Search found 4322 matches

by MikeF
25 Mar 2024, 10:31pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England
Replies: 15
Views: 672

Re: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England

wjhall wrote: 23 Mar 2024, 1:30pm
I am drafting a letter to the council to urge them not to waste public funds, ...............
Your draft is rambling. You need to make your points concisely to make the letter readable - bullet points are good way to make them. By readable I mean that whoever reads the letter can quickly see your objections without reading an "essay". Remove unnecessary words, and your opinions - stick to facts. Essentially make them read it and not file it!
by MikeF
25 Mar 2024, 9:56pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Why is the right at war with cyclists?... "
Replies: 26
Views: 1330

Re: "Why is the right at war with cyclists?... "

Most of those who have opinions on what cyclists should or shouldn't be doing are "armchair cyclists" sitting effortlessly coccooned in a metal box and who have never ridden a bike on the road. :wink:
by MikeF
16 Mar 2024, 10:18pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: LTN politics
Replies: 54
Views: 3590

Re: LTN politics

gazza_d wrote: 31 Jan 2024, 7:58pm Newcastle have just pulled an ltn in Jesmond (one of the richer bits of Tyneside)
Consultation had 9 months left yet caved to a noisy minority. https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/citylife-n ... be-removed

I'm guessing that it's because many are too posh to walk and have influence against a weak council.
"The council has confirmed the measures will now be removed and learning from this scheme used in future transport schemes."
I wonder what it has learn't and what the future transport schemes will be? :wink:
by MikeF
16 Mar 2024, 10:09pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Filthy bridleway
Replies: 61
Views: 2741

Re: Filthy bridleway

Cycling along a public footpath is an act of trespass against the landowner unless the landowner has allowed cycling, as otherwise you haven't any right to be riding a bike there. Having said that I often ride along a short twitten which then leads to a public road and then to an access road that becomes a track over which there runs a public footpath. This then leads to a private estate road where the public footpath continues. This is a very convenient access from our house to places further afield,but I'm always very careful if there are pedestrians using the PROW.
by MikeF
16 Mar 2024, 8:44pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Road marking
Replies: 13
Views: 1489

Re: Road marking

Chris Jeggo wrote: 27 Feb 2024, 11:09am Not 'fart backside' then?
:lol:
by MikeF
16 Mar 2024, 8:30pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Dangerous mudguards
Replies: 37
Views: 3539

Re: Dangerous mudguards

pjclinch wrote: 15 Mar 2024, 5:56pm
Pinhead wrote: 15 Mar 2024, 3:04pm I only use these there are NO issues
My experience of crud catchers and high floating mudguards is an issue of the much less effective as mudguards than something closer in.

On my MTB having the rear guard underneath a rack gives it plenty of mud clearance, keeps it in place, and helps it stop me getting covered in mud. Plus the rack makes carrying stuff a lot easier.

Pete.
+1
by MikeF
16 Mar 2024, 8:15pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Fill that hole
Replies: 60
Views: 4033

Re: Fill that hole

rjb wrote: 8 Mar 2024, 4:33pm here on the somerset levels several of our roads are beside the rivers Tone and Parrett. Due to the high rainfall this winter the river levels are above the road constrained by the adjacent bank. Its quite noticeable how the roads are awash with water being forced up from below and opening potholes up in the process. Theres no point in attempting to repair them until the river levels drop back to normal. Its only going to get worse with global warming. Theres even spurts of water spouting through cracks in the mortar. Ive thought about poking my finger in the dyke to stop it. :lol:
There's a reason the place is called Somerset :wink:
by MikeF
3 Mar 2024, 8:23pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: 20mph Did you know, FACT!
Replies: 55
Views: 6227

Re: 20mph Did you know, FACT!

thirdcrank wrote: 6 Dec 2023, 8:57pm
Jdsk wrote: 6 Dec 2023, 8:41pm
thirdcrank wrote: 6 Dec 2023, 8:29pm I'm a bit thrown by the formatting here but I think there is little, if anything published.
...
I linked to an article on the background to the offence and the current CPS Guidance. As stated I couldn't find any Sentencing Guidelines.

Please feel free to add a link to the Act, but I don't think that adds much for people who aren't used to reading them.

Jonathan
I think a significant point from the offences Against the Person offence was the difference between eg horses bolting and somebody intentionally "not sparing the horses."

IIRC, the judge's sentencing comments in the Alliston case included some detail about the absence of precedents and I thought you had helpfully linked to the judge's remarks in PDF form.

I don't think there's anything I can add which isn't in my embarrassingly high number of earlier posts.
Yes I think this was really meant to apply to horses and horse drawn vehicles, but because a cycle is a "vehicle" it's convenient for some to apply it to cycles when nothing else seems to fit. :roll: For motor vehicles there seems to be only careless/dangerous driving, but I think this could also apply in practice.
by MikeF
3 Mar 2024, 8:02pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: George V & VI post boxes
Replies: 40
Views: 7952

Re: George V & VI post boxes

ferrit worrier wrote: 19 Dec 2022, 8:41pm Just paying a sadly very infrequent visit to the forum and came across the post box thread. this might be of interest

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... sthrough=1

not tried it yet

Good luck

Malc
Interesting. Sorted by sorting office and not actual post code of box. I noted 1 error.
by MikeF
3 Mar 2024, 7:40pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Fill that hole
Replies: 60
Views: 4033

Re: Fill that hole

Filling potholes is "sticking plaster". It should not be needed in the majority of cases - the road should be resurfaced so that potholes do not occur. In most cases noting the section of road that's failed should be what is reported, and not pinpointing the exact position of potholes. There are several reasons why potholes occur. Many are caused by utilities just back filling a trench and resurfacing the backfill, leaving the road with a mixture of surfacing and base that wears at different rates.
by MikeF
14 Jan 2024, 10:35pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Two robberies a day in London as bike-jacking epidemic takes hold - telegraph
Replies: 20
Views: 2339

Re: Two robberies a day in London as bike-jacking epidemic takes hold - telegraph

Carlton green wrote: 1 Jan 2024, 5:45pm
Is seizing some else’s bike a new thing? To my mind such things have been going on for decades - as has theft in general - and in a place so large as London I’d anticipate a lot of theft. My bigger concern for London is road safety, and in particular the safety of cyclists.
I don't recall anyone worrying about bike theft in the 1950s and all (as far as I know) bikes were left at school unlocked. Nowadays it seems thieves will target bikes left at schools as well as many other places.
by MikeF
14 Jan 2024, 10:24pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: National Transport Strategy
Replies: 155
Views: 39488

Re: National Transport Strategy

basingstoke123 wrote: 1 Jan 2024, 12:54pm
Mike Sales wrote: 20 Dec 2023, 11:34am In my many years of cycling I remember a whole series of plans, strategies, studies and whatever, none of which have come to very much. So I am afraid that I do not expect much to come from them in future.
So it's not just my local authority.

Cynically I sometimes think a strategy is where you describe things that you are 'supposed' to do, but have no intention of doing. Then when someone complains 'why isn't the council doing xxxx?', they can be given the reply 'But we are. We take xxxx very seriously. Here is the agreed strategy'.

I must try this in my next work appraisal.

When strategies are periodically revised or updated, there is rarely any review of the previous strategy. No acknowledgement of its ineffectiveness, let alone any analysis as to why.

But the quality of presentation has definitely improved.
You're not being cycnical at all
When a strategy (or plan) is completed the task is finished. It's as simple as that. The task is actually writing the strategy (or plan) to cover 5/10 or whatever years. When that time has elapsed a new one will be written.
That's what councils/ governments do - nothing more.
Implementing what the strategy/plan states is a completely different task and will depend on a whole range of factors, mainly resulting in complete inaction or at the most a token effect.
by MikeF
14 Jan 2024, 9:16pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Kilometers or Miles?
Replies: 311
Views: 22728

Re: Kilometers or Miles?

st599_uk wrote: 5 Jan 2024, 3:04pm
plancashire wrote: 5 Jan 2024, 11:16am The motivation for this thread was the difference of the UK units of measurement on the road from the rest of Europe. There used to be another difference: gradients.

Old road signs had a ratio such as 1:4 or 1:10. Now the signs show percentages: 25% or 10%. At the risk of sparking a heated discussion: I prefer the percentages. Yes, the calculation behind the ratios is easy to understand but the resulting numbers are an inverse scale, which is one where bigger numbers mean smaller quantity. A 25% slope is steeper than 10% but 1:4 has a smaller salient number (the 4) than 1:10. In my professional experience of many scales the inverted ones always caused confusion: that's why I prefer the percentages.

Reference: Traffic signs (page 3).
I was taught at school that 1:4 was a 1m rise for 4 m moved (so 4m hypotenuse) whilst the European percentage 25% was 1m rise for 4m horizontal transition (4m adjacent).
You should have been taught 1 unit rise for 4 units moved. :wink: Metrication has cut out lateral thinking.
by MikeF
14 Jan 2024, 9:08pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Kilometers or Miles?
Replies: 311
Views: 22728

Re: Kilometers or Miles?

Jdsk wrote: 24 Nov 2023, 9:23am
simonhill wrote: 24 Nov 2023, 8:54am No one has mentioned slopes. Are they metric now.
...
The two common methods for expressing slope on roads are both ways of describing the tangent of the angle of inclination.

I wouldn't consider one to be more "metric" than the other.

The SI unit would be the radian.

Jonathan

PS: The percentage nomenclature has the cognitive advantage that the value goes up with increasing slope. See wire gauges upthread!
But I think the slope on railways is the sine and measured as 1 in .... Much easier to measure of course, but on slight inclines sine and tangent are nearly the same.