No wonder cyclists are hated
- Thread starter Bristolian
- Start date
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raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
I wish someone would tell drivers that the path at the side is for pedestrians, not for them to park their vehicles on.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I wish someone would tell drivers that the path at the side is for pedestrians, not for them to park their vehicles on.
This is another thing that puts the lie to the idea that most roads were built with motor cars in mind. Huge swathes of the modern urban landscape (pretty much anything pre WWII) was designed and built without a thought that the occupants would own one, let alone multiple, cars. Hence the on-street parking, and now on-footway parking.
Still, all this on-street parking acts as an excellent traffic calming measure.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
It kind of does but the roads out to be made one way as the width is often reduced to well under half its original capacity.
Oldhippy
Cynical idealist
This is why concensus is so hard where every faction has division within division. This is one of many reasons why we are so far behind a lot of the world in this and many other issues. United clear arguments and logic need to be applied. So much harder to achieve sadly.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Interestingly it was recently the 100th anniversary of the UK's first purpose built road for motor vehicles (the A127 in Essex). So any road predating that wasn't designed with cars in mind.
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A127
Of course a lot of roads older than that have been rebuilt and realigned in the past 100 years, and there are plenty of new roads and M ways, but the majority of the network predates the car.
The A127, by the way, is a horrible road. It slices E-W and crossing it in a N-S direction can be difficult. Small N-S roads that used to cross have just been sealed off when it was upgraded to dual carriageway.
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A127
Of course a lot of roads older than that have been rebuilt and realigned in the past 100 years, and there are plenty of new roads and M ways, but the majority of the network predates the car.
The A127, by the way, is a horrible road. It slices E-W and crossing it in a N-S direction can be difficult. Small N-S roads that used to cross have just been sealed off when it was upgraded to dual carriageway.
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I've cycled on all of the single digit A roads, at least briefly.
A1
Totally fine in C. London, and even a bit further out, this was just approaching the A406 N. Circular.
A2
Obviously as pictured above, but further into Kent it can look like this:
Oh, the horror. (The A2 above was a reccy for if I ever do a Watling Street tour, there are some barriers in places that might preclude a laden tourer on the cycle paths, while also seeing that you could actually cycle to Darenth interchange legally. I couldn't believe that there were no "no cycling" signs for the A282 without seeing it for myself).
A3
No personal photos, but I've briefly ridden along it in C. London. The Portsmouth end is fine too.
A4
Mostly a nice quiet country road, really. Would be a go-to route for doing London-Bristol, maybe deviating at either end, where the road is at its worst.
A5
Quite a varied route, mostly single carriageway.
Another very varied route, the northern end in particular is pretty quiet.
A7
A direct corollary to the A6 in Carlisle.
A8
A brief section in Glasgow.
A9
A good stint from Wick to the A99 at Latheron.
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matticus
Guru
Good work! I think this deserves a new thread:
"What's your favourite single-digit A-road?"
(I'd currently say the A6 - because there are sections where you get a good view of the Cumbrian Fells AND Great Dun Fell etc
A9 a close second - hard to beat the Cairngorms - but it does carry a lot of heavy traffic if you choose the wrong time.
Anyway ... )
Fastpedaller
Über Member
Indeed the A127 is a horrible road. 30+ years ago, I time-trialled my first 25 along it - I certainly wouldn't want to do it now
Quite a difficult one tbh. The southern side of the A6 is a bit more naff. But Cumbria is a very nice section indeed, and you've got the Peak District too.
The A1, at 637 km, would be an epic journey, although obviously you need to allow the old route (Great North Road) for it to even be possible. And still end up with a lot of nasty sections of dual carriageway.
The A2 - mostly dual carriageway. My interest in it is Watling Street, which allows - no, requires - older sections where feasible.
The A3 - mostly nasty. You get the Surrey Hills, but avoiding the Hindhead Tunnel is an additional faff.
The A4 - Mostly a very nice ride, some hills, but a well engineered road. 200 km, so a challenging day out. Time it right so that you do London-Reading at a quiet time of day, hopefully Bath-Avonmouth falls at a quiet time too.
This is local enough to me that it would be my go-to road to one-shot one of the nine.
A5 - Watling Street again. Busy and nasty sections again, but I think you could make it work. Awesome in Snowdonia.
A7 - Short and sweet, 150 km. Absolutely gorgeous, and low traffic. Nae bother.
A8 - The shortest of all at 69 miles (nice). The old road is required, since in a lot of places it's entirely replaced by the M8. Sections are just grim.
The A9 - Very varied, a 450 km epic. If you allow the old road, it avoids the nastiness through the Cairngorns, and lets you focus on the scenery.
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ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
A lot of the problem is attitude
Many eyars ago I remember 2 things that happened quite close to each other
firstly I was supposed to be in a meeting with some external suppliers for the large company I worked for at the time
They range to say the traffic was bad due to an accident on the M6
some people in the meeting were of the concept that this shows that this company was not looking good if they can;t even turn up on time to a meeting!
I commented that they can;t be held responsible for traffic accidents as they are unpredictable
This was not accepted as an acceptable reason
Shortly after I was due to travel from Liverpool - where I worked - to Sunderland
WHen I arrived I would go to a meeting about some computery thing I was working on but I was taking a couple of colleagues with me
One of the colleagues was running late and someone commented that I would have to drive a bit faster to make up the time
I replied that the time was arrived was fixed at the time we started driving and speeding up would not be happening
Again - this was treated as a bad thing - but in this case I was driving and it was my car so they were rather stumped
both situation show that people regard time as critical even if they are driving long distance
and this leads to an attitude that if you are running late then you HAVE TO GET A MOVE ON
which is not how it is supposed to work - the M6 is running slow then you get delayed and the people expecting you should allow for this and have some flexibility
but they don;t so sales staff end up having meetings with fixed times and feel that they have to drive fast to meet the deadline
which explains a lot of the idiotic driving I see on roads IMO
Many eyars ago I remember 2 things that happened quite close to each other
firstly I was supposed to be in a meeting with some external suppliers for the large company I worked for at the time
They range to say the traffic was bad due to an accident on the M6
some people in the meeting were of the concept that this shows that this company was not looking good if they can;t even turn up on time to a meeting!
I commented that they can;t be held responsible for traffic accidents as they are unpredictable
This was not accepted as an acceptable reason
Shortly after I was due to travel from Liverpool - where I worked - to Sunderland
WHen I arrived I would go to a meeting about some computery thing I was working on but I was taking a couple of colleagues with me
One of the colleagues was running late and someone commented that I would have to drive a bit faster to make up the time
I replied that the time was arrived was fixed at the time we started driving and speeding up would not be happening
Again - this was treated as a bad thing - but in this case I was driving and it was my car so they were rather stumped
both situation show that people regard time as critical even if they are driving long distance
and this leads to an attitude that if you are running late then you HAVE TO GET A MOVE ON
which is not how it is supposed to work - the M6 is running slow then you get delayed and the people expecting you should allow for this and have some flexibility
but they don;t so sales staff end up having meetings with fixed times and feel that they have to drive fast to meet the deadline
which explains a lot of the idiotic driving I see on roads IMO
Does no one ever contemplate leaving early just in case?
I prefer going for a leisurely coffee or pint after arrival to swanning around before departure.
Badger_Boom
Veteran
- Location
- York
All reasons why my employer has been discouraging (but not 'banning') car travel for business for at least a decade. When it comes to business meetings, there aren't many places you can't get to by public transport with a bit of planning, and with the advent of remote working technology it's easier than ever to avoid the travel completely.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
I know you are joking but I did read of a, to me ridiculous, case where a farmer was held liable when his cows trampled and badly injured or killed a walker. Cows aren't really un unreasonable hazard to encounter in a field just like one might encounter a cliff if climbing Ben Nevis and walkers should be prepared to react appropriately if they get a bit frisky, particularly if you have a dog with you as cows tend to intensely dislike dogs.
I believe there may be rules about keeping bulls in fields with public footpaths eg restrictions o dairy bulls (who tend to be nastier) or must be with cows (so they lool after their ladies rather than be frustratedly aggressive if alone)
