There was a little cleaning machine out this morning clearing up all the slippery leaf mulch on the cycle path to work.
Thank you Swindon Council – it’s really appreciated!
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Apologies (again) for lack of blogging commitment of late. I’ve been VERY busy building websites for people, but that’s another story.
The first real sub-zero cold snap has come and we’ve had icy roads, so the gritting lorries have been out.
The gritting lorries, however, don’t grit the cycle or pedestrian paths! And part of my cycle path has been frozen, slippery leaf mulch for the last few days. I’ve seen and stopped to chat to one guy who’d come off and was sat next to his bike, clearly shaken and with a minor injury. The cycle/pedestrian paths aren’t safe!!
Towards the end of last year’s long snowy season they DID grit some of the paths, and I took photos and wrote about it as it was melting.
That grit in the photos was put down as the snow was clearing and lasted for several weeks after the snow had gone. Where’s the logic in that? If it’s going to last for weeks then surely better to put it out early and let it hang around to keep the paths safe during winter?
So I put that idea to the council yesterday, and today a nice lady from the council got back to me with a very thorough response. Apparently she can’t help because it’s not the council’s policy to treat cycle routes. This is not a purely financial decision, there is a technical explanation:
Salt only assists in reducing the freezing point of water when it is in solution and the best way to get the salt into a solution, within snow or standing water, is by the action of traffic. [Because] the routes are lightly trafficked [...] any applied salt could be almost entirely ineffectual, wasting resources and damaging the environment.Application of grit sand, may assist in snow for a short while, but in the longer term would prove to be a hazard in itself as it could cause skidding accidents, this therefore is not an option either.
As a technical person who likes a bit of science, I genuinely appreciate and mostly understand this explanation. However, it leaves me with questions:
- If that’s the case, what was with the gritting of this path last year? Perhaps as the snow melted and became solution the grit would help keep it from re-freezing?
- If that’s the case why are there gritting boxes for gritting pavements on steep hills around Swindon? And why does the business park I work on grit the pedestrian paths around the park – with seemingly excellent ice-reducing effects?
- Surely, in the days of iPhones, man-made Satellites, and Graphene someone has invented a substance they can put on cycle paths and pavements to make them safe in winter?
So, I appeal to my blog’s cycling audience…do your cycle paths get gritted? How is this done in places like Copenhagen and Amsterdam where cycling is a major form of transport? Perhaps someone even know if my council lady is right? Or if there’s a new kind of grit or salt that I can recommend?
Thanks in advance folks!!
We had a LOT of snow back in early Feb, and I had several snow-related thoughts.
First of all I’d like to announce my frustration at the lack of gritting on the cycle paths of Swindon. The roads were gritted up to the max and pretty much clear most of the time. But I didn’t dare go near the cycle routes because it was just too dangerous.
I emailed the local council, asking why this wasn’t done and pointing out the particular bit of cycle path that I wanted gritted (this is a busy route used by both cyclists and pedestrains), but to no avail – even when I chased them up.
Eventually, just as the snow and ice was melting away, there was some grit!
Grited Cycle Path
Grit on the bridge
But, sadly, though they managed to grit the slope and the bridge, they neglected the flat bits of the path, which remained treacherous.
Ungritted, icy path
I understand that the roads are key infrastructure for our town, and that it’s important to keep safe. But one thing that really must happen if more people are to take up cycling, is that these paths need some attention in Winter.
Perhaps this is a cycle campaigning point for later in the year!
Tags: campaining, Cycling, weather, winter
So this was the winter when I was supposed to train! I got kitted out with some “longs” and a fancy new Windstopper jacket, and I was going to keep the mileage up and be ready in the spring to push on with my cycling from a good base fitness level.
Of course, my four common colds didn’t help. Health was an issue. But even without that, it’s not quite as easy as you think.
Winter isn’t just cold and wet. It’s dark! And this presents a whole new set of challenges. Especially as my longer rides tend to be on the way home after 6pm.
Most of my longer rides take me out onto quiet country roads, and these tend not to be lit.
“Well, that’s OK”, I hear you say, “you put lights on”.
But that’s doesn’t quite work either. You see most lights are good for getting you seen, but they’re no good for see-ing. My one attempt at dark country lanes was WELL scary, even with both a Halogen and an LED light headlight on.
No, without strapping a huge contraption and heavy battery to your bike like some night-time mountain bikers do, it’s just not safe – especially at road bike speeds.
Thursday’s Ride
This Thursday was an attempt to fix the winter problem of covering distance in the dark. Sally was busy and the run on Wednesday had got me hooked again on exercise adrenaline. So I headed off my normal route home to attempt a decent, well-lit, urban training ride.
The route is on Bikely and I’ve called it the Swindon Ring Road. I won’t pretend it’s entirely safe – there were some hairy moments with cars. I won’t pretend it’s massively quick – there are lights and junctions and roundabouts. But it’s MOSTLY long, straightish, flattish tarmac…with lights!
I was quite pleased to do a 14-miler as my first training run of 2009 after a few weeks off, and I didn’t feel too bad afterwards. I confess that I bailed out of climbing up Marlborough Road towards a downhill finish. I think the real route should look more like this.
Happy New Year folks.
In amongst all the technical learning I’ve been doing there’s been plenty of other stuff going on that I’ve not had time to write about.
Christmas
We hosted Christmas for the first time this year. It was quite a success too!
- We’d planned the meal well, keeping it simple but tasty. Hint: smoked salmon on garlic-rubbed bruschetta with a dollop of pesto…YUM!
- Our fears of not finding a Turkey were not met (but we were surprised at how expensive they were).
- We learned how not to make stuffing. We’ve yet to learn the correct way!
- Starting cooking was much easier than finishing it all off.
- We learned not to plan to host a big meal with lots of leftovers and then go away for a week!
- Washing up is more of a job than the preparation and cooking.
Anyway, a good experience of cooking a fancy meal for five and we’d do it again!
The Cough
I’ve been fighting off my FOURTH attack from the really nasty cold that’s been going around this year. I don’t know if it’s the same one and I’ve not been able to fight it off. The last few months has been really bad for illnesses for everyone. Even the toughest people I know have had some sort of illness and time off work, and most have been got several times.
We’re now also in the grip of a really cold snap which can’t be helping.
Anyway, I had a couple of days of feeling really cold-infected whilst we were down in Devon over Christmas and New Year, and that quickly went away, but I’m still dealing with the aftermath – an annoying tickly dry cough. It’s almost gone now but has been quite an irritant in the last week and a half.
Back and Cycling
Unfortunately all the sitting down I’ve done as a result of lazing around in comfy chairs and extra-soft mattresses in Devon over Christmas has given me a bad back again (seems to be a normal way for me to start the year).
This along with extra-cold, icy, and dangerous weather, and the need to shuttle various things to work and back, has meant that I’ve not been cycling much.
This is a bit disappointing for me, as I really wanted to try and keep my fitness up over the winter for a good start in the spring, and I was getting all kitted out to do that!
It’s also annoying because once you’ve had a bit of time out it’s even harder to get up the motivation to get going again.
I did manage to cycle-commute once this week, on Thursday. But to my dismay I found that the council don’t seem to do much (any) gritting of cycle paths, and there were some fairly treacherous bits of cycling to be done. So I really need to wait for a thaw.
Today it’s been sub-zero all day. Let’s hope that the forecast for a warmer Saturday is correct!
In any case, I still have a good 2 months of winter left so I need to be disciplined and get some daylight riding in, alongside some trips to the gym, to get fitness up!
Roll on 2009 then!!!
Tags: back, christmas, cold, cough, Cycling, fitness, Health, ice, weather, winter
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