Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Si
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by Si »

MikeF wrote:It's not just filthy motorists it's filthy cyclists as well - drink bottles so often thrown in the hedge


Apart from in pro races I've never seen a cyclist throw a bottle into the hedge....they cost money!

May be that some lose the odd bottle if their cage is a bit slack and they are going over bumps.....but to just chuck a bottle away? Surely not?
flat tyre
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by flat tyre »

Just South of Petersfield, Kiln Lane a few months ago, what looked like a whole asbestos roof. At least one lorry load deposited in several piles along the side of the lane.
iviehoff
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by iviehoff »

Valbrona wrote:And while I am at it, I have found Derbyshire roads to be amongst the most poorly maintained roads in the country.

When I recently went cycling in the Peak District, my reaction was "my, I wish our local roads here on the Bucks/Herts border were remotely as well maintained as those in Derbyshire." I didn't notice any particular litter issue. Of course there is the Peak District and there is the rest of Derbyshire and these things can be different. But in a kind of comparison, I live within in the Chiltern AONB. Even in central London, it's getting important to learn where all the really terrible pot-holes on my daily commuting route are.
Mattyfez
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by Mattyfez »

It's not just drivers, I do a lot of tow path riding and it's very hilly where I am, sometimes I'm quite shocked to see avalanches of debris on steep embankments that's obviously been thrown over the back fences of gardens, you see it on train embankments too.

It's society in general, just a general lack of care.

I must admit I did laugh the other day when I saw a big pile of de-potted root balls, wondering what plants they came from!
But at least that's bio degradable!
thirdcrank
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by thirdcrank »

Mattyfez wrote:It's not just drivers, ...


The only real difference in this context is that it's possible to shift a lot more stuff in a car than in a saddlebag or jersey pockets. And by the same token, a tranny van carries even more. To spell it out, whether somebody leaves their litter for others to clear up depends on their own character eg selfish, bone idle or otherwise. The extent to which somebody who is disposed to dumping litter does so is then largely governed by what transport they have available.

Riding a bike does not necessarily turn someone into a paragon of virtue.
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mjr
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by mjr »

thirdcrank wrote:The only real difference in this context is that it's possible to shift a lot more stuff in a car than in a saddlebag or jersey pockets. ... Riding a bike does not necessarily turn someone into a paragon of virtue.

But it does limit the scale of their sin? :lol:
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johncarnie
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by johncarnie »

Always the worst spot is the end of the slip road off a motorway! But one of my regular rest spots is a picnic area beside the Severn - and over the last few years I've taken numerous photos of fly-tipping which I've sent off to the local council who dutifully clean it up - pretty quickly too! Trouble is all the litter clogs up the drains and culverts - and then the roads flood! And don't start me on dog owners who refuse to pickup their dogs faeces!
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RickH
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by RickH »

I'm noticing an increase in fly tipping round here - probably at least in part due to the fact that the council closed the "Recycling Centre" on this side of town. It used to be about 3 miles away (& I could manage a bag of garden waste on my bike trailer) but now the 2 remaining are both about 8 miles away so anything that doesn't qualify for the supplied recycling bins now goes in our general waste bin...

...Anyway, back to the matter of fly tipping - I was quite pleased last Friday to see a council truck & associated workmen had cleared the stuff dumped at the roadside near us (I saw the truck leaving). By Sunday morning there were fresh bags/boxes of stuff dumped at the roadside! :?

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661-Pete
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by 661-Pete »

I've been on a volunteer 'litter pick' before now, several times. Can be quite an entertaining way of spending a morning. You never know what you're going to turn up (though - sorry to disappoint - the chances of a hoard of Roman coins are pretty slim :? ). I did find a perfectly serviceable sledgehammer once - an odd thing to cast away (one of my fellow volunteers took it off me, he said he had a use for it - I didn't ask what?!). And many years ago, on a different occasion, I turned up a glass mug - dirty but quite intact - emblazoned with the insignia of King George VI's coronation. If it was an original, might have been worth a bob or two. Alas! As I was admiring my find, another volunteer on the slope above me let go of a big stone, it rolled down, struck my hand, and the mug was smashed. :(

But there can be an ironic twist to these litter-pick enterprises. On a more recent occasion, we'd spent a morning on a litter-pick organised by the Town Council, and piled all the rubbish into a skip. We later learnt that the County Council had deemed that the contents of the skip were commercial waste, and they wanted to charge the Town Council at the going rate for taking it away. The skip remained by the roadside, uncollected, for several days of wrangling. We might as well not have bothered, it seemed. Eventually it disappeared. I don't know who coughed up what.
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gaz
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by gaz »

661-Pete wrote:Perhaps we ought to all get out with a camera and post the worst examples.

Image
Could be flytipping, could be art, it's hard to tell sometimes :wink: .

661-Pete wrote:The biggest single item?

A car, well, most of one. It has no wheels, no engine, nor any other identifying features. The top's been chopped off and it's filling up with other rubbish.

When I first reported it as fly-tipping the internal rubbish included a fridge. It was "parked" on a road in an industrial estate. The fridge was taken but the car was left. Eventually the car was moved but not far, it's still on the adjacent pavement :evil: .
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beardy
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by beardy »

When I see a gel wrapper on the road I think it must have been some scum of a cyclist and when I see a banana skin I suspect that is also a possibility, even a probability if it is the right sort of place.

However I find it hard to believe that the car tyres, TV sets, mattresses, MacDonalds, Coke bottles, feed sacks and the other 99.99% of roadside rubbish was dropped by cyclists.

So even as a cyclist I find the minuscule amounts of rubbish dropped by cyclists to be possibly a million times (by weight) as offensive as that dropped by others.

Some litter louts are aware of the fact that it isnt illegal to dump on private land and drop their rubbish accordingly.
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by Merry_Wanderer »

I don't believe in a sin scale. Knowingly dropping litter, be it a gel sachet, a punctured inner, a car tyre or a sandwich wrappers. They are all litter. I have challenged car drivers who have chucked fag ends or crisp bags out of a car window and asked whether it would be ok for me to chuck my rubbish on their front garden.
Ben@Forest
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by Ben@Forest »

Merry_Wanderer wrote:I don't believe in a sin scale. Knowingly dropping litter, be it a gel sachet, a punctured inner, a car tyre or a sandwich wrappers. They are all litter. I have challenged car drivers who have chucked fag ends or crisp bags out of a car window and asked whether it would be ok for me to chuck my rubbish on their front garden.


This isn't just offensive but genuinely noxious. On three occasions (twice as a motorcyclist, once as a cyclist) I have been sitting alongside a car at lights only to get a face full of ash and smoke as a driver sticks their lit cigarette out of the window and knocks the ash off it. Each time the driver had not clocked I was there (I know because I remonstrated with them) and though I hate to stereotype each was a woman. I know I have just stereotyped but....
Postboxer
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by Postboxer »

New penalties: Dropping litter out of a car - Your car gets filled with all sorts of litter that has been collected and swept off the streets.
Dropping litter anywhere else - your house gets filled.
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Re: Filthy Drivers: Roadside Rubbish

Post by Vorpal »

I don't recall seeing very much rubbish along the lanes in Essex and Suffolk, which is where I've done most of my cycling in the UK. However, there were a few spots that were regularly used for fly tipping, and sometimes, it was an awful mess. Burned out cars were more likely to be a problem than rubbish, though. There were a few people who didn't want to pay to have their old cars junked, so they would drive them to a remote place, set them on fire & report them stolen.

I saw at least one per week, and occasionally several in a week. They were removed immediately by the council when reported.

The places where I saw the most rubbish in the hedges were around the Tescos on the edges of towns, and it was mostly plastic carrier bags and junk food wrappers.
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