The passing of the pristine country lane

[Graham]

There used to be an endless selection of them around here. Quiet, clean and delightful for cycling.
South Downs National Park . . . . .

In recent years something changed, with regular littering, verges smashed to hell and vehicle drivers keen to push past as fast as they can get away with.

Here is my theory :-
* Sat Navs have made the lanes a route choice for many more drivers. Thus, there is use by many more non-local drivers.

* More larger vehicles - requiring more passing events.

* More vehicles capable of running onto verges whilst maintaining speed.

* Outlets of take-away, food-alike-substances & drinks are everywhere.

Maybe you figured this out more quickly than I did.

The catalyst : yesterday, I found discarded carrier bag of rubbish. Apart from the profusion of wrappers was :-
Three pages of google map directions, for deliveries, printed out on company headed notepaper.
AND
The purchasing receipt for the items within the bag - with the partially obscured payment card details.

Is this a brazen person or an idiot ?

In general, the destruction genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

[pwa]

I use a satnav regularly and yes, I'm sure that is why many lanes are less quiet. The roads that were once known only to locals are now available to anyone for whom they provide a viable route. My Garmin satnav takes pleasure in trying to send me down narrow lanes even where there is a more practical main road route that would actually save me time! I ignore it when I know it is doing that, but of course when I am really relying on the satnav I have to do what I am told and follow its instructions. My hope is that Garmin etc refine their products so that they keep traffic on roads that are more suitable, only resorting to narrow lanes to close in on the destination address.

[foxyrider]

I hope you have contacted the company in question and reported their drivers littering.

The SUV menace is certainly contributory as are the 'fast food' purveyors.

GPS is a menace as we know - not sure why anyone really needs it to get about.

A national radio presenter only yesterday was bewailing being taken on a huge diversion by her satnav on the way to work - a journey she makes 5 days a week, every week. Her co presenters were rightly scathing in their scorn. It is however all too prevalent today, the use of technology for its own sake rather than need.

Okay, i'm a bit of a map head but I managed to navigate my family around a 200 mile day trip, largely on country lanes, many of which were new to me without making a single wrong turn or using a map or gps. I don't consider that exceptional, I do it abroad as well as in the UK - it's amazing how useful those pointy things with letters on can be!

BTW, if you want some 'pristine' lanes to ride - there are an abundance up here in't North!

[Tangled Metal]

Contact your local paper or radio station. Tell them that a certain fast food establishment is not keeping customer card details secure. Pass it on to as many people as you can. It is not good for any customer to have card details dumped like that. I hope you don't use them.

PS can i have them. There's a website i could sell the details on to. I'll make a bit out of it!!! Share it with you!

Joking of course. You'll get nothing.

[Tangled Metal]

PS it is obviously better to pay takeaway deliveries with cash. I never get a delivery unless i have the cash needed. I don't trust delivery drivers with credit card details. Seems I've a good reason beyond my obvious paranoia!

[pwa]

I hope you have contacted the company in question and reported their drivers littering.

The SUV menace is certainly contributory as are the 'fast food' purveyors.

GPS is a menace as we know - not sure why anyone really needs it to get about.

A national radio presenter only yesterday was bewailing being taken on a huge diversion by her satnav on the way to work - a journey she makes 5 days a week, every week. Her co presenters were rightly scathing in their scorn. It is however all too prevalent today, the use of technology for its own sake rather than need.

Okay, i'm a bit of a map head but I managed to navigate my family around a 200 mile day trip, largely on country lanes, many of which were new to me without making a single wrong turn or using a map or gps. I don't consider that exceptional, I do it abroad as well as in the UK - it's amazing how useful those pointy things with letters on can be!

BTW, if you want some 'pristine' lanes to ride - there are an abundance up here in't North!

I use a satnav as part of my work, and there is no alternative. Other than constantly getting lost. I'd imagine that anyone doing a familiar journey and getting taken on a longer route by their satnav is likely to be using a unit that reroutes in response to updates on road closures and so forth. But yes, you can ignore the satnav and make your own choices. The satnav does not always know best.

Plenty of lovely lanes here in Wales.

[squeaker]

* More larger vehicles - requiring more passing events.

* More vehicles capable of running onto verges whilst maintaining speed.

Yep: verges trashed and tarmac edges crumbled - all too common in West Sussex

[Psamathe]

Having only been cycling a few years I can't rally compare to past times but I would agree about the lanes being needlessly spoilt.

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.

Certainly that vehicles seem capable of running up on the verges at speed, though this is made worse by the fact that so often a driver will not stop at a passing place and has to run up on the verge 30m after the passing place. I wonder is that is more down to driving behaviour - regarding cyclists as taking no space and life being "rush, rush, rush" and "time is money" so waiting for a few seconds in a passing place is wasted time ...

Unsure about SatNavs in my area as to get from A to B there are far better faster roads than using the lanes so I assume most of the traffic is local (or at end of journey). Assuming my guess is right it could be that SatNavs might actually help reducing traffic and allowing drivers t focus more on the road. a complete guess but a driver who is lost might travel many miles around the lanes going past their turning, going back, trying down this way ... whilst a satNav takes you directly there. also, having a voice announcing turnings with warning means you don't have to keep trying to read any house numbers, search out a road name whilst driving past but can focus more on controlling the car. This is of course supposition.

Litter: I have always found the litter in the UK a lot worse that when I live din France. Every visit home, driving out of the ferry port it was a real shock the state of litter along the roads. In the lanes I notice more drink cans that fast food packaging. Plus the fly-tipping, mattresses in ditches, fridges left on the verge, etc. Several years ago I walked to my local village post office (rural single track lanes) and was so horrified, I asked them for a couple of carrier bags and on my return trip home I filled both carrier bags with litter over the 1 mile trip.

Re: the discarded bag you found (with company info), if it was a local company that I passed (or could cycle to) then I'd drop the litter off at their premises and let them know what I thought.

Ian

[Silverdorking]

Increasingly, a lot of verge destruction reflects changes in agriculture practise. Amalgamation of land holdings results in a lot of remote management and greater distances travelled by larger and larger farm machinery under greater time pressure.
With absolute off-road potential tractors, frequently pulling larger trailers, slurry tankers or forage loader wagons are reluctant to reverse to a passing place or even slow down to allow the oncoming conflicting vehicle to back up to an appropriately wider area.
With this frequently happening on soft winter verges a delicate, herb-rich vegetation is increasingly being replaced by coarse dock and thistle of lower visual and habitat value

[Bez]

Bag of rubbish: I'd package it up and add a load of other rubbish collected nearby, with a covering letter explaining that you're weren't 100% sure whether all of it was their property but you wanted to be on the safe side in case they'd lost anything important. Then pop it in the post. I'm not saying you should accidentally use an inadequate stamp so that they have to the excess plus the £1 surcharge, but personally I am very absent-minded so I think I would probably definitely accidentally do that.

I'm not convinced things have got all that much worse over the years in terms of littering but there's always too much, for sure…

[tykeboy2003]

Is this a brazen person or an idiot ?

Steal his identity and buy yourself a nice new bike....

[tykeboy2003]

Bag of rubbish: I'd package it up and add a load of other rubbish collected nearby, with a covering letter explaining that you're weren't 100% sure whether all of it was their property but you wanted to be on the safe side in case they'd lost anything important. Then pop it in the post. I'm not saying you should accidentally use an inadequate stamp so that they have to the excess plus the £1 surcharge, but personally I am very absent-minded so I think I would probably definitely accidentally do that.

I'm not convinced things have got all that much worse over the years in terms of littering but there's always too much, for sure…

Or you could do a Victor Meldrew and chuck it in the back of his car.

[Bez]

On a tangent, what retailer is still printing card details on receipts? I thought that died out ages ago.

[tykeboy2003]

There's an area I call the "Longford Triangle" to the west of Derby, bounded by the A515, A50 and A52 roads. This area is still largely unspoilt - probably because the 3 roads surrounding it are all good roads, thankfully going in the right direction for the vast majority of motorists, so there is little if any advantage to be gained by cutting through it. It's a lovely area for a bike ride on quiet and clean country lanes.

[Vorpal]

Traffic density has noticeably increased in the UK since I moved away. It may also be that councils aren't spending quite as much keeping the lanes pristine as they once were.