Again I dont know what we're paying council tax for, they clearly aren't bothering to grit any other than the biggest main roads. And gone it seems is a bloke with a trolley doing lanes and pathways.
Took a wee run to the supermarket and just back. Scary.. On ebike and even with the power on eco (I never use eco) i had to turn the pedals slowly in low gearing or the back end started slipping. Corners 😯
I wonder if you were to come off could you put a claim in against the local council, for failing in their duties to keep the roads clear and safe 😕
Spent about forty minutes outside on Friday evening with a deliveroo scooter guy who had slid off outside ours. We’re opposite a park so the road is a lot colder and it was quite slippy. Just heard this almighty bang and then nothing so knew it was a proper off. Fortunately, considering he was wearing jeans and trainers, only a cut on his leg and probably bad bruising. He couldn’t put any weight on his leg so we brought a chair out. No chance of an ambulance so he got a cab to a&e.
Mizzling now and cold so will be a rink tomorrow morning.
Your local authority will publish a map/list of all the roads in your county it grits. If you Google for the name of your county and "winter maintenance plan" or similar you will find it. The reality is most councils will never grit minor roads, they haven't got the money to do it.
If there is a yellow grit bin near you throw some grit down on the paths/roads nearby. If it's empty let the council know
Isn’t that just how it works? We can’t grit everything. Just take a bit of care.
Your local authority will publish a map/list of all the roads in your county it grits. If you Google for the name of your county and “winter maintenance plan” or similar you will find it. The reality is most councils will never grit minor roads, they haven’t got the money to do it.
This, A roads come first... etc. I work with Local Authority Highways, and some years ago a large County Council showed me that a full overnight grit cost them a cool £1m per night. They will budget on the average British winter, but after that.....
Yes and as winters on average get milder it's harder to justify tying up large amounts of cash in gritters and gritting crews.
Isn’t that just how it works? We can’t grit everything. Just take a bit of care.
Well yeah care obviously, but riding at 5mph with the dropper down and both feet for a bit of stability is a bit backwards isnt it. And the council used to grit all the roads, be those main or side and also some guy with a trolley thing and a shovel doing pavements, pathways and just about every other surface that was used by the public.
But councils dont grit these things now because they do little other than have streetlights and a fortnightly refuse collection.
So what exactly are we paying for ?. If this was a private service, they'd have long lost the contract.
I think I might invest in a pair of ice spiker prro's.
.
But its not just the needs of the cycling commuter, many old folk and now forced to be housebound because they cannot venture for for fear of falling.
Can't get out to warmer places, stuck in, no heating, hard to get supplies. A recipe for disaster.
I was on a dual carriageway near my house... 3 cars in front hit a ridge of slush and spuninto the centre fence at 40k an hour
On the way home passed my neighvours new i4 parked in the ditch where he parked his 5 series.
Both cases , summer tyres...
the public.
But councils dont grit these things now because they do little other than have streetlights and a fortnightly refuse collection.
So what exactly are we paying for ?. If this was a private service, they’d have long lost the contract.
Why don't you look it up?
A full breakdown of all their expenditure will be online eg:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556845876_aa21cfeb8d_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556845876_aa21cfeb8d_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2o5gze7 ]Cambs County Spend[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/finance-and-budget/budget-overview
So what exactly are we paying for ?. If this was a private service, they’d have long lost the contract.
You are paying for these services amongst many others
Schools – nursery, primary, secondary and special Pre-school education
Youth, adult and family and community education Student support
Children’s and families’ services – including welfare, fostering and adoption and child protection
Youth centres
Youth justice – secure accommodation and youth offender teams
Highways – non-trunk roads and bridges
Street lighting
Traffic management and road safety
Public transport – discounted travel schemes and local transport co- ordination
Airports, harbours and toll facilities
Services for older people including nursing, home, residential and day care and meals
Services for people with a physical disability, learning disability or mental health need
Asylum seekers
Employment support services
Cemetery, cremation and mortuary services
Community safety – including consumer protection, coastal protection and trading standards
Environmental health – including food safety, pollution and pest control, public toilets
Licensing – including alcohol, public entertainment, taxis Agricultural and fisheries services
Waste collection and disposal, recycling and street cleaning
Building and development control
Planning policy – including conservation and listed buildings Environmental initiatives
Economic and community development
But councils dont grit these things now because they do little other than have streetlights and a fortnightly refuse collection.
Jesus. It's not like the info is hard to find.
Both cases , [s] summer tyres…[/s] not driving to the conditions
Ftfy
Your local authority will publish a map/list of all the roads in your county it grits. If you Google for the name of your county and “winter maintenance plan” or similar you will find it. The reality is most councils will never grit minor roads, they haven’t got the money to do it.
In all fairness to Dyna his LA is Glasgow Shitty Council, I nearly lost a Honda Civic to a pothole on one of the back streets up Maryhill once.
I was on a dual carriageway near my house… 3 cars in front hit a ridge of slush and spuninto the centre fence at 40k an hour
On the way home passed my neighvours new i4 parked in the ditch where he parked his 5 series.
Both cases , summer tyres…
Decent quality summer tyres are fine for large parts of the uk provided the tread depth is reasonable, balding/ditch finders not so much. I never switch either of our cars tyres between winter and summer, I just drive a lot slower or choose not to drive at all.
We've had several mild winters where the temps have barely hit 0 °C for an extended period, and folk forget, there'll also be plenty of newer drivers who've never driven through a harsh winter and then there's some who are just a bit dense. Obviously it'll be everyone else's fault....
Yeh solid ice all day at ours. Had my ice gripper things in my shoes for a walk earlier. No way was I cycling and the car's not moved.
A bit worried about getting my son to the bus, or school tomorrow as we're down a farm track and then country lane before we hit an 'alledgedly' gritted route, didn't look to have any signs of being gritted today though. Might have to get up early enough to kick him out to walk the 2.5miles to the bus!
Due to get down to -5c again tonight and not get above 0c tomorrow.
I went out yesterday with my wheelbarrow and a shovel. Filled it with grit from the box in our cul de sac. Salted the pavements and the road. Shovelled the snow on the pavement outside mine. It was nice to see the neighbours looking on in support. Special mention to the kid next door who decided to kick the pile of snow I'd created back onto the pavement I'd just cleared while his mum laughed and made little attempt to stop him🙄
As expected, the surrounding streets are icy death but thanks to me ours is clear and grippy.
Not sure why you'd attempt to drive down Wilna Scar road when it's covered in ice but.......ooops!
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those 4x4s are only designed for school runs!
Just for reference, when were these halycon days when minor roads and lanes were gritted?
I'm on a steep hill and local bus route so it gets gritted. Quite unusual for the snow to settle as it has this evening...but its been raining this afternoon so if they had done the gritting run it would have been a complete waste of money as the rain would wash it straight into the drains.
My road is minor enough not to be gritted. Had to knock my running on the head but managed a quick one today when I spotted it had thawed, no doubt it's very icy again by now.
I gritted a section of the (steep) hill by ours yesterday, someone will stack it in there, it's only a matter of time.
In the worst cycling tragedy in British history, a car with three bald tyres skidded into a group of Rhyl cyclists killing four. The tyres were not deemed to be the cause and the driver received six points. And a £180 fine.
Just be careful. Riding or driving.
Special mention to the kid next door who decided to kick the pile of snow I’d created back onto the pavement I’d just cleared while his mum laughed and made little attempt to stop him
Shit on their doorstep.
As expected, the surrounding streets are icy death but thanks to me ours is clear and grippy.
Until you turn the corner onto the black ice and slip and break your collar bone.
Special mention to the kid next door who decided to kick the pile of snow I’d created back onto the pavement I’d just cleared while his mum laughed and made little attempt to stop him
I don’t get people who clear snow from footpaths. Snow is grippy, when people then clear it, it gets more slippy
A man drove a car through a hedge backwards last night at the junction near us. Surprisingly in the middle of nowhere the roads were icy. I think it had more to do with driver error rather than summer or winter tyres.
I don’t get people who clear snow from footpaths. Snow is grippy, when people then clear it, it gets more slippy
This.
If it keeps snowing and stays sub-zero.
If it snows and then thaws as generally happens here, the snow quickly compacts into ice anyway.
If you don't clear the snow it compacts to ice under traffic or turns to ice if there is freeze thaw cycles.
Laughing at the southern softies struggling with what to do......
An interesting podcast that covers a study that suggests that perhaps gritting pavements first and A-roads last might be more cost effective: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/invisible-women/
I'd prefer it if they didn't salt roads so I didn't have to spend as much time and energy on keeping rust off my older cars. Compulsory winter/crossclimates tyres.
The reality is most councils will never grit minor roads, they haven’t got the money to do it.
They never have gritted all the minor roads, and I'm on the edge of the Peak District. You know where to take extra care and/or not travel.
And if you really need to ask why council services are getting poorer, you haven't been paying attention for the last 10-12 years!
Boardin bob - you’re going to heaven.
If everyone gritted/cleared the pavement outside their house the pavements would get cleared. Pity our local grit bin is empty 🤷♂️
We’ve had several mild winters where the temps have barely hit 0 °C
Can I be the first to point out that winter tyres are intended for temperatures below 7°C
Am happy i swapped my winters on to the car a few weekends back. Has been ideal for the last few days.
Taking the back roads to biking in Friday evening and I only felt the traction control kick in once.
Was def icy as i also tried the brakes and the abs went mental.
Winters are great as long as you remember they give you extra safety capacity and you don't rag it around as if it were warm and dry on summers.
If you want fun though, studded tyres in the middle of Sweden is great
Just for reference, when were these halycon days when minor roads and lanes were gritted?
This. Very much this. I lived in Leeds and in the mid 80s a bus route was put up our road. Which was a pretty much single Lane (not wide enough for central markings anyway) up a decently steep quite long hill.
Dad was a traffic copper and there was quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the road status (and type - underneath it was a quarry access track) and lack of gritting.
Eventually it started being gritted when a bus nearly failed to make the 90 degree right hand bend near the bottom.
Only the "main" roads were gritted back then, that's for sure. There seem to be a lot of people who live in a weird bubble. Perhaps we notice it more because we drive more on minor roads through apparent necessity?
Can I be the first to point out that winter tyres are intended for temperatures below 7°C
Of course you can, they aren't necessary though for most of the uk. I'd also hazard a guess that the type of people who buy/use winter tyres are more likely to drive sensibly in poor conditions. Whereas the average driver begrudges paying for tyres so buys cheap shit Landsail/Evergreens, the chances of them buying a set of winter tyres/wheels? less than zero. These are also the folk you're more likely to find upside down in a ditch after being surprised at how slippy it is and how it's all the councils fault.
Discovered 2 kids, their dad and a middle aged lady all in seperate heaps amongst their scattered bikes on the commute last week. Sheet ice all over the quiet road on a designated cycle route. Pointed out the grit bin to the dad, he opened it to find it full of rubbish.
Went onto the council website to tell them it should be gritted, and it's already marked on their map. Nowhere else to complain so gave up.
I don’t get people who clear snow from footpaths. Snow is grippy, when people then clear it, it gets more slippy
Temps got up to 3 Deg. Snow started to melt, then it was forecast to drop back to -3.
Freeze thaw stuff is where it gets lethal and it's forecast to be sub zero here for the foreseeable.
Clear the snow before it melts then salt down on the pavement. Zero ice.
I’ve got some photos of March 1979, I’ll have to scan them & fanny around putting them on som image site though, so you’ll have to imagine the snow scenes.
They didn’t grit the side roads then either so get a grip. (See what I did there)?
our road is like an ice skating rink, light snow compacted over 3-4 days with ave temperatures below zero. No point using the grit the council dumped every half mile along our lane in the summer, as we need it to last through the whole winter..
My elderly neighbour in her Citroen manages without fuss, the average Amazon driver.. not so much.
Not sure why you’d attempt to drive down Wilna Scar road when it’s covered in ice but…….ooops!
Not sure I could stay upright walking down that bit.
Had my ice gripper things in my shoes for a walk earlier. No way was I cycling and the car’s not moved.
Might be an idea to get something like that to wear on the bike. Had a sketchy corner today , too much brake(Damn shimano, no modulation...) rear skidded out and the foot down just made things more frightening 😆 no purchase at all,
At least a bit of foot support is going to do a lot to keep you upright.
Skating down the hill was fun though, a real knife edge. Low on dropper both feet out like outriggers skating along just trying to keep that bike on the straight.
I don’t get people who clear snow from footpaths. Snow is grippy, when people then clear it, it gets more slippy
Sweden has some experience with snow in winter:
many Swedish cities, including Stockholm, prioritize snow clearance very differently. They now clear walkways and bike paths first, especially those near bus stops and primary schools. Next, they clear local roads, and then, finally, highways.
Three times as many people are injured while walking in icy conditions in Sweden than while driving. And the cost of those injuries far exceeds the cost of snow clearance.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/why-sweden-clears-walkways-before-roads/
In Denmark, which also has a lot of experience of snow in winter, it is a legal requirement to clear the snow from the pavement in front of your property. Well apparently it is in Copenhagen:
https://international.kk.dk/live/housing/settling-into-your-new-home/clearing-snow-on-your-property
As a property owner, you are required to keep the pavement outside your property free of snow so that pedestrians can walk safely.
As a property owner, it is important for you to clear snow so that you will not be liable for damages in the event of an accident.
My oh had a minor "crash" on way home last night (Sunday, mid evening). She either clipped a curb/ hit a pot hole or something but the car started flashing up warning lights and the handling went "odd".
AA couldn't get to her, nor myself. The AA and I also tried to get her a taxi the last 3 miles to her home but no dice.
We aren't out in the sticks either but in a pretty urban area of Kent.
In the end a range rover that was passing picked her up and dropped her off. They are part of a local FB Range Rover/ Landy group apparently, just going out and helping stranded motorists.
There are some properly lovely people around.👍
Amazon driver.. not so much
Well, I remember night rallies against Volvo Amazons and I can tell you they definitely don't hang about!
Sweden has some experience with snow in winter:
Pretty much what stwhannah linked to up there. 👆
Swedish cars seem to be good for it from my limited experience too. I had one of the last non-turbo Saab 900s in the early 2000s and it was awesome in the snow. I remember floating across the snow in Lincolnshire one winter, seeing 9 cars and lorries in ditches and fields on the A157 on my way to work. Saab didn't seem to lose traction.
I don’t get people who clear snow from footpaths. Snow is grippy, when people then clear it, it gets more slippy
Snow is grippy for about a day until it becomes compacted and turns to increasingly slippy ice.
Even when it's grippy, it can be difficult to walk in. I've noticed our council have stopped clearing pavements, leaving them covered in snow and ice for weeks. Very sad to see pensioners trying to push their wheeled shopping baskets through the snow to get to the shops, or young mothers with pushchairs.
https://twitter.com/NicBoothby/status/1602074384314908672?t=8WneExhOGXouhGYuIty_2g&s=19
I remember watching something similar on a narrow road with a blind bend out the back of Hayfield a couple of years ago. Lots of attempts to get round it, oncoming traffic unable to stop.
Absolutely despair at people trying to drive in tses conditions, no-one has a clue. Add in the mix of terrified people driving at 2mph, white-knuckle clenching the steering wheel and drivers who think they're in a custom rally car - it's insane.
Everyone is an expert on snow days...
Absolutely despair at people trying to drive in tses conditions,
Too much reliance on automated safety aids combined with not enough base skills and lack of familiarity is part of the problem.
Modern cars also do not seem to be as forgiving in snow, ice and mud. Large contact areas and higher power/torque outputs seem to make it much harder for the average driver to keep the wheels turning not spinning (lack of foot dexterity).
Worst car I've owned in a number of ways but most sure footed in the snow was my 97 Passat estate. Had something like 185/65 tyres and the engine way out over the front wheels (a trait it shared with Saab's of the era).
Not sure I'd fancy our Smax and summers in the snow much. A lot of rubber and the engine tucked back behind the axle. Thankfully I'm a shandy drinking southerner these days.
Everyone is an expert on snow days…
The guy casually riding his MTB past that wheel spinning van would seem to be the expert!
I rode the MTB into work a couple of times in heavy snow, canal towpath the whole way. Admittedly, conditions like that were very rare but you knew the office would have about a dozen people in (almost all of them cyclists) while a few others would be trickling in through the day, late because of chaos on the roads and railways. Everyone else would just be off work (this was before the days of genuine remote working - the occasional day of WFH was OK with advance permission)
My daughter in law terrifies me when driving.,* She, many years ago , did a paramedics driving course and believes that this still gives her the right to drive as if in an ambulance regardless of conditions.
There must be many such 'experts' out there.
* Actually she terrifies me most of the time
She, many years ago , did a paramedics driving course and believes that this still gives her the right to drive as if in an ambulance regardless of conditions.
There must be many such ‘experts’ out there.
I can get through a snow stage on Dirt 4 on the PS4 without flipping the car 75% of the time.
Last time it snowed around here I recorded my quickest and smoothest ever (car) commute. 25mph, 3rd gear all the way pretty much. A lack of urban assault tanks, as the schools were closed; the serial worriers and bad drivers had decided to stay home, leaving a general feeling of calm from those who had braved the 3 inches of white death.
@crazy-legs I'm supposed to be interviewing in Gloucester tomorrow, now happy it's been postponed if that's what I had to look forward to.
very grateful for our little grit/salt bin that all neighbours clubbed together to buy. However some insist on shovelling great lumps of the stuff over the pavement and road, when it just needs a gentle scattering over a wide area, not a huge clumped mound in every inch of the tarmac.
She, many years ago , did a paramedics driving course and believes that this still gives her the right to drive as if in an ambulance regardless of conditions.
A friend is a paramedic, they have a very high accident rate as most graduates don't learn to drive till they have to do the paramedic driving course (as it's too expensive now to learn when you're 17), so have very little real road experience to fall back on. Pass their test, a few week later blue lights course and then let out on the roads for real.
Wish I'd read this post before I crashed this morning. On the same icy patch I've come off on before. Still nothing that more skin can't fix...
