Too many vehicles!!!

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MikeF
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Too many vehicles!!!

Post by MikeF »

Yesterday I decided to cycle this little lane near Ide Hill in Kent; a new road for me.
However there was an unimaginable number of vehicles using it and it's so narrow in a deep cut where it climbs the hill, that I had to dismount and squeeze into the narrowest place possible to let them pass. The vehicles had difficulty starting through lack of traction because of the leaves on the road. After doing this several times I gave up and pushed the bike to the top. It's marked as 1in7 on the OS map, but it seemed steeper - maybe because all the traffic! What I thought would be the quietest of roads unexplored by me, turned out to be a busy route even mid morning!
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
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pwa
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by pwa »

Sat Nav. That's the reason. I'm as bad as anyone for driving on lanes because the Sat Nav sends me that way. You don't really have much choice if you don't know the alternatives and you are relying on Sofia (or whatever voice you have chosen) to get you to your destination. Ideally you would want your Sat Nav to exercise a bit more discretion and avoid tight lanes as much as possible, sticking to wider roads except where that would greatly lengthen the journey. Lanes that were once the domain of those with local knowledge are now less quiet. Sad, really.
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cycleruk
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by cycleruk »

It could be a local "rat run"?
The normal main road way could have hold ups so those in the know take the lane.
I quite often will use the country lanes to avoid our main roads, due to congestion and numerous traffic lights.
It's really no quicker but much more pleasant.
You'll never know if you don't try it.
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mjr
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by mjr »

cycleruk wrote:I quite often will use the country lanes to avoid our main roads, due to congestion and numerous traffic lights.
It's really no quicker but much more pleasant.

Only more pleasant for the ratrunning motorists :( For everyone else it's an unambiguous loss. I'm glad that three of the local side roads here are gated, which deters many of the ratrunners who apparently just can't bear to get out of their car four times in half a mile. :lol:
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Bmblbzzz
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by Bmblbzzz »

mjr wrote:
cycleruk wrote:I quite often will use the country lanes to avoid our main roads, due to congestion and numerous traffic lights.
It's really no quicker but much more pleasant.

Only more pleasant for the ratrunning motorists :( For everyone else it's an unambiguous loss. I'm glad that three of the local side roads here are gated, which deters many of the ratrunners who apparently just can't bear to get out of their car four times in half a mile. :lol:

I agree. And traffic on unclassified rural roads is increasing at a far faster rate than the national average for all roads (this was the case even before sat nav).

MikeF wrote:Yesterday I decided to cycle this little lane near Ide Hill in Kent; a new road for me.
However there was an unimaginable number of vehicles using it and it's so narrow in a deep cut where it climbs the hill, that I had to dismount and squeeze into the narrowest place possible to let them pass. The vehicles had difficulty starting through lack of traction because of the leaves on the road. After doing this several times I gave up and pushed the bike to the top. It's marked as 1in7 on the OS map, but it seemed steeper - maybe because all the traffic! What I thought would be the quietest of roads unexplored by me, turned out to be a busy route even mid morning!

Don't forget that vehicles going up hill have priority over those descending!
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gaz
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by gaz »

Yorks Hill. A hard enough climb without traffic IME.
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Grandad
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by Grandad »

Used for the classic Catford Hill Climb.

To quote the Catford CC 707 yard climb with an average gradient of 12.5%, with two stretches of 25% which requires an all-out lung bursting effort to get up the climb. The current record of 1 minute 47.6 seconds was set by Phil Mason (San Fairy Ann CC) in 1983 and despite the inducement of various special prizes has not been broken for 31 years!

It wasn't broken in 2015 either.
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simonineaston
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by simonineaston »

Too many humans, full stop. This morning, I was listening to Bill Gates, on DID - nice bloke, don't get me wrong, but he was banging on about ending malaria and saving lives and I thought, "Weird - for a bright bloke, you just don't get it... we don't need more people on this earth, we need LESS, so spend all that money thinking of ways we could get rid of them some of them!"
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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661-Pete
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by 661-Pete »

Anyone who's recently climbed up the celebrated Ditchling Beacon in daytime: the key feature of the London to Brighton run, will know that that road has sadly turned into a rat run too. Even if you're a good grimpeur, I don't advise that road for inexperienced cyclists. Which is a great shame - when I was a lot younger I used to go up it quite often as an alternative commute, it was quiet back in those days.

My days of cycling up the Beacon are long done, but we walk up a nearby footpath quite often, from which you can see the road. We still watch plenty of cyclists piling it on, and having to let cars squeeze past every few seconds. A sad development. :(

pwa wrote:Sat Nav. That's the reason.
Aha! Don't get me started on Sat Navs. Once when I was passenger on a business trip, I was charged with manipulating the satnav to try and navigate us to some obscure destination somewhere in Glasgow (the Satnav was installed on my colleague's smartphone, not a built-in unit). Anyway after several instructions to plough through roadworks, I threw the wretched thing down in disgust, and announced "from now on, if you want me to navigate, let's look at road signs." We arrived at our destination, an hour or two late. I shudder to think what would have become of us if we'd stuck to the satnav....

And there was the couple who hailed me from their car: the passenger was frantically poking at the satnav and the driver leaned out of the window: "Can you direct me to Hurstpierpoint College please?" Thing is, the encounter happened exactly here...... :lol:
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Vantage
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by Vantage »

simonineaston wrote: so spend all that money thinking of ways we could get rid of them some of them!"


May I suggest the following drivers...wvm, BMW, Audi, Merc, under 30's and over 55's and anyone daring to even consider an SUV, 4x4 or people carrier?

More people on bikes is what we need and a better understanding of cyclists. Other countries figured it out. The UK is just full of eejits.
Bill


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mjr
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by mjr »

Vantage wrote:More people on bikes is what we need and a better understanding of cyclists. Other countries figured it out. The UK is just full of eejits.

Even the eejits are cottoning on. The workman repairing (or not, but that's another story) something for me today was waxing lyrical about both his mountain bike and his new road bike, as well as enjoying trips out with his wife.

Don't despair: it'll come.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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pwa
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by pwa »

The problem is that with Sat Navs now so common, the days of little known lanes that only a few people know about are gone. Sat Navs know about them, Any lane that can shorten a journey will have Sat Navs directing vehicles that way. I often drive a tall van and have to be ready to disregard the Sat Nav when it wants me to take a route that I know to be too tight for that vehicle to use comfortably. But in places that I don't know well I am reliant on that device. And mostly it is a great help.
Tom Richardson
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by Tom Richardson »

simonineaston wrote:Too many humans, full stop.
etc

thats a rather controversial view Simon. I think the idea is that people wouldn't feel the need to have large families if malaria were eliminated because they wouldn't expect so many children to die. Population usually starts to decline when health outcomes are good.

Nothing to do with too many vehicles though. Thats caused by too much wealth in an unregulated market economy.
TonyR
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by TonyR »

simonineaston wrote:Too many humans, full stop. This morning, I was listening to Bill Gates, on DID - nice bloke, don't get me wrong, but he was banging on about ending malaria and saving lives and I thought, "Weird - for a bright bloke, you just don't get it... we don't need more people on this earth, we need LESS, so spend all that money thinking of ways we could get rid of them some of them!"


Are you suggesting we need more wars? :shock:
pwa
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Re: Too many vehicles!!!

Post by pwa »

TonyR wrote:
simonineaston wrote:Too many humans, full stop. This morning, I was listening to Bill Gates, on DID - nice bloke, don't get me wrong, but he was banging on about ending malaria and saving lives and I thought, "Weird - for a bright bloke, you just don't get it... we don't need more people on this earth, we need LESS, so spend all that money thinking of ways we could get rid of them some of them!"


Are you suggesting we need more wars? :shock:


And disease, and famine. Too drastic, of course, but I agree that there are too many of us. And absolutely no government policies to steer things in a different direction.
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