Summer Motorbikes

Summer on the Railway Path brings out the local yoof on their bikes. Wrong kind of bikes though....(video contains profanities).

Physical Geography 101: Erosion

The following course notes are for the level 3 students taking the Urban Decay module of the Physical Geography:The Human/Car/Tax Dodging Cyclist Inter-Relationship in the Outside World (year 2) course.

New research by a team from Bristol Traffic has identified the mysterious cause of cars getting stuck in mud around Bristol. Apparently, the interaction of water falling from the atmosphere on stuff called soil weakens it to such an extent that it simply can't bear the weight of a car and so leads to lots of slipping and skidding. In extreme cases, shown in photograph 1 above of a well-used vergeparking facility in Staple Hill, the local council has stepped in and erected some soil stabilisation bollards to warn motorists of the risks involved.

Photograph 2 shows the formation of more soil instability zones and may lead to the closure of the vergeparking facility with more soil stabilisation bollards.

Current research suggests that an asphalt build-out to replace the green grass stuff might increase subsoil stability and avoid the closure of important parking space.

Effective right turns

Taypet21's video collection now includes a nice one in Staple Hill showing how to deal with congestion when you have a right turn up ahead. The correct tactics are

1. Drive up to the queue as fast as you can. This is why vehicles in the rear of a queue should always have their foot on the brake pedal, the red lights provide more warning notice to approaching vehicles.
2. Swing right, around the gratuitous pedestrian crossing with a keep left sign.
3. Carry on down that side of the road until you reach your destination road.

This shows another problem with pinch points: the audi driver who -was clearly important as (a) they drive an audi and (b) they are in a hurry- was held up by someone on a bicycle coming the other way. Yes, they had hi-viz and a helmet on, but they way they blocked the important person from cutting round the keep-left sign it was, well, as if they thought they owned the road.

Using the alternative

I would like to follow the instructions, only white van man and other lazy parkers are blocking the pavement (despite the fact it's perfectly legal to park here).