first Ice- lots of crashes

[SleepyJoe]

Today was the first really icy day on my commute in North Devon.
The cycle paths were a disaster. I know of at least 5 cyclists on road bikes who crashed this morning.
Fortunately, no injuries apart from bruises.
When will the council start to grit the busier cycle paths?
And is it wrong to be smug as I cycled past on my studded winter tyres without any problems?
Mark

[gaz]

My studded tyres went on mid-November.

There have been a couple of frosts since then but they've yet to be used in anger.

[mjr]

When will councils grit cycle routes? Probably never. Check their transport asset management plan. It probably says that they won't grit for some spurious reason. In Norfolk, it says they won't grit cycle tracks because SOME cycling groups said anyone riding when it's icy just rides on the A roads. :-/

[Pompey Monkey]

I fell off on the ice this morning. Just when I relaxed my guard! lol.

The bike's ok though, so all good.

EDIT: On the road!

[mark a.]

The roads were terrible around here this morning, let alone the cycle paths. Wet roads + cold temps = lots and lots of black ice.

[kwackers]

No ice for me at all, but then I've only myself to blame for splashing out on studded tyres.

[FatPunkOnBike]

Ice in South Ayrshire today also, strangely, no ice on the roads in my wee village but quite bad once I arrived in town. When though will the Police take action against drivers who only clear a small gap on the windscreen, meaning they can only ever be driving partially sighted until the rest of the ice melts on their windscreen?!?!

[iviehoff]

We had rain the previous evening so any salting would have been nugatory. Fortunately the temperature only fell below freezing late in the night and the water on the road was mostly still water when I rode to the station.

My local council can't even be bothered to salt the 150yds of road between the main road and the local primary school, resulting in the school being closed unnecessarily frequently. I think councils need to address beams before motes.

[binsted]

My local council can't even be bothered to salt the 150yds of road between the main road and the local primary school, resulting in the school being closed unnecessarily frequently.

Who is running the asylum and thought up that as an excuse. Never had that in the winter of 63 when I were a lad, I guess we were just lucky in not falling over

[Si]

Gritting? Here's the plan for gritting around Brum/WMids: http://mappa-mercia.org/gritting-map.shtml
Surprising how little it covers, and of course by dint of being the main commuter routes the ones that are gritted are the ones that cyclists tend to avoid (unless there is a cycle path there, in which case the grit won't make it that far from the main carriage way).

[jezer]

A friend told me today that her husband came off on ice yesterday. Fortunately he was not hurt, but behind him as he lay in the road was a women in a large 4x4 using her mobile phone, complete with child being delivered to an adjacent private school. She gave him a blast on her horn, presumably expecting him to crawl to the side of the road so she could proceed. He didn't get her reg number, not that it would have done any good