You think cycling is dangerous? Try walking

[rogerzilla]

Due to the paucity of buses to our village (a whole mile from Swindon's outskirts) I decided it was quicker to walk home from the station (6 miles) than wait 90 minutes for the next bus.

There are no pavements, and a single track road, for the last two miles, and the road has a lot of bends.  Very little traffic, but OMG it's scary.  I walked on the right, except where that would put me on the inside of a bend, and I was expecting to be mown down at any moment.

At one point I was passed by a huge juggernaut.  Where that was going, I have no idea - the only business down that lane is a pub.

[Ian H]

You'd love it down here. I always walk out in the road until I see them start to slow, then move in. It's never yet failed.

[Mr Larrington]

At one point I was passed by a huge juggernaut.  Where that was going, I have no idea - the only business down that lane is a pub.

TwatNav programming error?  More than once I've seen full-on artics on a road:

• with no businesses on at all, and
• prominent signs at either end forbidding vehicle weighing more than 7.5T

[Crock of Gold]

Had a meeting one time at Sevenoaks, starting at 9 am, during Winter last Jan. Looked at map and the venue was just 3 miles from the station. Thought I’d walk.

What the map did not show was that the last mile was along a narrow bendy country lane with no path and flanked by mansions on one side with a school nearby.

Of course I reached this lane during school mum in a 4x4 in a hurry time.

Shocked the drivers were to see me. Finally got to the venue, splattered in mud and looking like a tramp. Final ignominy was being stopped and questioned by the security guard at the gatepost, being the only person who turned up without a private car / taxi.

Made to feel like a suspicious bloke who needed to be kept an eye on because I wasn’t driving!

[redshift]

At one point I was passed by a huge juggernaut.  Where that was going, I have no idea - the only business down that lane is a pub.

TwatNav programming error?  More than once I've seen full-on artics on a road:

• with no businesses on at all, and
• prominent signs at either end forbidding vehicle weighing more than 7.5T

I liked this sign that I saw in Wales this year:


I bet the idiots ignore that too.

[jellied]

I used to walk such distances in unknown areas, but not since i got caught out walking only a mile or so - half way along the pavement vanished, then it started snowing and it went down hill from there.

In the end I found a remote house that was in darkness and despite watching enough films to know what happens next I rang the door bell to ask if I could phone for a taxi. Perhaps to my relief the door was not answered so I continued up the road to arrive at the motel lodge affair glad to still be alive.

[LEE]

RZ, can I have your Brompton if you're done with it?

[rogerzilla]

I actually saw a Brompton locked up at Swindon station yesterday.  Defeats the object really.

[Jaded]

There was a black one locked up in the secure bit of Basingstoke station last time I was there.

[hellymedic]

Much though I lurve Bromptons, they're not much fun to lug round places where wheeling is not possible. I wouldn't decry locking them up.

[pcolbeck]

Our local highways department or council not sure which has juts done a corker. They have just replace the old bus stop on the A64 with a fancy new one. At the same time they took the chance to build a concrete and tarmac platform to assist wheel chairs etc on and off the bus. This platform has all the things one might expect in this health and safety / disability rights age such as colour coded and specially textured surfaces to alert visually impaired users that they are approaching a bus stop. All fine and dandy except that once off said platform their is no pavement at all just a load of scrub grass and then a two mile walk down a single track potholed lane up and down a 90 meter 1 in 3 hill to our village or if you take your life in your hands a dash across four lanes of dual carriage way to a similar verge with no path and a half mile walk along the dual carriage way and down another lane to the village in that direction. A complete was of money. Anyone who could make it to the previous bus stop could cope with the old concrete bus shelter and no platform and anyone who couldn't would either.

1) still not be able to get to the bus stop or.

2) be stranded when they got there.

They have done every one of the stops along a ten mile stretch so far as I can see as well.  Must have cost a fortune.

[fruitcake]

On average a UK cyclist is killed every 48 hours, a UK pedestrian every 12.  Four times as vulnerable. 

But that doesn't stop me walking around.

[gordon taylor]

On average a UK cyclist is killed every 48 hours, a UK pedestrian every 12.  Four times as vulnerable. 

But that doesn't stop me walking around.

Mat I modify your figures slightly? ...  the 2007 stats said that 136 cyclists were killed in the UK that year - that's one every 64 hours, not 48. The 646 pedestrian deaths are near enough to two a day . 

Reference: Department for Transport - Road Casualties in Great Britain: Main Results: 2007

[gordon taylor]

On average a UK cyclist is killed every 48 hours, a UK pedestrian every 12.  Four times as vulnerable. 

But that doesn't stop me walking around.

May I modify your figures slightly? ...  the 2007 stats said that 136 cyclists were killed in the UK that year - that's one every 64 hours, not 48. The 646 pedestrian deaths are near enough to two a day . 

Reference: Department for Transport - Road Casualties in Great Britain: Main Results: 2007

[keepontriking]

There was a black one locked up in the secure bit of Basingstoke station last time I was there.

 

I often lock my black Brommie up at Basingstoke station.