and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
forbas
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by forbas »

Mike Sales wrote: 12 Jun 2021, 1:20pm I don't have a favourite path, but I have joined in the village mass litter pick around the lanes.
I was always thinking about it. I know the local group here and wa going to join them it I jave so many commitments (sounds like excuse) that I never did.

Hopefully one day.

Well done. Keep up good work.
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Cowsham
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by Cowsham »

My son and I sometimes pick litter on the roads near home -- people in cars seem to wait till they're out of town to dispose of fast food packaging on country roads.

The paths in near town are OK since there's too many people around to risk getting caught littering.
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millimole
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by millimole »

I've been litter picking as part of my voluntary job with the canal Trust for the best part of a decade - mainly a stretch of towpath just south of Leicester, Easter to October, roughly one day a week.
Pre-covid it was noticeable that the more the litter was cleared, the less got dropped. That no longer seems to apply - there's more litter (& barbecue litter) than I've ever seen.

Be careful when litter picking people - I've found needles in crisp packets, excrement in fast food boxes, far too much broken glass, as well as used hygiene products and old nappies. Wear gloves, use a litter picker. Wash your hands as soon as practical afterwards.
Leicester; Riding my Hetchins since 1971; Day rides on my Dawes; Going to the shops on a Decathlon Hoprider
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mjr
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by mjr »

I don't see many motorists clearing or repairing the motorways. Why are they so much less community-minded than cyclists?
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forbas
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by forbas »

mjr wrote: 12 Jun 2021, 10:52pm I don't see many motorists clearing or repairing the motorways. Why are they so much less community-minded than cyclists?
Good question !!!
recumbentpanda
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by recumbentpanda »

A bit later in the year I will be packing secateurs on my rides to cut back the many long bramble suckers that grow out over most of my local routes. After storms I often pack a viciously sharp Japanese folding saw with which I have cut up and removed most of a medium sized hawthorn tree, various large fallen branches and on one occasion, cut up a small (8” dia) beech tree into logs -in a torrential rainstorm, natch, -it was the only way to get home 😬
I did have a plan to strew wildflower seeds along the verges as I rode along, but my beloved nicked them for a different project. I may get back to that next year.
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Cowsham
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by Cowsham »

forbas wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 8:33am
mjr wrote: 12 Jun 2021, 10:52pm I don't see many motorists clearing or repairing the motorways. Why are they so much less community-minded than cyclists?
Good question !!!

Car taxes?
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mjr
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by mjr »

Cowsham wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 8:43pm
forbas wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 8:33am
mjr wrote: 12 Jun 2021, 10:52pm I don't see many motorists clearing or repairing the motorways. Why are they so much less community-minded than cyclists?
Good question !!!

Car taxes?
No, as many cyclists still pay tax on a car they don't even use much.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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pete75
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by pete75 »

mjr wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 9:22pm
Cowsham wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 8:43pm
forbas wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 8:33am

Good question !!!

Car taxes?
No, as many cyclists still pay tax on a car they don't even use much.
Then they're fools. Why have a vehicle with expensive costs like tax, insurance and depreciation if you don't use it much? Might be more sensible to hire a vehicle when needed..
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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mjr
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by mjr »

pete75 wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 11:04pm
mjr wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 9:22pm No, as many cyclists still pay tax on a car they don't even use much.
Then they're fools. Why have a vehicle with expensive costs like tax, insurance and depreciation if you don't use it much? Might be more sensible to hire a vehicle when needed..
Car hire companies are far away and pretty awful to deal with (slow collection and hidden charges, amongst other problems), so maybe 90 minutes overhead for each pickup and 45 fo dropoff makes it more expensive than a low CO2 tax and low mileage insurance, as well as obviously less convienient.

If I lived in a city with a car share system, I doubt I would keep a car, but few villages have them yet.
Last edited by mjr on 14 Jun 2021, 8:38am, edited 1 time in total.
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Cowsham
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by Cowsham »

pete75 wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 11:04pm
mjr wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 9:22pm
Cowsham wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 8:43pm


Car taxes?
No, as many cyclists still pay tax on a car they don't even use much.
Then they're fools. Why have a vehicle with expensive costs like tax, insurance and depreciation if you don't use it much? Might be more sensible to hire a vehicle when needed..
I'd happily pay a cycle tax, even if I didn't use it much, if it meant there'd be paths built and maintained separate from the road ( even shared with walkers since we are allowed to share with cars on a road we didn't pay for ) though I'd expect this comment will have some cyclists up in arms at the very suggestion and probably needs a separate thread.
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mjr
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by mjr »

Cowsham wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 8:38am I'd happily pay a cycle tax if it meant there'd be paths built and maintained separate from the road ( even shared with walkers since we are allowed to share with cars on a road we didn't pay for ) though I'd expect this comment will have some cyclists up in arms at the very suggestion and probably needs a separate thread.
Double taxation, innit?

And it is generally absurd to tax behaviour that benefits society and government wants to encourage.
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Pete Owens
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by Pete Owens »

forbas wrote: 11 Jun 2021, 1:18pm I bought special garden scissors and decided to clear them up for my own and other fellow cyclist's benefit.
And for the benefit of pedestrians you could stop riding on the pavement - whether or not some muppet from the council has put up a blue sign permitting it .
millimole
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by millimole »


mjr wrote:
pete75 wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 11:04pm
mjr wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 9:22pm No, as many cyclists still pay tax on a car they don't even use much.
Then they're fools. Why have a vehicle with expensive costs like tax, insurance and depreciation if you don't use it much? Might be more sensible to hire a vehicle when needed..
Car hire companies are far away and pretty awful to deal with
.
There is a circle of hell which involves car hire companies.
You order an estate - you get a massive SUV, you order a city car and you get an estate. The prices are opaque and there's always hidden extras. Is fuel included, or not? Was that stone chip really not there in the wheel arch when I collected the thing?
If the costs of hiring were marginally cheaper, I'd still keep a car waiting on the drive so I didn't have to deal with these criminals.
Leicester; Riding my Hetchins since 1971; Day rides on my Dawes; Going to the shops on a Decathlon Hoprider
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Cowsham
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Re: and what YOU have done to improve your favorite path ???

Post by Cowsham »

millimole wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 4:41pm
mjr wrote:
pete75 wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 11:04pm
Then they're fools. Why have a vehicle with expensive costs like tax, insurance and depreciation if you don't use it much? Might be more sensible to hire a vehicle when needed..
Car hire companies are far away and pretty awful to deal with
.
There is a circle of hell which involves car hire companies.
You order an estate - you get a massive SUV, you order a city car and you get an estate. The prices are opaque and there's always hidden extras. Is fuel included, or not? Was that stone chip really not there in the wheel arch when I collected the thing?
If the costs of hiring were marginally cheaper, I'd still keep a car waiting on the drive so I didn't have to deal with these criminals.
Take plenty of photos and email them to the car hire firm before you drive off and plenty as you leave the car back again emailing to the company to get a date stamp on.

Credit hire companies have a special evil all to themselves. They manage a no fault claim on behalf of your insurance company -- it cost about £3k to fix our car but £6k for the car they hired to us while they fixed ours. All I can say is it's one hell of a money racket.

You're advised to take out a legal cover insurance for about £20 before all this goes on. Then they try to bill the at fault parties insurance £9k which is rightly contested.

Then the credit hire company employs a solicitor who contacts you to warn you if you do not give the go ahead to pursue the £9k bill then you could become liable for the car hire cost. :shock:

So you say yes pursue the claim -- what happens after that is the firms all come to some agreement that suits them and it's sorted but it's all a big chicken dance as far as I can see to wangle as much money around the lads as possible.

I'd guess if you didn't take the £20 insurance cover none of that would happen but would I want to test that theory ? -- NO!
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