Snow Brings Traffic Chaos!
Like John The Monkey said in a recent comment, people need better writers for this stuff - that’s such a lame headline!
So anyway, I’d thought that winter was over, that as a wise politician once said, the green shoots of recovery are just around the corner. To prove it, I rode in to my client’s offices today wearing a shirt as a base layer, rather than the technomaterails I’ve got used to this winter. It was cool on the ride in, but great cycling weather - a slight tailwind to make everything flattering and unsweaty.
Cut to four hours later, those four hours having been spent in a meeting room with no external windows:
Apparently it’d been snowing hard from ten o’clock, and with the ground cold from last night’s frost, it was pretty much settling everywhere. Last time there were conditions like this here, and I went out on my bike, I managed to fall off. Twice.
So I was naturally a little (read: extremely) cautious.
To keep the rubber side down, I rode in the clearer part of the road, where tyres from cars & busses had more or less cleared it. I figured it’s better to put myself out there and visible, than try hugging the gutter, where hazards in the road surface were hidden by the snow & slush at the edge. There were only two “Eeek!” moments - I hit a raised lip of a manhold cover and the front tyre skittered sideways, and did the same with a pothole I hadn’t seen. I’m not sure how I didn’t fall off - maybe because I was looking for what might happen, I was just more aware of it, and in reality neither was anything to worry about.
Anyway, I got home in the end without any real mishaps:
As you can see - it’s little wonder that there was such traffic chaos. There must be nearly an inch of snow on the ground.
My headline for the last couple of weeks was “Snow Brings Chaos, As Britain Forgets it has Legs”
Good job - fresh snow isn’t too bad (so long as you can stay off the ironwork). The compacted stuff is a nightmare.
Just you be careful
I think blaming the snow for the chaos is all wrong. The snow is just being snow, doing what it does, which is falling on the ground. The traffic is bunch of people who make choices, good and bad. You are one of the people making a good choice. Hopefully, in the future we will be building infrastructure that supports good traffic and discourages bad.
I think it’s smarter to ride out in the road, letting the drivers know you’re there, than in the gutter, hoping nothing bad happens. I avoid being in the gutter most of time, because that’s where all the junk ends up.
Agree with John the Monkey. Fresh is good, compact is the work of the devil.
This is fairly normal here: we just dig the pavements out and plough the streets and carry on. I’ve done it three days straight so far.