Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor traffic since 2019, when cracks appeared in its cast-iron pedestals. Now a west London community group thinks it might have found a workaround — and it doesn’t involve rebuilding the bridge at all.
Barnes and Hammersmith Electric Light Transit (BHELT), a not-for-profit set up specifically to explore the idea, has been trialling small autonomous electric pods designed by Ohmio UK. The vehicles seat eight, with standing room for around six more, plus a wheelchair space with a ramp that extends from beneath the doors. They top out at a modest 15mph and, according to Ohmio UK’s Baran Sahan, operate “a bit like a tram.”
The timing isn’t a coincidence. Plans to make the Grade II* listed bridge safe for vehicles again were effectively shelved earlier this year after a council report found it would “essentially require a brand-new bridge to be built.” With that route looking financially unrealistic, BHELT argues the pods — which weigh a fraction of a normal vehicle and would fit comfortably within the bridge’s weight limits — offer a genuinely workable alternative for connecting Hammersmith and Barnes.
It’s not just BHELT pushing the idea. Environmental charity Possible has separately proposed a similar scheme, estimating driverless pods for mobility-impaired residents could cost around £10 million — a fraction of what a full structural rebuild would run to.
Transport for London, for its part, has said it currently has no plans to introduce the pods on the crossing, or driverless buses more generally across its network. So for now this remains a community-led proposal rather than an approved scheme. But it’s a useful example of how quickly “autonomous vehicle” conversations are moving beyond robotaxis and into everyday public transport infrastructure — the kind of shift that’s worth keeping an eye on if you’re in the trade.
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