Phd application form - subject 'Reducing the ice hazard for cyclists'

[evink]

If you would like to undertake a PhD on the subject of ‘Reducing the ice hazard for cyclists ‘ further information including the application form can be found on the link below

http://www.centa.org.uk/themes/climate- ... bility/b7/

The PhD is led by Birmingham University and sponsored by Sustrans

The closing date is 10 January 2020

[Si]

Note, it's not Birmingham University, it's University of Birmingham.....two entirely different institutions!

UoB is a nice place to do a PhD at, and now sits on one of Brum's new segregated super cyclepaths, and has the good old Rea Valley route just to the south of it....so good for cycling too.

[sjs]

Note, it's not Birmingham University, it's University of Birmingham.....two entirely different institutions!

Really? Are you reading Birmingham University as Birmingham City University, which is not the same as the University of Birmingham? Wikipedia says "The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) ..."

[9494arnold]

Ride a trike,job done !

[horizon]

It is quite extraordinary how true some of the old fables are. Take for example that of the building of the town walls: the tailor chose cloth as that was his preferred and usual material. Now take the University of Birmingham: they are used to absurdly complicated scientific solutions to problems. So they come up with this daft idea of a temperature sensor to alert cyclists of ice. But because it involves the Internet of Things, then it must be right.

Cyclists already have two straightforward tools when dealing with ice: firstly the weather forecast which will indicate whether the temperature has fallen or will fall below 3 deg.C. They can choose then to ride or not, no different in fact AFAICS from what the University are proposing.

The cyclists' second tool is studded tyres. Ah, ha I hear you say: what normal person will indulge in those? Well, how about promoting them as a better safety device than a helmet?

Rarely have I seen a more convoluted justification for a study that simply tries to piggy-back on a problem just to research a technological bit of nonsense. It is worse than some of the GCSE requests we get on here.

University of Birmingham: please stay away from what you don't understand: get on your bikes this winter and learn. Then come back with some fresh ideas. Thank you.

[gaz]

Ah, ha I hear you say: what normal person will indulge in those?

Guilty as charged .

studded.png

[reohn2]

Ride a trike,job done !

You slid that one in

[reohn2]

...Rarely have I seen a more convoluted justification for a study that simply tries to piggy-back on a problem just to research a technological bit of nonsense. It is worse than some of the GCSE requests we get on here.....

[rmurphy195]

It's an interesting and potentially useful project - however, I can't for the life of me see how cycleways can be maintained snow and ice free without huge and potentially wasteful cost, and potentially having to modify the cycleways to allow vehicles on them, and space to sweep snow into, resulting in losing the cycleway's attraction or even destroying it!

Perhaps I'm lacking a bit of imagination, but some examples that spring to mind

The cycle network in the Forest of Dean
Tissington, High Peak and Monsal trails
Sections of the Rea Valley route through South Birmingham
Stratford Greenway
Canal towpaths everywhere

Put a suitable surface down for vehicles to travel on (e.g. tarmac) and you'll just add to the problem by introducing the likelihood of black ice first thing in the morning or in shady bits, plus maybe a slight slope for water run-off which will then add further potential problems.

[The utility cyclist]

Adopt certain roads so that only people on bikes can use them, make sure councils grit them thoroughly before 'motor' roads at the appropriate times of year.
Simple, effective, costs no more than current practise, requires nothing from the vulnerable road user to change/purchase.
Get cracking!

[Carlton green]

About the most useful thing to come out of the application form was fact that most cycling accidents don’t involve other vehicles. “Non-collision incidents are a leading cause of harm to cyclists in the UK causing four times more hospital admissions than collisions with vehicles.“
Edit. The above is as lifted from the PhD material. If anyone knows I’d be interested to see those statistics. As far as I know the greater proportion of motorcycle accidents also don’t involve another vehicle.

Ice is always going to be somewhere, sometimes ‘hidden’ and sometimes visible but always a hazard to be managed. I can’t see the point of warning riders about only some specific times and places where ice might be present and even less so using the Internet. Surely the money would be better spent on other cycling things.

To my mind how you ride to manage the visible and invisible ice hazard is important, how you prepare your bike for riding in hazardous conditions is important and how you react when your bike goes from under you is important. I’ve ridden bicycles and motorcycles in snow and ice, it wasn’t fun but it was necessary and I managed to avoid upset. Perhaps part of my success in doing that was remembering seeing how easy it was for others to fall off and then taking account of that. If the hazard is that bad then accept that some days it’s better to walk instead and some days it’s best to take a day’s leave and stay at home.

To my mind the PhD or alternatively plain research would be best focussed on gathering information on best practice and skills for cycling in winter conditions and how to disseminate that knowledge. It is through reading good information and by learning from both my own and the mistakes of others that I’ve avoided serious injury. I ride slowly, look at the surfaces ahead of me for ice and camber, have fat grippy tyres, use a non-valuable and tough old bike, have flat pedals (not clipped in feet) and big boots - it ain’t rocket science and I don’t need an app to tell me that it’s cold and that I might fall off.

[atlas_shrugged]

One of the major motivations for the design of the Windcheetah trike was to allow training through the winter months.

For the lucky ones this means a bike for all seasons.

[Si]

Note, it's not Birmingham University, it's University of Birmingham.....two entirely different institutions!

Really? Are you reading Birmingham University as Birmingham City University, which is not the same as the University of Birmingham? Wikipedia says "The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) ..."

yep, really. It used to be the case that brum uni always meant uob but since the dramatic expansion of bcu more and i'm finding more people seem to be referring to bcu as brum uni. Aston just continues to confuse most.

[tim-b]

Hi
I'd imagine treating cycle paths by gritting to be fairly inefficient. 6mm-10mm lumps of rock strewn beneath your tyres anyone? For gritting to be most effective traffic needs to pass to mix the salt into solution with the water already present, and there won't be too much traffic.
The system might be useful as a warning, but micro-climates will still exist
Regards
tim-b

[Morzedec]

I cannot help but wonder who the University might get to supervise such a study?

In the dim and distant past I went through about five supposed supervisors whilst reading for my MBA, not any of whom had the slightest practical knowledge of how a business actually worked. All were appointed by said University (I'll not embarrass them) before they finally came to understand that I was already running a number of businesses and knew far more (about the subject) than the supervisors did.

In the end they found an external, and boy! was he tough: so much so that the University refused to use him again because he scared the other, theory-only, students so much.

In the current climate a University will offer any course they can that might bring in student fees, however spurious and unwanted such a course may be.

Useful education? - I think not.

Back to the happy days, please.