foxyrider wrote:GPS is a menace as we know - not sure why anyone really needs it to get about.
I managed to tour around Scotland without one. Christopher Columbus found America without one. Scotty found the South Pole using a sled and Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto using a lense. People these days need a sat nav to find their buttock. Robert Ballard for example, needed sonar and god knows what other tech to find the Titanic and Bismarck.
It was my observation yesterday that the likelihood of a car pulling over on a narrow lane is in inverse proportion to its width, with (I'm afraid it's a stereotype but like most has some truth at heart) Range Rover drivers being the most likely to plough on ahead. HGV drivers tend to be much better; they can't usually pull over but will stop and wait till you're past.
Psamathe wrote:Certainly more larger vehicles; I was reflecting on a ride the other day who may two lane roads for normal hatchbacks are no longer two lane because of the massive vehicles that seem so popular.
A lot of the reason for that is the chase for NCAP 5* safety ratings. What with side impact protection and side airbags etc, it won't be long before the doors are a foot thick, which gives very wide cars that are still quite narrow inside.
The heap in the photo is truly depressing. The less gross but more pervasive trail of debris may be worse because it takes more clearing. I mean the near continuous dump of cheap lager cans, expensive sugar water bottles, remains of takeaway burger meals, disposable nappies etc. That is my whinge of the day.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
In a ditch by a burger van on the A142 near Ely, Cambridgeshire, lives one of our rarest plants. It is the last natural home of fen ragwort, which shows its yellow flowers each summer despite being assailed by discarded coffee cups and the occasional burning car.
It’s the rarest of many plants for which roadside verges have become a last refuge. The fact that rubbish-strewn verges are home to more than half Britain’s flora – 809 species, according to the charity, Plantlife – is a stark sign of how we have trashed our environment, destroying 97% of wildflower meadows since the 1930s.
But we should cherish and celebrate this amazing, accidental habitat. Many verges are fragments of ancient meadows. Chalky motorway embankments are a machine-made flowery downland, while even the despondent-looking brown edges of regularly salted main roads have been adopted by coastal plants, such as Danish scurvygrass. For the 17 million people who commute by road, verges represent their best chance of encountering nature.
But Plantlife says many verges are neglected or cut far too early in the year. Some, of course, must be trimmed for road safety but verges are where wildlife and austerity are in perfect harmony. Everyone wins from a flower-friendly verge – from cash-strapped councils to the rare black hairstreak butterflies enjoying the blackthorn deliberately planted beside the M40.
The government and councils can save money by managing verges for wildlife – ideally only cutting them in late summer, or even sowing yellow rattle, a small flower that parasitises grass, so reducing growth. Burnley borough council has saved £58,000 a year from wildlife-friendly verge and park management.
This stuff is popular – 81% of the public back calls for councils to reduce cutting of verges and parks to help bees and wildflowers, according to a recent Friends of the Earth and Buglife poll. So if you happen to be an apparatchik currently rushing to write a manifesto for a struggling mainstream political party, a commitment to creating 100,000 miles of roadside reserves would be a cheap and imaginative dash of colour.
they still exist. there is a nice one that goes to Warwick from Charlecote ( east of Stratford upon avon ). in fact is the only way not via main roads to get from South of Stratford upon avon, and is used by the local cycling fraternity. the cars that also use it dont really spoil it
Apologies to all if something similar to this has already been posted but this was occupying my mind today.
My commute includes part rural and part urban cycling.
On the rural part rather than take the major road routes into the city which are heavy with car traffic I prefer to take a longer route via small single track roads/lanes in order to have a quieter commute. Over time I've built up knowledge of the roads local to my and I have a fair few options for the commute depending on weather and how long I have.
However recently I just feel like the quieter back roads which were very nice to use are getting busier and busier with vehicle traffic. Now this might be complete coincidence because roads in general are just getting busier but part of me wonders whether car sat navs also contribute to this whereas lots of drivers who used to follow the major routes but will now increasingly go as the crow flies following their sat navs down the local lanes.
Maybe this was particularly at the forefront of my mind because I had three close and dangerous passes on single track lanes this morning which were pretty frustrating!
There is no doubt in my mind that satnav make quiet lanes much busier.
Before we had satnavs passengers in my car used to tell me that they were impressed at my knowledge of all the traffic jam avoiding back lanes and short cuts I took when getting around our locality. I'd gained this knowledge from all my exploring on my bike.
Nowadays everyone has found these lanes.
Oldfield Lane from Altrincham to Dunham used to be my quiet shortcut to the countryside but it can be dangerous now as idiot motorists go far too quickly round the blind bends.
I think sat navs are a minor factor , they will always take you a dodgy route at the end of a route into the country . I live in a lane and no one drives the one end as its too muddy , flooded and much grass growing down it , but as its the shortest route a sat nav will take you that way
Farm vehicles are the biggest issues , tractors are now massive and nearly always with a trailer and many are on contracts taking them 20 or so miles to get there, or part of larger empires spread over a bigger area. 4 wheel drives do not help . Councils generally do not maintain the lanes much only in the village centre. My lane is almost permanently flooded now . It was not for the first 15 years I lived there , council do not want to spend the money sorting out the drainage.
The other biggey is delivery vehicles due to online shopping , could be groceries or the likes of Amazon orders
Satnavs make some lanes busier. Effectively they put local knowledge at the disposal of everyone. But they only put more traffic on certain lanes that offer a direct route. Nearby lanes that don't fit into a network of direct routes remain quiet.
In a ditch by a burger van on the A142 near Ely, Cambridgeshire, lives one of our rarest plants. It is the last natural home of fen ragwort, which shows its yellow flowers each summer despite being assailed by discarded coffee cups and the occasional burning car.
It’s the rarest of many plants for which roadside verges have become a last refuge. The fact that rubbish-strewn verges are home to more than half Britain’s flora – 809 species, according to the charity, Plantlife – is a stark sign of how we have trashed our environment, destroying 97% of wildflower meadows since the 1930s.
But we should cherish and celebrate this amazing, accidental habitat. Many verges are fragments of ancient meadows. Chalky motorway embankments are a machine-made flowery downland, while even the despondent-looking brown edges of regularly salted main roads have been adopted by coastal plants, such as Danish scurvygrass. For the 17 million people who commute by road, verges represent their best chance of encountering nature.
But Plantlife says many verges are neglected or cut far too early in the year. Some, of course, must be trimmed for road safety but verges are where wildlife and austerity are in perfect harmony. Everyone wins from a flower-friendly verge – from cash-strapped councils to the rare black hairstreak butterflies enjoying the blackthorn deliberately planted beside the M40.
The government and councils can save money by managing verges for wildlife – ideally only cutting them in late summer, or even sowing yellow rattle, a small flower that parasitises grass, so reducing growth. Burnley borough council has saved £58,000 a year from wildlife-friendly verge and park management.
This stuff is popular – 81% of the public back calls for councils to reduce cutting of verges and parks to help bees and wildflowers, according to a recent Friends of the Earth and Buglife poll. So if you happen to be an apparatchik currently rushing to write a manifesto for a struggling mainstream political party, a commitment to creating 100,000 miles of roadside reserves would be a cheap and imaginative dash of colour.
Last natural (?) home? Nobody knows whether the rare plants are thriving elsewhere undiscovered. Seems a bit perverse that verges are havens for wild creatures. One wonders whether one or two of them get run over
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120 Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
It's been said for decades that (some) roadsides are the next best thing to proper marshlands, with their waterlogged ditches and lack of agricultural and horticultural attention.
