Author Topic: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?  (Read 41555 times)

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #475 on: 17 May, 2020, 01:36:59 pm »
The only reason you are hearing aircraft today is because today we have a westerly, so you are hearing the few incoming (mostly freight) flights in to LHR. For the last few weeks, what wind there was, was easterly. So any incoming air traffic would've had its final approach over Windsor.

Yes, although flight volumes at Heathrow are slowly increasing, the timings of the early-morning arrivals (mostly from the Far East) haven't changed significantly since the end of March, when the Summer season started (flights typically arrive 15-30 minutes earlier before our clocks go forward).

Davef

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #476 on: 17 May, 2020, 06:13:36 pm »


Deerdeathometer has just incremented for the first time since March.


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Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #477 on: 17 May, 2020, 10:59:47 pm »
We can hear traffic noise from our garden for the first time since all this started.
More aircraft noise early on in London too.  I am sad, I love the silence in the morning.
Aircraft noise starts around 6am. But I fly for work, so I am a hypocrite.
The only reason you are hearing aircraft today is because today we have a westerly, so you are hearing the few incoming (mostly freight) flights in to LHR. For the last few weeks, what wind there was, was easterly. So any incoming air traffic would've had its final approach over Windsor.
LGW has had pretty much zero traffic over the last few weeks.
ETA - I have to say that I'm really enjoying the silence afforded me by no incoming flights to LCY. Ordinarily they overfly my house starting at around 04:30.

I live in SW15 but luckily half a kilometer South of the main approach(es). Even then there's been a noticeable increase in the flights overhead today (I notice it more as it's been so much rarer recently), and out of the 8 where I bothered to try and work out what airline it was (and succeeded) only one was a cargo flight (DHL) the rest were national carriers (3 x BA, Swissair, Qatar, Emirates and I forget the other).

The FR24 statistics don't show any particular significant rise though: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/statistics
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #478 on: 18 May, 2020, 12:23:32 am »
Most BA, and all Virgin, flights are currently cargo-only. Neither BA nor Virgin has cargo aeroplanes; these all-cargo flights are being flown on re-purposed passenger aircraft. BA are flying about 200 cargo flights a week into Heathrow, and Virgin about 90. Other airlines are doing likewise, so a very small percentage of the flights you see coming into Heathrow are actually carrying passengers.

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #479 on: 18 May, 2020, 09:11:14 am »
I live in SW15 but luckily half a kilometer South of the main approach(es).

Bear in mind also that if you're half a kilometer south of the approach to Heathrow's southern runway, then you're almost 2 km south of the approach to the northern runway.

That might affect what you notice on a given day (Heathrow currently alternates use of the N and S runways on a weekly basis).

ian

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #480 on: 18 May, 2020, 09:35:46 am »
Where were they going then, because it cant be pubs, restaurants and shops.

I think people are visiting their friends and family.

Given the volume of traffic about 6pm yesterday, I'd assume so.

That said, we encountered a family out in the wilds who wanted to know where the A22 was? Nowhere close. It seemed they'd parked, taken no note of where they'd parked, and wandered off and got lost. Then got more lost. Complete with an oversized baby buggy.

It didn't help that they'd not even used a public footpath. It seemed they just stopped by a field and set off.

OK, I credit them with wanting to get some fresh air. We did spend a while pondering over maps (which they thought were 'very clever') and eventually pointed them in hopefully the right direction. Very hopefully.

Redlight

  • Enjoying life in the slow lane
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #481 on: 18 May, 2020, 10:24:22 am »

Financial sector workers, I discovered, are classed as key workers. Which is interesting.

Only some. Just before we went in to lockdown, the FCA asked firms to identify the staff they would need to keep the system running - to ensure (for example) that cash machines didn't run out of cash, payments would be processed, pensions would be paid, online banking wouldn't fall over, etc.  These were the ones deemed to be essential. It's not the Yahoos on the trading floors or M&A.
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

rob

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #482 on: 18 May, 2020, 10:37:47 am »

Financial sector workers, I discovered, are classed as key workers. Which is interesting.

Only some. Just before we went in to lockdown, the FCA asked firms to identify the staff they would need to keep the system running - to ensure (for example) that cash machines didn't run out of cash, payments would be processed, pensions would be paid, online banking wouldn't fall over, etc.  These were the ones deemed to be essential. It's not the Yahoos on the trading floors or M&A.

We are very much not key workers.  We moved the whole operation off-site over a weekend and have all been working from home since then.   Someone from IT goes in each day as the physical hardware still sits in the office.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #483 on: 18 May, 2020, 10:40:46 am »

Financial sector workers, I discovered, are classed as key workers. Which is interesting.

Only some. Just before we went in to lockdown, the FCA asked firms to identify the staff they would need to keep the system running - to ensure (for example) that cash machines didn't run out of cash, payments would be processed, pensions would be paid, online banking wouldn't fall over, etc.  These were the ones deemed to be essential. It's not the Yahoos on the trading floors or M&A.
Right, I should have said bank workers. And probably not all of them but probably most of them.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #484 on: 18 May, 2020, 12:18:57 pm »
This via Southwark cyclists  https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/ban-hgvs-london-roads-reduce-risk-cyclists-a4443206.html
HGVs should be temporarily banned from central London to reduce the risks faced by thousands of novice cyclists riding to work, a leading personal injury lawyer said today.

The call came as hospitals across London called on councils to fast-track safe walking and cycling routes to help their staff get to work.



Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #485 on: 18 May, 2020, 12:21:43 pm »
Same article
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/ban-hgvs-london-roads-reduce-risk-cyclists-a4443206.html

Transport for London has begun introducing “pop up” segregated bike lanes, such as on Park Lane, and councils have been widening pavements to make it easier for pedestrians to socially distance.

IF anyone knows the Greenwich gyratory this is now lethal. Large plastic barriers may widen the pavement, but narrow the space for cars and cyclists.
Putting cyclists right in the danger room and no way to 'bail out' towards the pavement.  If you are not a confident cyclist then I honestly would not cycle round there.

Also Greenwiich council now close Cutty Sark Gardens at the weekend - which only pushes cyclists out for a leisure ride onto that gyratory system.

ian

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #486 on: 18 May, 2020, 12:55:51 pm »
That Greenwich gyratory is insanity. I thought given the number of tourists these days would have given the LBG some cause to do something about it. Evidently not.

A cyclist died on the roadbridge over the tracks near Croydon the other year, in part because it's lined (for some reason) by plastic barriers which mean there's nowhere to go. Croydon's response to such an obvious death trap was to slap a bit of paint on the road and a sign instructing cyclists onto another busy road up by the station where they will be abandoned in a nest of tram tracks and bus routes.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #487 on: 18 May, 2020, 12:58:35 pm »
Quote
David Tarsh, who filmed a video on Park Lane, said: “Normally a three-lane highway, but now TfL has put in a segregated cycle lane, a bus lane and forced all the rest of the traffic into one lane in the middle.

“As you can see, there are no cyclists, no buses and a great degree of congestion. How on earth can you call that a good management of the traffic?”
TBH, even though he's wearing a cycle helmet, he comes across as an entitled motorist. In the long term (which started, ooh, around 1990) reallocating road space from cars to other uses – buses, bikes, pedestrians, pavement cafes, guerilla knitting – is exactly what we should be doing.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #488 on: 18 May, 2020, 01:05:09 pm »
Cudzo, I agree.  Also I must say that having lived in the Netherlands my preference is for off road proper cycle routes.
BUT I hear the British populace say - we have no room. I say - yes you do. Even in central London there are hugely wide pavements
(OK, coronavirus distancing aside..) which could have decent cycle routes on them.
Near where I live in Docklands there are roads with wide grass verges. Why not use them as cycle lanes?

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #489 on: 18 May, 2020, 01:25:49 pm »
The Park Lane route isn't even vaguely finished. It's currently in one direction only and starts and finishes on a 40 mph dual carriageway with no other way on or off. No cyclist in their right mind *should* be using it.

(and no politician should be advertising it to unsuspecting cyclists)

There's a plan in the pipeline to ungyratory and pedestrianise Greenwich Town Centre. It's probably too hard to it as an emergency measure, due to traffic lights and islands being in the way.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #490 on: 18 May, 2020, 01:31:38 pm »
I like this plan: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/plans-pedestrianise-one-bristols-main-4140956
As much because it's come from the residents themselves as for the plan. Unfortunately, that also means it won't happen. The road itself was dualled as part of a big scheme in the 60s that never really got finished and since then other changes have meant it really doesn't carry that much traffic.

But...

why are the supportive residents women?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ian

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #491 on: 18 May, 2020, 01:38:25 pm »
Cudzo, I agree.  Also I must say that having lived in the Netherlands my preference is for off road proper cycle routes.
BUT I hear the British populace say - we have no room. I say - yes you do. Even in central London there are hugely wide pavements
(OK, coronavirus distancing aside..) which could have decent cycle routes on them.
Near where I live in Docklands there are roads with wide grass verges. Why not use them as cycle lanes?

I'm sure I asked the same question of Hyde Park Corner (which Park Lane feeds), why do these huge multi-lane roads even need to exist in London? Their primary purpose seems to be to generate traffic and congestion.

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #492 on: 18 May, 2020, 03:56:59 pm »
Multi-lane roads in London you say? You NEED CBRD

https://www.roads.org.uk/ringways

Really fasciating reading - such as why there was a stretch of motorway leading up to the A40 elevated
https://www.roads.org.uk/ringways/ringway1/west-cross-route

ian

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #493 on: 18 May, 2020, 04:44:21 pm »
Our last house was on the site of what once-upon-a-time was slated to be a junction on ringway 2. The ringway would have replaced the still extant train line (London Bridge-Beckenham Junction scenic route) and would have spun off a junction along what was then a spur to Norwood Junction (that bit was closed anyway, and the reason there was a mysterious fenced off edge to our garden that was forever a part of National Rail – when they had built the adjacent houses on the elevated former trackbed they didn't quite align the boundaries of the industrial plot that eventually became our houses and those they were building, or everything was so vague, anyway, it meant we had several square metres of fenced-off NR land perpendicular to the actual track).

Croydon is surrounded and cut through by mini-motorways from the same era – the Roman Way is basically a snippet of motorway between two standard A-roads (the results are predictable).

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #494 on: 18 May, 2020, 05:49:08 pm »
These things are, sadly, not limited to London. There were plans in Bristol that started in the 1930s with driving a dual carriageway through one of the  largest and most architecturally significant Georgian squares in Britain (realigning a statue of King William III in the process so his horse didn't stick out into the traffic), then in the 60s started to build a series of d-cs and elevated pedestrian walkways (the last remnant, a bridge to nowhere at Old Market roundabout, was removed last year) before finally being running out of money just before they – I'm not making this up, there were fully developed, shovel-ready plans – concreted in the docks.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.


Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #496 on: 18 May, 2020, 07:53:48 pm »
.. a series of d-cs ...
Warning! Bespoke abbreviation in use.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #497 on: 18 May, 2020, 07:56:47 pm »
.. a series of d-cs ...
Warning! Bespoke abbreviation in use.
Comes of typing in a hurry, sorry. Dual carriageways.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #498 on: 20 May, 2020, 01:51:37 pm »
I’ve never seen so many classic cars, especially soft-tops with the tops down, as I did today. It seems the “ drive anywhere you want” has become “ let’s get the sports car out”. Must have been over 1 per mile of my ride ( 30 odd).
The good thing is that they’re pretty careful- don’t want to scratch the old girl!

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Lockdown - has it made driving slower and drivers more courteous?
« Reply #499 on: 20 May, 2020, 08:43:42 pm »
Good weather always brings them out.  Though I think people actually gave a shit about the lockdown for the last batch.