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Road furniture and other cyclists' choices
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Andre Jute
Jun 8, 2013, 6:33:28 AM6/8/13
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On Saturday, June 8, 2013 10:26:10 AM UTC+1, James wrote:
> I can attest to the road furniture problem. Without a certain "Keep
> Left" sign, my right leg would not have been broken in a crash - race over.
I must go photograph the things, because some of you may not believe me. On a section of the only flat road out of town, with fast traffic, there are disappearing hard shoulders, which is what the section between the traffic lane and the armco is called here. The hard shoulder varies from a good 30 inches, enough to ride in, to literally nothing. Traffic moves at about 105kph in 2/3 lane formations, with oncoming traffic sometimes pushing the traffic beside the cyclist, travelling the same way, over towards the cyclist. If the hard shoulder disappears at the same time...
But the cagers aren't the main hazard, dangerous as this situation is. The road designers are.
***On the armco are reflectors. They're on built-out, solidly bolted, hardwood triangles sticking into the road at knee height to a cyclist.***
I spoke to the engineer in charge of rebuilding a section of this road. She said she fitted what head office sent. She would query them on behalf of the cyclists. They told her they would get in touch with me. I'm still waiting, several years later.
I rarely go there because it is one of those places where you have a choice between endangering yourself against the armco, or doing a Krygowsk by taking the lane and holding up traffic whose drivers expect to go much faster -- until someone loses patience and does something stupid with his two-ton blunt instrument.
Andre Jute
Thoughtful. Brave but not stupid. Alive.
> I can attest to the road furniture problem. Without a certain "Keep
> Left" sign, my right leg would not have been broken in a crash - race over.
I must go photograph the things, because some of you may not believe me. On a section of the only flat road out of town, with fast traffic, there are disappearing hard shoulders, which is what the section between the traffic lane and the armco is called here. The hard shoulder varies from a good 30 inches, enough to ride in, to literally nothing. Traffic moves at about 105kph in 2/3 lane formations, with oncoming traffic sometimes pushing the traffic beside the cyclist, travelling the same way, over towards the cyclist. If the hard shoulder disappears at the same time...
But the cagers aren't the main hazard, dangerous as this situation is. The road designers are.
***On the armco are reflectors. They're on built-out, solidly bolted, hardwood triangles sticking into the road at knee height to a cyclist.***
I spoke to the engineer in charge of rebuilding a section of this road. She said she fitted what head office sent. She would query them on behalf of the cyclists. They told her they would get in touch with me. I'm still waiting, several years later.
I rarely go there because it is one of those places where you have a choice between endangering yourself against the armco, or doing a Krygowsk by taking the lane and holding up traffic whose drivers expect to go much faster -- until someone loses patience and does something stupid with his two-ton blunt instrument.
Andre Jute
Thoughtful. Brave but not stupid. Alive.
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