Cycling UK Forum

In North Wales ,we have had 12" or more of snow in the last few days,which has meant that the roads are much narrower & the pedestrians forced onto the road. However,this almost seems to have been beneficial!
Drivers are proceeding with caution,on the much narrowed snow free tracks,giving way to pedestrians & cyclists, & there is a virtual self-imposed '20mph is Plenty' limit on all the local roads!
Further,people are talking to their neighbours (who they hadn't previously met) whilst digging themselves out,& I even chatted to a Policewoman (on foot!) who said they had been forced to walk around as they couldn't get their cars out!
In adversity we thrive! Perhaps we need something like this more often,although I appreciate that the economic damage might be significant.

this is what I noticed when we 1st had a big snow - for the first couple of days drivers were so much more careful.

sort of like putting a big spike in the middle of the steering wheel and removing the seat belts and air bags.

alas, when they got used to it a minority seemed to return to their previous ways.

They're not so careful at clearing the snow off the bonnet/roof/boot! Just a short ride to the gym today (virtuous aren't I????) but skidded a couple of times on what I can only assume to be snow deposited by a car/van/lorry. On the way back got showered by cold sharp ice as a result of a large chunk of hard snow being deposited on the road from a the car in front! Why are people so lazy? I've even seen drivers in what can only be described as igloos with a porthole!

I love this aspect of bad weather
Last year, can't remember when, I walked about 5 miles from the north of town back across the river, half of it with a really old gentleman with a pair of ski poles.
Really slippy ice, I was really enjoying it, sliding along with my bike, having a really good chat with this guy. Sometimes I forget that the weather isn't bad anymore and think about starting up conversations with strangers. But I am afraid that I might be frowned at : )

johncarnie wrote:They're not so careful at clearing the snow off the bonnet/roof/boot! Just a short ride to the gym today (virtuous aren't I????) but skidded a couple of times on what I can only assume to be snow deposited by a car/van/lorry. On the way back got showered by cold sharp ice as a result of a large chunk of hard snow being deposited on the road from a the car in front! Why are people so lazy?

It happens insufficiently often that they are unaware that they are committing an offence.

iviehoff wrote:

johncarnie wrote:They're not so careful at clearing the snow off the bonnet/roof/boot! Just a short ride to the gym today (virtuous aren't I????) but skidded a couple of times on what I can only assume to be snow deposited by a car/van/lorry. On the way back got showered by cold sharp ice as a result of a large chunk of hard snow being deposited on the road from a the car in front! Why are people so lazy?

It happens insufficiently often that they are unaware that they are committing an offence.

So why aren't we putting this useful information on the weather forecasts?

[XAP]Bob wrote:So why aren't we putting this useful information on the weather forecasts?

I though that was a good idea - so I've sent in a request to the BBC (via "contact us" on the BBC weather website).

Rick.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302249/UK-Weather-Mad-March-coldest-51-YEARS-average-temperatures-reached-just-2-5C--idiot-motorist-proves-really-used-it.html

see what I mean?

Surely that can't be genuine If it is the driver should be prosecuted pronto

Having just come back from Belgium where the majority of the roads are narrower I can confirm that it makes people driver safer. Two cars cannot pass each other going in opposite directiosn without the outside wheel going on a 'rumble strip' about two metres wide composed of cobbles which will shake the car mildly and if there is a cyclist invovled, well the person with the cyclist on their side of the road HAS to slow down otherwise they would literally ram them frombehind or otherwise collide with the car coming the other way. It's odd because I would never have thought of this and I guess woudl have expected wider roads = safer roads.

Dynamite_funk wrote:Having just come back from Belgium where the majority of the roads are narrower I can confirm that it makes people driver safer. Two cars cannot pass each other going in opposite directiosn without the outside wheel going on a 'rumble strip' about two metres wide composed of cobbles which will shake the car mildly and if there is a cyclist invovled, well the person with the cyclist on their side of the road HAS to slow down otherwise they would literally ram them frombehind or otherwise collide with the car coming the other way. It's odd because I would never have thought of this and I guess woudl have expected wider roads = safer roads.

Either wide or narrow roads have safety benefits, roads in the middle offer kind if enough room, but not enough to do it properly... so people do it anyway.

hence taking primary (and splitting the space into two 'obviouslt too small gaps' is recommended in various places.

I loved cycling around glasgow a few years ago when there was a whiteout. very few cars about, and those that were went as slowly as I cycled. Oddly I saw more people out on fairly sporty bikes with what looked like road tyres, and very few on the mountain bikes that usually seem to make up so many cyclists