Random road stuff

[Wowbagger]

From a FB group called "Shit London". I had a look on Google Maps for that sign - somewhere near Archway it would appear - but I couldn't find it. Not far from Helly's neck of the woods, I believe.

[Kim]

Ah, the Archway Road subway, I used to get dragged along there as a small...

Here: https://goo.gl/maps/2sGUcsfaRiKLP8Qu7

The sign was removed at some point before 2017.

[Wowbagger]

I like the pub name. Perhaps that's why she isn't seen hereabouts so much these days.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I like the pub name. Perhaps that's why she isn't seen hereabouts so much these days.

It's not the Despard, I can take the Despard...

[Kim]

Yesterday, I was stopped at the traffic lights near $college.  A Mk 1 Young Person crossed the road in front of me, paused halfway, picked up an empty plastic bottle that was rolling around in the breeze, and continued to exit stage right.

I don't think I've ever seen a young person spontaneously pick up litter that wasn't their own like that.  Older people do it from time to time, usually near their houses (this is probably a demographic thing, as older people tend to have more stable housing).  Younger people's wombling tends to be an organised affair with binbags and litter pickers.

[MikeFromLFE]

Ah, the Archway Road subway, I used to get dragged along there as a small...

Here: https://goo.gl/maps/2sGUcsfaRiKLP8Qu7

The sign was removed at some point before 2017.

Blimey that takes me back.
The placement in the Cytology lab of the Whittington Hospital was so boring there was a scoreboard on the wall next to the window of the longest time it had taken a hitchhiker to get a lift at the start of the A1. Kept up to date by generations of bored juniors.

It looks like they've planted trees to put a stop to timing hitchhikers, put in a bus stop to put a stop to hitchhiking, and added a few decades to the scenery.
(It was 1972)

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ah, the Archway Road subway, I used to get dragged along there as a small...

Here: https://goo.gl/maps/2sGUcsfaRiKLP8Qu7

The sign was removed at some point before 2017.

Blimey that takes me back.
The placement in the Cytology lab of the Whittington Hospital was so boring there was a scoreboard on the wall next to the window of the longest time it had taken a hitchhiker to get a lift at the start of the A1. Kept up to date by generations of bored juniors.

It looks like they've planted trees to put a stop to timing hitchhikers, put in a bus stop to put a stop to hitchhiking, and added a few decades to the scenery.
(It was 1972)

They've also added a cyclist to compensate for the lack of hitchikers.

[Jurek]

From a FB group called "Shit London". I had a look on Google Maps for that sign - somewhere near Archway it would appear - but I couldn't find it. Not far from Helly's neck of the woods, I believe.

Reminds me of this:

On Bush Road just to the south of Surrey Quays station

[fd3]

Yesterday, I was stopped at the traffic lights near $college.  A Mk 1 Young Person crossed the road in front of me, paused halfway, picked up an empty plastic bottle that was rolling around in the breeze, and continued to exit stage right.

Would this $college be the one in Longbridge?

[Kim]

Yesterday, I was stopped at the traffic lights near $college.  A Mk 1 Young Person crossed the road in front of me, paused halfway, picked up an empty plastic bottle that was rolling around in the breeze, and continued to exit stage right.

Would this $college be the one in Longbridge?

Indeed.  They must be doing something right...

[fd3]

We are a very big college, law of probability suggests that with 3000 students you'll get a good one eventually

[Cudzoziemiec]

Parking is always good for local trading, obviously. Except when it means fewer customers...

A Bristol restaurant owner has expressed anger that what used to host four tables and 16 seats has now been replaced by a parking bay.

16 potential customers replaced by at most five, usually far less – to say nothing of the other effects on the street.
https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/decision-to-replace-restaurant-tables-with-parking-bays-is-soul-destroying/

[mzjo]

 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-63997868

 I found this very up-lifting in an automated world. Of course there are those who would complain that these drones take jobs away from e-bike delivery riders but I still find it a more useful use of the technology than self-driving cars and lorries (until they become armed like Daleks and start taking out passing pedestrians and cyclists!)

[Cudzoziemiec]

And more on those robots/drones:

"One of the robots asked a lady if she would please press the button - I think she was rather surprised a robot was speaking to her," Ms Davies explained.

She said after three changes of the lights, the first robot crossed the road but she does not know how long the other six took, as "it was cold and I wanted to get home".

Comments on her Facebook post included, "they look so sad waiting on the kerb" and "they don't really have the ability to press the big buttons".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-63821535

Is it possible that the Obvious Business Need coupled with Consumer Desire to get parcels will finally give us traffic lights that respond to pedestrians (and robot parcel carriers, scooters, pavement cyclists, dogs...) without the (ablist? scope for an EA challenge?) need to press a button?

[MikeFromLFE]

They've had this sort of urban wildlife in Northampton for a while. Seem to cope well with the landscape

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

The difference between me commuting and me riding is the Carradice Nelson Longflap bag which contains laptop & anciliiaries plus change of clothes.  Everything else remains the same.  My commute (for the 15 - 20 times I do it each year) is somewhat longer than most peoples though.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

A ​93km air conditioned covered cycleway has been proposed for Dubai, with the planning firm behind the idea claiming it could make cycling and walking the main mode of transport for 80 per cent of the city’s 3 million residents by 2040.



Ditch the car!

[Pickled Onion]

A ​93km air conditioned covered cycleway has been proposed for Dubai, with the planning firm behind the idea claiming it could make cycling and walking the main mode of transport for 80 per cent of the city’s 3 million residents by 2040.



Ditch the car!

I can't help feeling they've missed the obvious there. Given a clean slate to design from, why not split the cycle path and arrange the aircon so that you always have a gentle tailwind?

[hellymedic]

Joan Collins 'almost knocked over'
'London is 'ruined by cyclists'.'

https://www.thejc.com/news/news/dame-joan-collins-laments-london's-'ruin'-after-being-struck-by-cyclist-7KlAYzpLvjCspxek32hlyB

[ian]

Between 2013 and 2020 an average of 3.8 pedestrians died in collisions with a cyclist every year

always does some heavy lifting in these stories (it's true, but that's any collision, even those where the pedestrian steps out in front of a cyclist).

Presumably she got to London in a large car, which definitely won't ruin anything, other than the world.

[JellyLegs]

If it’s derived from one set of figures doing the rounds then multi-modal collisions are logged against each type of vehicle involved which makes the most definitely “use with great care”, not something journalists are great at doing.  A collision involving, as an example, a car colliding with both a cyclist and a pedestrian at a toucan crossing, killing the pedestrian would appear as a pedestrian fatality in an accident involving a cyclist as well as a pedestrian fatality involving a motor vehicle.

That of course doesn’t detract from the culpability of those extremely dangerous and antisocial “cyclists” who ride on pavements at totally inappropriate speeds or ride on the road at night without lights and reflectors.

[Wowbagger]

https://twitter.com/countcaspargh/status/1630504262135414786/photo/1

That's right, folks: two-thirds of car drivers feel threatened by cyclists.

[rogerzilla]

Between 2013 and 2020 an average of 3.8 pedestrians died in collisions with a cyclist every year

always does some heavy lifting in these stories (it's true, but that's any collision, even those where the pedestrian steps out in front of a cyclist).

Presumably she got to London in a large car, which definitely won't ruin anything, other than the world.

Speaking of aggressive pedestrians:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-64824436

The convict looks nice.

To show how stupid pavement psyclepaths are (often no different to pavements apart from a few signs), it took the court rather too long to determine that this was, in fact, a shared-use path.

[gibbo]

From the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-64824436... very sad for all involved.

[Polar Bear]

A tragedy all round but especially for the cyclist and loved ones.