Monday 5 December 2011

Who should you blame for the ice?

In the UK we have a tradition of talking about the weather.  In fact we are obsessed by it.  It all appears that way anyway, until that is the first serious frost of the winter and everyone who needs to know seems to forget to watch the weather reports.

We must be the only country in the world that year after years fails to manage our road networks even knowing that winter will come round at some point?  From my memory sometime after Mid October! I look longingly across Europe at our so called neighbours as to how they deal with the ice and snow.  Why oh why can we just not get it right???

The reason for my slight disappointment this year you ask?? Surely it’s the same very year and we should not be surprised by our ineptitude

I wake this morning at 5am, an early shift at work gets me up at this godly hour.  After 20 minutes of cycling I realise the council has decided gritting the road would either be a waste of time as the grit they had bought this year was in fact sand not grit or they thought it would be better to allow the British public to Ice Skate to work in the cars or on their bikes.

My journey involves travelling on a number of major roads between Nottingham and Derby and I was amazed to see that not a single road had been gritted.  It was the single most terrifying cycle trip I have ever faced.  When every pedal stroke or rock of the handle bar could bring you crashing down and potentially under a 2 tonnes truck or bus it makes the journey a tad more stressful than it needs to be?

Britain needs to get a grip, not only to keep the roads open for the cars but as valid road users cyclists should not have put the bike away for winter.  If we make the effort to change our tyres, add mud guards and be prepared to clean our bikes, the least the government can do is remove the ice?  They seem to forget that there are over 7million UK cyclists on the road now and we too need to be catered for.

I cannot imagine for one minute it’s the same situation the world over?  Or is it?

Thinking of buying one of these:


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