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"Fears council roads budget will see gritting cut"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Motorists face the risk of winter chaos because of a failure to manage the city’s “out of control” roads budget, it was claimed today.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/fears-council-roads-budget-will-see-gritting-cut-1-3558898

    Posted 9 years ago #
  2. Hope this doesn't mean that the improving situation with regards to gritting well-used cyclepaths over the last couple of years doesn't peter out :-(

    Posted 9 years ago #
  3. SRD
    Moderator

    different budget. see other thread.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  4. Ed1
    Member

    Well providing there was not a gruesome pile up on a road or some such drama, then political pressure to re allocated a limited supply to other uses under some emergency measure and a re profiling of cycle spending to future years then it does appear there will be grit.

    As I use roads to get to the cycle paths, then no grit and buses fish tailing down the road, would not make for optimum cycling relaxation. So lets hope there is grit if required. Of course our European betters ( in respect to transport) the Germans etc manage with out gritting roads but in some areas almost every one has winter tires and tends to drive better in the bad conditions.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  5. fimm
    Member

    Ed1 in Austria and at least some parts of Germany it is a legal requirement to fit winter tyres (in Austria it is between specified dates).

    Posted 9 years ago #
  6. SRD
    Moderator

    It's a sad commentary that in edinburgh more bikes have snowtyres fitted than cars! (@ed1 you will discover that a few of us here are very devoted to our marathon winters)

    Posted 9 years ago #
  7. paddyirish
    Member

    Typical reactive rather than proactive stance.

    1.We had a lot of snow one year and not enough grit. Council assume it will happen every year and buy in an excess.
    2.Next couple of years no snow and too much grit. Council assumes that this is the new norm and pares back to a minimum and excess used up.
    3. Return to 1.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  8. HankChief
    Member

    @SRD - as it happens, my new Marathon Winter tyres arrived this week. Looking forward to the crackling sound already...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  9. wingpig
    Member

    If I start thinking about it now I might get round to fitting the spikes I bought last year onto the sparebike in time to get them worn in in time for iciness.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  10. neddie
    Member

    Winter tyres are just another of those things where a 'safety benefit becomes absorbed as a performance benefit'

    See Death on the Streets:
    http://rdrf.org.uk/death-on-the-streets-cars-and-the-mythology-of-road-safety/

    Basically drivers (and cyclists), consciously or sub-consciously, will take slightly more risks, knowing that they have winter tyres fitted.

    i.e. They'll drive faster in bad conditions and the 'accident' rate will stay roughly the same...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  11. DaveC
    Member

    Hmm AFAIU

    Central Europe has colder winters so once its snowed, it freezes and then does now thaw. In UK it freezes and then thaws causing salt to be washed away hence the requirement to regrid etc.

    Now as for lack of roads budget, I hope the people with the power figure out that you can't just keep building roads, as you then have to maintain the roads. Less roads = less maintainace, and as we know cycle paths last for years and years without need for major maintainance as light traffic don't damage the surface.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  12. Ed1
    Member

    edd1e_h

    That books looks good will read that later. I have heard this theory before, I suppose with the perception of increased safety people will take similar risks to get back the previous level of perception of safety their comfort zone.

    However I suppose the perception of safety could be increased beyond the actual enhancement or the perception lower than the actual enhancement.

    So say a vehicle was made safer with no enhanced feeling of safety or awareness to the driver then safety could be increased. May be what is needed is safety improvements to road design that do not make people feel any safer.

    Either by lowing perception of safety and keeping road safety constant or increasing the road safety while keeping perception constant or moving perception down and safety up.

    So for safety creating lower perception of safety could be a safety aid.

    Like the old saying “Seat belts kill more people than they save” although not actually true in that case, the principle is the same. I suppose it depends on the marginal increase of safety to perception of safety. Would tend to think many of the safety innovations in vehicles in the last decades safe more life’s than they cost yet the increased perception of safety may have diminished the rate of return over what it would have been if driver behaviour and perception remained constant.

    I think will be opting for some winter tyres for my bike, however will need to figure out how to take the wheel of first -).

    -----------

    An amusing dated part in the book.

    "14.
    One or two problems with cars
    ACCORDING TO an article in The Times newspaper, Los Angeles has more cars than the wholeofChina, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia combined."

    Posted 9 years ago #

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