WE SHALL SEE!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Another week of 'weather'
(243 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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I am guessing all the schools are back fully judging by the nose to tail traffic on Duddingston Road West. I raced a lorry from the cycle path to the junction and won. And this by walking carefully over the mass of thick lumpy ice and grit that is the pavement.
Posted 13 years ago # -
humm, thats not what it says over at scotrail...
Posted 13 years ago # -
The squaddies are expensive and the City of Edinburgh Council will be getting a big, fat bill from the MoD for use of their services. It would probably have been cheaper to draft in private contractors or redeploy council workers for snow clearing duties.
Nice to be back on the bike today, amazing how quickly I became sick of being a pedestrian and occasional bus user. This is the latest long range forecast from the Met Office for road authorities:
Friday 10th December to Sunday 12th December 2010
A gradual slight improvement is anticipated. The very cold conditions should slowly ease, with night frosts becoming less widespread and less severe but still some icy surfaces around. Daytime temperatures should rise a few degrees above zero in most places.
Intensive gritting procedures should be limited, with standard procedures generally sufficing.
Monday 13th December to Sunday 19th December 2010
A dry start but gradually increasing risk of snow showers towards midweek, particularly in the east. Conditions are not expected to be as severe as recent spells at this stage but sharp night frosts will develop in some areas, with daytime temperatures also sinking back towards zero.
Towards next weekend, there is an increasing risk of a significant spell of winter weather. Northern and eastern areas of the United Kingdom become increasingly at risk from snowfall, which may be disruptive in places. There is the potential for this spell to be similarly severe to that experienced during the last week of November. Currently the risk of this happening is assessed as moderate.
Overnight frosts becoming severe over snow-cover, with daytime temperatures below zero in some areas.
Confidence in this deteriorating scenario is high but will need monitoring for changes in timings and severity.
Intensive gritting procedures increasingly likely towards next weekend, with local need for intensive gritting earlier in the week.
Outlook from Monday 20th December until Friday 31st December 2010
Continued likelihood of very cold weather with widespread frost and snow in some areas at first – all areas are at some risk. Weak signs for some temporary improvement but confidence on this aspect is low at this stage.
Confidence moderate in continuing cold, lower for details of snow.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"The squaddies are expensive and the City of Edinburgh Council will be getting a big, fat bill from the MoD for use of their services. It would probably have been cheaper to draft in private contractors or redeploy council workers for snow clearing duties."
I think the Services should be more responsible (political decision) for 'emergencies'.
They do air sea rescue partly for 'training' purposes. I'm sure 'rescuing' people from the M8 on Monday would have been a reasonable use of their 'off-road' capabilities.
Expensive labour for the council - a week late - perhaps not.
They (not the army) did some pavements here yesterday (six men and a machine). Just noticed three men, with shovels, doing the bits at the traffic lights where people actually get from the pavement to the road.
Wonder what the job sheet said yesterday!!
And my electricity has just gone off.
Posted 13 years ago # -
As an eternal cynic, there's part of me that can't help but think that the "calling in the Army" act was a bit of a pulicity stunt to make it look like things were being taken "seriously" and something was "being done" after nearly a week of claims of inaction on the Council's part*.
The RAF man on the wireless (they were bussed down from Leuchars) said that they were just there as manpower with shovels - I don't think they brought any specialist equipment, Leuchars will have needed its snowplows to keep its own runway open.
Agree with Morningsider that it was likely to have been cheaper getting in contracted labour with shovels (and likely, JCBs and tipper trucks) to do the same job. However that doesn't give you photogenic press shots of soldiers clearing snow around hospitals and old folks homes.
* = note - I'm sure they (the cooncil) did have lots of people out working hard to clear up, however I don't think anyone can dispute that a/ it didn't seem to be having an effect in a lot of places b/ priorities seemed to be odd - such as making sure that Princes St. gardens and the "winter wonderland" were cleared.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"they were just there as manpower with shovels"
Not even shovels. Some of them seemed to be using entrenching tools.
"And my electricity has just gone off. "
Does the outage look widespread? (he asks selfishly)
Posted 13 years ago # -
First time on bike for 2 weeks!!!
Lovely. Went towards coast to Aberlady and back. Roads fine except extra and deep potholes.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Some of them seemed to be using entrenching tools.
They could have dug the Astlie Ainslie some nice slit trenches or latrines then!
except extra and deep potholes.
That'll be those squaddies with their entrenching tools then!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Just noticed a cyclist moving very slowly and carefully on canal towpath. Looks pretty treacherous underfoot/tyre.
Posted 13 years ago # -
<topic=off>Hey Kaputnik, you tried the Firefox 4 beta yet. It's different, but interesting.<topic=on>
Have resolved to rescue my mtb tyres from under my desk and venture out with the bike on Monday. Will hopefully be able to keep them on for the rest of the year.
Has anyone done the roseburn path much yet, or am I better just running up Dundas Street on the roads. (that way I can grab a flat white from Wellington or a £1 drip coffee from Star*ucks. (And yes, I love how the asterisk somehow makes it more offensive)
Posted 13 years ago # -
I'm all for the Forces being used to rescue stranded motorists, transport ambulance crews etc. Should be more of it. The current (mis)use just smacks of ineffective and wasteful politics and PR. I know a few Territorials who have been asked to come out at the weekend and have suddenly found themselves unavailable for just those reasons....
Posted 13 years ago # -
"And my electricity has just gone off. "
Does the outage look widespread? (he asks selfishly)
Hard to tell here in daytime, most flats wouldn't have lights on. Shops are on different circuit - from past experience.
Now on again (off for 2 hours).
Posted 13 years ago # -
So it's not the CIA trying to take you off the grid then?
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Public 'should be forced to lend a hand'"
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Public-39should-be-forced-to.6656522.jp
"
Cllr Mackenzie hit back, saying the cold was "getting to their heads".
"
That's helpful!
Posted 13 years ago # -
I cleared the pavement outside the house last night. I wondered if it was worthwhile as, a) probably no one else will, and, b) it could all melt soon anyway.
But then I thought, that's not the right attitude, so I kept digging.
Spoke to a chap who was on a long walk home, he was grateful for me moving snow off the pavement and into the gutter, rather than off the road and onto the pavement as he had spotted several other people doing.
I only cleared a 14" wide strip but, hey, that's enough to walk down!
I didn't clear the pavement during the earlier colder weather as I felt then, from exerience, that the cleared-to-the-tarmac stuff was often slippier.
Last night the water on the compressed snow/ice was lethal.Went for a walk up Morningside Road - it was horrible, then I remembered that the other side of the road had been cleared (thanks chdot for the photo you posted!)
Posted 13 years ago # -
"then I remembered that the other side of the road had been cleared (thanks chdot for the photo you posted!)"
Came back and did other side today!
Only 5 men.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Drivers are being urged to take advantage of warmer temperatures this weekend to move abandoned cars."
Posted 13 years ago # -
Last night the water on the compressed snow/ice was lethal.
I found that out trying to walk home up Dundas St. I, like nearly everyone else who found themselves gripping wildly for the railings and immobilised, took the sensible decision to walk up the road.
I felt much safer back on the road bike this morning, dodging individual lumps of grit, when I saw a queue of students get off a bus at Stephenson College and try and negotiate a flat bit of pavement.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago #
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Mmm
Well sort of inevitable.
His performance/complacency on Newsnight on Monday was appalling. He was either badly briefed - so not entirely his fault - or wholly unaware, in which case he should probably have resigned on Tuesday.
He never really 'understood' 'cycling' - but I'm not sure that any UK politicians do!
Posted 13 years ago # -
I sometime wonder if anyone understands "cycling", it seams to mean different things to different people. To some it is all about sport, to some it is all about transport, for some it is both, and that is just people who actually ride bicycles...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Just on the council's priorities point: having spent a fair amount of time at the german market, I think it was "event security staff" at the winter wonderland who cleared the snow there, rather than council staff. Doesn't explain where those wee tractors were for the first five days of the snow, mind, but suggests the council guys were elsewhere at the time...
Posted 13 years ago # -
This digger driver would have been useful to have helping with the clear up in town!
I wonder where this is, there are UK plates on the vehicles.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago #
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That wouldn't be so bad. If we know it's going to happen then we can prepare for it and it then becomes worthwhile investing in more winter kit.
I'd get spikes for the trike and possibly for my MTB (which also needs a back wheel). I'd probably think about getting the back axle updated by Longstaff's shop because you can't easily get replacement sprockets to fit the current one and the transmission is a bit crunchy now.
I'd look for a Defender or fit winter tyres on the normal car.
At the moment we get through a few weeks of this weather then forget about it because it's not certainly going to happen next year.
Posted 13 years ago # -
...we get through a few weeks of this weather then forget about it because it's not certainly going to happen next year.
That was why last January knocked the country sideways after 20 years of a couple of days of snow a year. All of us here, keeping an eye on forecasts and temperatures and the skies, knew pretty well the weather was coming. I certainly had my
mountainwinter bike prepared in time, and I put the weather cover over my motorbike (heh, but forgot to remove the battery first...), but everyone else in my family wasn't particularly encouraged to consider buying a pair of rally car tyres, or a cheap 88" Landie off the AutoTrader, or snow chains, or any of that stuff.What we also know from our second practice run is that if CEC was already using its ploughs and gritters to the maximum extent, which I kind of doubt actually, we can expect more of the same next time. And that means more roads with two wheel tracks that are too narrow for a trike - upright or recumbent - and too many roads left untreated and covered in wet snow that is too compressible and dense to barrel through enthusiastically with some speed.
More cars going up and down with their chunky winter tyres is only going to be a bad thing. The more drivers who can be out on the roads in that weather, the more dangerous it's going to be for cyclists who, after all, have nowhere else to go when Mr Toad on his grippy tyres wants to get past with a foot of snow on either side, and in the middle. More cars with winter tyres and no gritting, just ploughed roads, might be better, because at least we might be in with a shout if we all started using spiked tyres. Trouble is, there could be a greater incidence of broken bones if we all started falling off (accidentally, or collaterally) onto ice instead of snowdrifts. The best answer is probably for CEC to do exactly the same as it did this month, but buy more mini snow ploughs to sort the cycle paths as well.
Edit: I realise CEC ≠ Scotland, so I'm paraphrasing somewhat.
Posted 13 years ago # -
From some insider info I know Glasgow weren't using all of their resources because they wouldn't pony up for overtime and they were gritting at 25% of the recommended density.
The two track thing is OK. I put the nearside wheel up onto the uncleared section and run the front and offside on the cleared area. If I want to let a bus past I pop all three wheels onto the uncleared area. If I want to let a shiny BMW 4x4 past... ahhh well I wouldn't do that would I? They're supposed to be off road vehicles.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Fixed wheel has been lubed and new brake pads fitted ready to take over from the mountain bike tomorrow. But I don't expect the ice to be gone from the Innocent so likely sticking to the main roads.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Pashley has been out today. Gear cable needed some fettling as there was a split in the outer so I sorted that in the kitchen while the memsahib was out.
It didn't need lube, trike transmission is a different matter.
Aiming to use two wheels tomorrow.
Posted 13 years ago #
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