
That Northern junction looks like an overly complex mess.
I reckon a more extensive (and flexible) system of road user charging will have to come in the not too distant future.
Chris - in the last 25 years there has been, I think, one new crossing of the Thames in London west of Tower Bridge (the Millenium Bridge) and five east of Tower Bridge (two DLR, two Jubilee, the cable car), two more just outside London (the QE2 bridge and HS2), one more being built (Crossrail) and one massively upgraded (Thames Tunnel for Overground).

What DG's otherwise excellent article is slightly disingenuous about is that this consultation is not just to do with making it easier to cross the Thames in East London but making it easier to cross by car. After all a new pedestrian crossing was opened two years ago and people claim it is under-used.
The post was deliberately about crossing the Thames by road, rather than muddying the waters with bikes, railways and pedestrians (for which see my report here).
"Tolled tunnels and greater capacity, or the status quo and queueing traffic - we'll likely end up with one or the other."

You forgot Option 3:
Tolled tunnels, greater capacity and queuing traffic.










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