Wooden roads

[quixoticgeek]

Even if we manage to get everyone to ride round on bamboo bikes, an recycled rubber tyres, our transport is never going to be totally green, because the tarmac we like to ride on is based on fossil fuel components. Fortunately it looks like the Dutch are trying to find an alternative. Trees! No, not the boardwalk, but using the left over Lignin from plants as a binding agent instead of Bitumen. Will be interesting to follow. Also means we can now tar and feather arsehole politicians without harming the environment so much... assuming that the Lignin alternative functions the same as Bitumen in other use cases too...

https://innovationorigins.com/dutch-zeeland-premieres-with-first-stretch-of-road-paved-with-bio-asphalt/


J

[Cudzoziemiec]

I used to have a 1930s map of London and environs marking all roads by surface type. By far the most common surface was wooden planks. Great old map, on cloth, the original owner had written his address on the back in nice curling handwriting and he was ''chauffeur to...''.

Anyway, roads are also being made of recycled plastic bottles too. I've ridden on such a road and it was indistinguishable from normal tarmac in that respect. I'm not sure exactly how the plastics were used though.

[Jurek]

Chequer  Street off Bunhill Row has a wooden block surface.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5236283,-0.0901722,3a,75y,255.61h,87.14t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sEYTZ_6WnE8RingBdYeKOJA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DEYTZ_6WnE8RingBdYeKOJA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D282.15555%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I used to have a 1930s map of London and environs marking all roads by surface type. By far the most common surface was wooden planks. Great old map, on cloth, the original owner had written his address on the back in nice curling handwriting and he was ''chauffeur to...''.

Anyway, roads are also being made of recycled plastic bottles too. I've ridden on such a road and it was indistinguishable from normal tarmac in that respect. I'm not sure exactly how the plastics were used though.

A different perspective on drink-driving.

[T42]

I read years ago that one of the problems with wood-block roads was that people used to rip them up for firewood.

This bloke has more about them than you might want to read:

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2015/01/10/the-time-when-londons-streets-were-paved-with-wood/

[DuncanM]

There's a bit of one of the old main roads in Oxford in the museum in the Town Hall. Apparently, at one stage they were made of the ball joint at the top of the femur of an Ox! They looked like cobbles to ride on, but I think they would have been easier to anchor and less likely to sink in the mud.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I read years ago that one of the problems with wood-block roads was that people used to rip them up for firewood.

This bloke has more about them than you might want to read:

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2015/01/10/the-time-when-londons-streets-were-paved-with-wood/

I'd not thought of that but it makes sense, like people used to dig holes in the roads to make pots, hence potholes. And still do in some places, eg Madagascar, I'm told. Mountainbikers should note that fire roads are something else entirely.

[Mr Larrington]

Wood block roads are lethal in the wet.  There is a good reason for the operators of outdoor wooden velodromes to wave the red flag when it rains.  The Ghent-Blaarmeersen track had a giant hairdryer on the infield for such occasions.

[citoyen]

This sounds promising.

I vaguely recall working on a feature a couple of years ago that mentioned somewhere in Germany(?) that has a network of cycle paths surfaced with a similar eco-friendly plant-based substance. I'll have to look it up for a reminder...

[Pingu]

Wooden road, Havana


IMG_5138_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Kim]

Wood block roads are lethal in the wet.  There is a good reason for the operators of outdoor wooden velodromes to wave the red flag when it rains.  The Ghent-Blaarmeersen track had a giant hairdryer on the infield for such occasions.

Sssh!  Don't give Sustrans ideas.

[citoyen]

I vaguely recall working on a feature a couple of years ago that mentioned somewhere in Germany(?) that has a network of cycle paths surfaced with a similar eco-friendly plant-based substance. I'll have to look it up for a reminder...

It was the Dutch (of course), not the Germans - this isn't the piece I worked on but it's the same story...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/the-dutch-are-building-an-eco-friendly-bike-lane-out-of-recycled-wood-chips

[Jurek]

<snip>  The Ghent-Blaarmeersen track had a giant hairdryer on the infield for such occasions.

As they do at Santa Pod Raceway.

[Kim]

<snip>  The Ghent-Blaarmeersen track had a giant hairdryer on the infield for such occasions.

As they do at Santa Pod Raceway.

[Jurek]

<snip>  The Ghent-Blaarmeersen track had a giant hairdryer on the infield for such occasions.

As they do at Santa Pod Raceway.

Think more jet engine, mounted at 45° to the ground on a flat-bed truck with the exhaust pointing at the tarmac.
ETA - TBF that was 40 years ago, when I regularly visited Santa Pod. I think these days their track drying operation is a bit more 21st Centuary.

[ElyDave]

My dad tells of a road with wooden cobbles where he grew up in the East End of that Lunnun which floated during floods in the early 50's

[T42]

We have quite a few wooden-surfaced bridges on our cycle paths.  They get very slippery in the wet. El Prez crashed on one a few years back.