Cycling UK Forum

Chris Wood wrote:N ,cant decide on one section .
We are staying at yha and syha,booked in at once brewed (Hadrians wall)on the 6th night. Then on to Wanlockhead via Annan,either B7020 or A75 to Dumfries then A76 and B797.Any advice on traffic situation on the A road ?
CHEERS Chris

Why not the direct route. The B7076 from Gretna to Lockerbie to Elvanhead and the cutoff for Wanlockhead. This route has very little traffic. All the through traffic is on the M74. It has good surfaces and is mostly not so close to the motorway that traffic noise is noticeable

Or if you are wanting to use the B7020 then use the B7076 to Ecclefechan and the B725 to get to the B7020.

It's a shame to skip Lockerbie though as there is a good choice of bakeries and cafes and pubs for a lunch stop.

Oops!.

Having read other replies and re-read the OP I misunderstood how the accident happened. Previous post here deleted.

[quote="garygkn"]I don't use the flashing mode on any of my rear lights as I find riding behind cyclists that do have flashing lights highly distracting and irritating.
Am I the only one with this view?
quote]

Being visible to motorists in traffic is more important than anything else. That said if cycling in a group I'd put my lights on steady mode.

My commute around Glasgow is outside peak times so I don't see that many other cyclists. I've never seen anyone with lights bright enough to be a problem. In fact the usual case is cyclists with no lights or very poor lights.

I use a Smart Superflash and a Cateye LD610 (superb light) at the back. I think two lights is better both because of the strobe/chase effect it gives and should one light fail it isn't a problem.

I think my set up would be irritating to follow closely behind. But like I said I don't see many other cyclists. My response to a cyclist with dazzling rear lights would be to follow far enough back to reduce the problem or to overtake.

On light in general, I don't think the Superflash or LD610 can be improved. They are bright enough that anyone looking can't miss them. Going brighter will cause dazzling and battery life problems IMO.

The choice is yours but in making it take into account the fact that the inland route via Altnahara is gives a real feeling of remoteness and has FAR less traffic. The Loch Naver and Strathnaver section of my LEJOG was one of the highlights of the trip. There was at the time of my trip a small caravan site at Lochnaver (a dozen or so vans) which at the time I did it was an unexpected ice cream stop.

Looking back about 5 years after my trip the high spots were ..

Leaving Lands End - Nice scenery and the feeling of 1000 miles of tour ahead.

The old A30 through Devon. Thatched cottages and chocolate box style rolling green hills with black and white cows.

Maybe not a common choice here - Old Bristol Rd over the hills from Wells to Chew Valley Lake. Traffic free after busy roads to Wells and great views of the surrounding flat lands.

The A466 north from Chepstow

The forest of Bowland - nice moorland scenery.

The final day - Carbisdale Castle to JOG. Remote moorland scenery for the first half then superb coastal scenery the second half. Quiet roads all day except for the bizarre experience of when just past the Dounrae Nuclear Plant the end of dayshift rush appeared. Constant cars and buses for 15 minutes then silence again.

Of course I may under rate some of the Scottish scenery elsewhere due to over familiarity.

10 or 11 miles each way.
3 or 4 times a week.
All year barring icy roads or storm force winds.

The online version is here

www.trekbikes.com/pdf/owners_manuals/06 ... _6i_8i.pdf

Vicc wrote: I noticed the car at the junction (approx 15-20 yards before I reached it) I was cycling leisurely in 5th gear. The car was stationery as I approached it, but when my front wheel came in line with the car, the car started to edge forward and there was nothing I could do to avoid the accident.

But the accident was completely avoidable if you hadn't gone down the one way street the wrong way.

I suspect that even if the driver is found to be at fault any damages will be reduced because of the fact you were cycling the wrong way down a one way street. There is a couple of cases referred to on the website of Russell Jones & Walker which might be relevant.

www.rjw.co.uk/ctc/q-a-from-cycle-magazine

"When conducting a manoeuvre that is fraught with danger, there is a duty on the cyclist to take extra care for his own safety. A cyclist travelling too fast when overtaking is likely to be found the author of his own misfortune to a large degree, with a resultant reduction in any damages awarded. A failure of a driver to indicate, or do so at the last moment, would be taken into account by a judge when assessing primary liability and contributory negligence, as would breaches of the Highway Code generally. However, it is worth noting that there is no principle of law laid down in the reported authorities and every case will turn on its own facts."

I would suggest that riding against the traffic flow is "fraught with danger".
A motorcyclist found to have carried out a dangerous manoeuvre had his damages reduced by 80%

"For example, in the case of Powell v. Moody, a motorcyclist overtook a stationary line of traffic two abreast and was struck by a defendant’s car exiting a side road to his left. The Court of Appeal held that an apportionment of 80% blame on behalf of the motorcyclist was reasonable, because any vehicle which jumped a queue of stationary vehicles was undertaking an operation fraught with great hazard and which had to be carried out with great care."

But who knows? Maybe a court will find the driver to be almost entirely to blame. Please let us know the final outcome.

On my E2e I didn't book anything. It was early May so I assumed that if my first choices - all youth hostels - were full then I would get a B&B nearby.
I carried a list of tel numbers for my hostels and nearby hostels for longer/shorter days. Once or twice when I knew I'd be arriving late I phoned a hostel up around 5 or 6pm to check for spaces.

Anyway it worked for me. One day I was going better than expected and compressed 2 planned days into one 110 miler day. Not prebooking lets you take advantage of tailwinds etc to do longer days or to cut days short in a headwind or bad weather.

One exception to the rule would be Carbisdale Castle SYHA which is often block booked by school parties in May/June. Maybe worth phoning the night before to check.

garybaldy wrote:Hello,

Does anyone have advice on cycling routes across Glasgow. I will be approaching from the Larkhall area and making my way to Alexandria.

Thanks

Tony

From Larkhall - B7078, A72 into Hamilton. The A72 is wide and carries little traffic as through traffic is on the M74.

In Hamilton there is a one way system in the town centre. Follow this round until the A724 (signposted Cambuslang or Rutherglen)

Follow the A724 until the A749. Right onto the A749. Follow the A749 until Bridgeton Cross. An obvious junction where 7 roads meet. Follow the road left as it becomes the A74 James St. Follow the A74 ahead as it becomes the A8. Paisley Rd. A mile after the road goes under a large motorway bridge the road forks.at a Y junction. The the RH fork to continue on the A8. Follw the A8 for some 5 miles to Renfrew town centre.

At the town centre turn right on to Ferry Rd which goes to a foot/cycle ferry over the Clyde. This runs all year round.

www.strathclyde-pte.gov.uk/ferry/renfrew.html

Once over the river at the main road turn left on to the A814 and follow it to where it joins the A82 at Bowling. The A814 is much better than the A82 before Bowling. The A82 is 70mph busy dual carriageway. The A814 is a quiet 30mph road most of the way.

Past Bowling the A82 carries heavy traffic. It can be avoided if you wish. 10 meters before the A814 and A82 join at a roundabout a cycle path with a good tarmac surface starts running parallel to the A82 on the south side. This runs to Dumbarton where a signposted cycle route goes through quiet streets to join the towpath on the river Leven whioch goes to Alexandria. A faster option from Dumbarton to Alexandria is the A812/B857. Light traffic and the B857 is wide enough to share lanes with traffic. I would avoid the A82 south of Balloch.

I've maybe given too much detail. Simpler directions if you get lost and don't mind following a canal towpath are

Follow signs to Glasgow city centre. Once there ask for directions to George Square. From George Sq Take North Hanover Street which is the only uphill exit from the square. After 600M turn 45 degrees left at the traffic lights (4th set from the square). There is a bike shop - Dales - on the right here if needed. Continue forward for 400m and take the road going under the motorway. Immediately under the motorway turn left and you will then see the canal on your left. You need to cross the bridge to take the towpath on the other side of the canal.

Follow the canal to Bowling.

Vicc wrote:[
The idea that the driver who hit me (when entering a one-way street) was not at fault, is ludicrous.

I would suggest both you and the driver who hit you were at fault. Only a court can attribute what percentage of blame each party has.

Given your account of the manner of his driving

" I could clearly see the car as I approached and then the driver edged out as my front wheel was at the car and continued to move further as it toppled me over. (it wasn't a sharp hit, it was slow and continuous) "

he might well claim that due to reduced visibility he had no option but to EDGE slowly out and was quite reasonably giving the majority of his attention to traffic approaching from the legal direction . If he was edging out into a street with parked cars you would see his bonnet emerging long before he could see you. He might well be found to be less than 50% to blame.

I'm not a lawyer, I wasn't there, the choice is yours, but there are enough get outs for the driver that in your shoes I would write it off to experience.

Mick F wrote:They have dropped the claim, but have no objection to my getting a second opinion or employing a solicitor on a fee-pay basis.
I'll see how they reply to my email, and take it from there.
I have 3 years to act on my claim before it legally is null and void.

Firstly I'm not a lawyer so my opinions are just my opinions. I would be reluctant to employ a lawyer to pursue a case that Russell Jones had assessed as borderline as fees could mount up very quickly.

An alternative if you want to pursue it without significant financial risk is to use the small claims procedure to claim against the council yourself. A cyclist in Glasgow did this successfully for a pothole. I can't find the news report now unfortunately.

The big advantage of the small claims procedure (as I understand it) is that neither side can claim legal expenses from the other. So if the council choose to use hours of lawyers time defending a claim they will not get that money back. They might decide to pay at some point before the hearing. Worst case scenario you lose at court and are out of pocket for the court fees. I think you have a chance of winning. As you have said repeated repairs and monthly inspection suggests an underlying problem perhaps with drainage which they have ignored.

Worth a look are

www.potholes.co.uk/?p=how_to_claim

www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_right ... claims.htm

www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/pdfs/p03_we ... ghways.pdf

Reading the forums on potholes.co.uk I saw an interesting suggestion. A Freedom of Information request to the council asking for info on inspections carried out on the road in question over the past year. How many were carried out. How they were carried out. If by vehicle at what speed. How many people in the vehicle. What faults were recorded.

An FOI request is free and should be answered within a month. It may or may not give useful info but is worth a go. For example it might show less than monthly inspections. It might show that "inspections" rarely identify any faults. And so on.

Also maybe worth asking for is complaints the council received about the road from 3rd parties just on the off chance the pothole was reported before your accident.

An FOI request can be made in any written form so for the time taken to compose an e-mail why not. Most councils have a FOI page on their website. I've made a request to my council and it got the fastest response I've ever had from them as there are legal time limits they need to comply with.

Datalead wrote: If you are going to try something like this for starters try photographing the right bit of road

It's a best guess based on YOUR description

"heading up the twisting bit uphill from Strathblane."

The road isn't any wider elsewhere. Feel free to post a photo of the vast expanse of carriageway anywhere else on that section of the A81 that allowed you to leave and 8 foot gap passing cyclists 2 abreast while still being partly in their lane.

" getting the perspective right with your attempt to put a scale on it."

Sorry. Is it not obvious. The car in the picture is less than 6 feet wide. It takes up 2/3 of the lane. The lane is therefore less than 9 feet wide. What other perspective do you need.

"As for your moronic claim "

When somebody resorts to insults I recognise that as a sign that I've won the debate. Thank you.

Paul Power wrote:You say train fares are already subsidised by the taxpayer - that's a fairly poor argument, when you consider roads are also subsidised by the tax payer.

Actually it is a valid argument. The subsidy per mile travelled for rail dwarfs that for roads.

Look at the pie chart on this link. Total rail expenditure exceed total road and concessionary fares subsidy put together.

www.transportscotland.gov.uk/reports/pu ... 868-06.htm

Then look at the "Average distance travelled per person per year ( miles)" table at the link below. Surface rail is 408. Driver or passenger in car, va, or lorry is a total of 5675

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/12/19160115/1

So rail gets more than half the subsidy but provides around 7% of the passenger miles.

Graham wrote:, a carriageway width that appears to draw motorists into worrying "squeezes" with cyclists and an memorably frequent reluctance to tolerate any delays from their "progress at a reasonable speed".

It is a really bad width for cycling. If each lane was maybe 3 feet wider it could be shared with a car. If each lane was a couple of feet narrower even the most brain dead driver would see a proper overtake is required.

That 18 foot width encourages drivers to squeeze past when it isn't safe. Unless the cyclist takes the lane.

Evidence elsewhere suggests a minimum 4.2M lane width and ideally 4.5M for motorists to overtake cyclists without using the other lane. THe A81 lanes are no more than 3M.

http://www.ealingcycling.org.uk/Subject ... #CAppendix

kwackers wrote:You're right it is difficult to say what happened but we do have some facts.

According to another poster the road is 18 feet wide. (9 foot per lane)

Datalead claims the cyclists were riding 2 or 3 abreast. That's pretty much the whole of one lane...

I use the road concerned regularly. For those who don't know it I took a photo today. Using a scale of a small hatchback having a width (excluding wing mirrors) of 5ft 6" or so I've put a rough scale on it.
I think my earlier guess of 18 feet width isn't too far away.

Anyway look at the photo and decide for yourself whether anyone overtaking cyclists riding two abreast without even going completely into the other lane could leave an 8 foot plus gap.



I would think the gap was near 8 inches than 8 feet.