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Comment by smikhanov | Hacker News Reader

Rotherhithe tunnel in London screams to be repurposed this way -- to become "colorfully lit, art-lined" thing where psychologists give input on how to make it more welcoming

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Yeah, London needs more pedestrian/cycle options to cross the Thames - it’s a huge barrier in some areas.

For example, a tunnel (or bridge!) between Canary Wharf and the Rotherhithe peninsula, replacing the existing passenger ferry, would have huge economic benefits by encouraging development of a relatively under-developed area.

The Greenwich foot tunnel is a great asset, and despite not being very cycle-friendly is very popular with cyclists too.

To cross the river in East London you have 2 options: the Greenwich foot tunnel, or the Woolwich one.

Indeed they're great assets but it's incredibly awful when the lifts are broken - and it happens frequently.

Either of them are a huge diversion depending on where you're going as well. If there was a cycle-friendly crossing around where Blackwall tunnel is, I reckon my rides to The Reach would be cut by nearly half.

How busy is the river traffic in East London? If it's not incredibly busy you'd think some sort of movable bridge would be doable.

A permanent structure has to go down really far, or up really far, neither of which is that desirable for walking/bikes.

It's fairly busy but mostly with river ferries, barges, recreational boats, etc which aren't too tall and can fit under most bridges. Taking the Tower Bridge example, vessels up to 9 metres tall can fit under it. If you're taller than that, the bridge must be raised on request[1]. I'd imagine that would be the minimum requirement for any bridge built east of Tower Bridge. Currently the only bridge over the Thames east of Tower Bridge is the Dartford Crossing, which has a 61 meter high deck.

[1] By law, river traffic takes priority over road traffic, but it's raised pretty infrequently now days.

I'd be very very surprised if this became reality. There's no political force to make actual improvements in London, or in the UK as a whole.

>There's no political force to make actual improvements in London, or in the UK as a whole.

"The Youth", so rather tend to make things as colourful - sadly, as colourful they may be illegal.

*Banksy excepted.

The problem is tories and their voters, not disenfranchised youth. Disenfranchised youth is but a symptom

> There's no political force to make actual improvements in London, or in the UK as a whole.

HS2 was an attempt at an infrastructure project for the long term greater good but quickly devolved into nothing but bad news cycles.

Everyone is too busy flinging shit and whipping out soundbites to actually do anything, in part because anything worthwhile is hard and mistakes are more punishing than not trying?

It all just feels so inevitable and I don't understand what stops other countries getting into the same spiral of short termism

> HS2 was an attempt at an infrastructure project for the long term greater good [..]

Simon Jenkins' 2016 article entitled "HS2: the zombie train that refuses to die"[0], is worth reading:

"HS2 was always a project born of political vanity. Like several other unstoppable megaprojects, it was not rooted in commercial reality or value for money – and it has therefore not been halted by accusations that it is not needed and not worth the cost"

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/07/hs2-the-zomb...

One of the British national pastimes is to complain about the state of the railways and then to complain about infrastructure investments in the railways (whic, granted, often turn into an omnishamble).

My take-away from HS2 is that the UK is not able to build a relatively short high-speed railway. HS2 (so just London to Birmingham) is 134 miles/215 km long, that's nothing and yet...

HS2 is somehow insanely expensive and slow moving compared to France. We just need to go and look at how they do it. The two countries are very close in terms of GDP income and regulatory burden. We seem to be very inefficient in comparison.

> HS2 is somehow insanely expensive and slow moving compared to France. We just need to go and look at how they do it. The two countries are very close in terms of GDP income and regulatory burden

They aren't anywhere close to each other in population density.

>where psychologists give input on how to make it more welcoming

I'm sure the psychology field is full of pseudo-scientific, un-replicable research into what makes something "welcoming"!

Same as the economics field no? If more than 2/3 find it 'welcoming' than I'd count that as win. Hopefully the taxpayers didn't get charged an arm and leg.

The most dangerous thing about psychology is not just being full of un-replicable reseach but being forced by governments as a source of common sense with "doctors" licensed as a real doctors. So I feel that minuses in your karma.

Designers can do anything more welcoming by use some special colors and shapes though.

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