You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
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Lousy
You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
Recent media coverage confirms that U.K. roads are in poor condition,worst of all in Scotland.This is bad news for cyclists and personal experience reinforces this.Why don't cyclists/cycling organisations campaign for road repairs and maintenance to be undertaken with them in mind,not just motorists and other drivers.Let your council ,or that of any area you cycle in ,know your opinions.Give specifics to back up it Don't accept potholes,crumbling roads other hazards and a lack of cycling lanes especially in cities and built up areas.Do something about it!Why should we accept poorer conditions than in Holland and Germany.
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Jim Crosskell
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
I would take issue with the idea thet Scottish roads are worse than any others in the UK. My experience of them is limited to those North of Oban/Inverness, but I have yet to find a bad one. Even the route to Cape Wrath lighthouse has been patched more recently than some of my local roads.
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gar
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
Am I right in thinking that town roads are maintained by District and rural roads by county, which would account for jim's remarks?
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gar
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
4x4s are a statement surely of the purpose of cars as tanks without any formal weaponry, other than the sheer bulk of the machine?
I live near the Tank regiment so I would not be at all suprised to see gun portals opened on ANY such 4x4 anywhere in the world
The next latest intimidatory gimmick which put the fear of the devil into Sarah Kennedy on the way to work the other morning, is the use of darkened windows on such cars, to prevent any of the eyeballing which cyclists value so much, and even other motorists, but which these
creeps are intent on denying to other road users.
Darkened windows should be banned
If they want to use the roads they should exercise some manners upon them, even to those who have none themselves
I live near the Tank regiment so I would not be at all suprised to see gun portals opened on ANY such 4x4 anywhere in the world
The next latest intimidatory gimmick which put the fear of the devil into Sarah Kennedy on the way to work the other morning, is the use of darkened windows on such cars, to prevent any of the eyeballing which cyclists value so much, and even other motorists, but which these
creeps are intent on denying to other road users.
Darkened windows should be banned
If they want to use the roads they should exercise some manners upon them, even to those who have none themselves
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TJ
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
Agreed. Eye contact is an essential part of road etiquette, if eye contact is made then you know you have been seen. That is not to say however, that some homicidal nut-case won't pull out on you anyway, but at least it reduces the risk.
With the move towards the use of speed cameras which take pictures from the front to identify the driver, you would have thought blacked out windows would have been made illegal already, or am I missing something here?
With the move towards the use of speed cameras which take pictures from the front to identify the driver, you would have thought blacked out windows would have been made illegal already, or am I missing something here?
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gar
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
blacked out windows would have been made illegal already, or am I missing something here?
Will somebody submit that to CTC policy or campiagners? How can that be done?
Will somebody submit that to CTC policy or campiagners? How can that be done?
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B
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
Surely a lot of nonsense is sprouted about road conditions in the UK (or any other nation with a predominantly metalled road network).
Firstly in those countries without so many metalled roads you still see plenty of two-wheel drive vehicles managing fine.
Secondly you only have to go back twenty years to remember that all sorts of people working in land management did so in two-wheel drives - unless you really are always driving across claggy meadows you don't need 4WD most of the time. I live in rural North Yorkshire and it amazes me to think that Alf Wight (the real James Herriot) went all over some of remotest parts of the Dales in cars like Austin 7s. But he did - and at a time when the roads and the farm tracks must have been in poorer condition. Is the proliferation of 4WDs because of our poor roads? No it's because it's fashionable and well-advertised.
Firstly in those countries without so many metalled roads you still see plenty of two-wheel drive vehicles managing fine.
Secondly you only have to go back twenty years to remember that all sorts of people working in land management did so in two-wheel drives - unless you really are always driving across claggy meadows you don't need 4WD most of the time. I live in rural North Yorkshire and it amazes me to think that Alf Wight (the real James Herriot) went all over some of remotest parts of the Dales in cars like Austin 7s. But he did - and at a time when the roads and the farm tracks must have been in poorer condition. Is the proliferation of 4WDs because of our poor roads? No it's because it's fashionable and well-advertised.
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gar
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
No it's because it's fashionable and well-advertised. thoroughly objectionable,
status conscious and eco oblivious;
frequently seeking to ape and imitate the very few country types whose lives are actually made easier
by such vehicles.
My brother spends £17k/yr on fuel driving from
East Surrey to Weymouth every week, more than twice my annual income. His actual need for it on that journey is about twice or three times per year.
status conscious and eco oblivious;
frequently seeking to ape and imitate the very few country types whose lives are actually made easier
by such vehicles.
My brother spends £17k/yr on fuel driving from
East Surrey to Weymouth every week, more than twice my annual income. His actual need for it on that journey is about twice or three times per year.
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robin
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
yes but in the past before you could get a decent mountain bike, you may have used a road bike, but if you rode it hard off road you kept breaking the frames or forks, or mashing the wheels.
as for the 4WD's, i find the little t***s in their Vauxhall Nova's with the pumping bass and blacked out windows and noisey exhausts, are twice as bad, they've learned to drive after playing on Playstations (where you can crash but it doesn't hurt) and they think they're indestructible and no other road users important. oh and Volvo drivers.............
as for the 4WD's, i find the little t***s in their Vauxhall Nova's with the pumping bass and blacked out windows and noisey exhausts, are twice as bad, they've learned to drive after playing on Playstations (where you can crash but it doesn't hurt) and they think they're indestructible and no other road users important. oh and Volvo drivers.............
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B
Re:You Only Get What You Ask For/Road Conditions
I think it is the perception of status which has been the main driver in in the increase in 4WD sales. People try to justify it by citing poor roads or even superior safety (though I think the highest-rated 'safe' cars are not 4x4s).
However this is baloney. To put it in perspective I have been working in land management for nine years, both self-employed and employed. In that time I have driven a variety of flatbeds, pick-ups vans and cars during which time I have had one vehicle with 4WD capacity for about 16 months. During that time I used 4WD about 10% of the time. To say you need a 4x4 because of speed humps in your local town is being self-delusional.
Oh and I've been stuck three times - and two of those times I don't think 4WD would have made a difference!
However this is baloney. To put it in perspective I have been working in land management for nine years, both self-employed and employed. In that time I have driven a variety of flatbeds, pick-ups vans and cars during which time I have had one vehicle with 4WD capacity for about 16 months. During that time I used 4WD about 10% of the time. To say you need a 4x4 because of speed humps in your local town is being self-delusional.
Oh and I've been stuck three times - and two of those times I don't think 4WD would have made a difference!