What's made you grumpy today?

[The Panda Nut]

Noticed the loose shingle ditches before and wondered if you'd just sink into them.

Noop spurns all ditches! Panda 4x4 rules OK

 

[The Panda Nut]

Seeing as it went half ok I was not too grumpy, but having to stand on the 22nd rung up my ladder, leaning on a chimney barely wider than the ladder to remove the chimney cowl, to extract the rods that kept coming loose was both scary and taxing. I have supposedly proper rods to do a power sweep. If you ever buy these you want best quality rods with at least double pin locks on each join. My cheap single pin locking variety are a huge PITA. They might be Ok for a straight flue but are u/s on our bendy chimney. Fortunately the last self un clip was the bottom rod. I watched as it self disconnected. Chimney now swept. Rods will be on eBay very soon with offers and no reserve. A decent set will be over £200. That IS to be grumpy about

 

[StevenRB45]

I think it more likely that the shear number of cars that travel down motorways every day, versus the number of accidents makes them statically safer than a 30 mph road with bikes pedestrians, street furniture and cars moving in multiple directions.

If you have 10 million cars pass down a road every year but only have one accident a day, then you have 365 in 10,000,000 chance of having an accident. or 1 in 27,397.

If you have 10,000 cars pass down a 30 mile an hour road or even 20,000 cars and you only have one accident a year, it means you have a 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 20,000 chance of having an accident statistically making it more likely you will have an accident on the smaller road than the motorway with 10million cars.

Smart motorways are still likely to be statically far more safe than the road your house is built on due to the high numbers of cars traveling down them. Also if anything catches the media's attention then you start to hear about every accident on a smart motorway, where as you definitely don't hear about every person killed or at least not to the same degree if an accident happens not on a smart motorway. its a kind of confirmation bias that the press like to push. its a problem because we report it to be a problem

and while I can understand not wanting to break down on a smart motor way I don't even give it a second thought when driving down them.

why is the risk any different to driving down a duel carriage way which has no hard shoulder but people are still doing 70mph ??

I'm more referring to motorways already being safe, smart motorway is safer than the street outside because it always was.

The parts of the network with Smart motorway tend to be the parts of the network with a low average speed that could really do with an additional lane.

It's near impossible to have a fatal accident when all the cars around you are doing a walking pace so as said yes I bet they are very safe statistically.

Certainly far safer than motorways where you might actually be in danger of having an average speed near NSL that as a result have not been turned into smart motorways.

 

[Cheest]

Okay, as an American, I have to ask. What the hell is a smart motorway?

 

[The Panda Nut]

Our safety pull out was always the first lane. We call it hard shoulder so a 4 lane road has 4 live lanes and on a motorway a hard shoulder l pull off lane. For cost reasons tgeyvate putting the safety lane / hard shoulderinto usecacaclive lane. In addition the smart motorway has gantry signsvthat change the numberb of live labes by electronic overhead gantry signs. So one day is 2 live and a hard shouldet, the next its 3 live lanes. You break down and no pull off. No access for emergency vehicles either. But you dont havecto rebuild any overhead bridges to gey an extra live lane. Motorway controllers use signs to direct traffic to appropriate lane for leaving and joining the motorway. net result is if you are unfamiliar with the road concerned or the system it can be confusing. you have to be very alert. Any breakdowns or accidents oftem remain on the live lane and there cab be trouble if someone the rear ends a stationary vehicle. Its meant to revieve extreme congestion and it does but it can be confusing and while you watch your speedometer rather than the road, because you dont want points or fines for missing a speed change you dont concentrate on the traffic.

I think consistency is mega important and changing the number of live lanes and speed limits is damned silly. Especially when it can change without warning as you drive Its not something I care to tangle with Research shows the safety of these schemes is variable.

 

[bugsymike]

Okay, as an American, I have to ask. What the hell is a smart motorway?

The answer is "Not very much"! Especially if you break down.
Basically a cheapskate way of the Government increasing the capacity of a Motorway at the risk to the users.

 

[vexorg]

Pandanut's description may be a bit confusing.

Traditionally all motorways in the UK have a hard shoulder, usually a red lane at the side for breakdown or emergencies. Emergency vehicle can use them too to get to major acceidents if the motorway is at a standstill.

A smart motorway has a dynamic hard shoulder. The lane can be live and cars drive on it, or if someone breaks down, then the camera are supposed to see that, and the signs say the lanes is closed and to be treated as a hard sholder.

Rather than fixing the infrastructure or adding more lanes, some government person has probably been driving one day and though "there's a free lane, if we use that then it'll stop congestion".
So as well as the lack of safety now, we have years of them digging up the motorway to convert them to smart motorway (M6 has been painful if heading to London with roadworks just for them).

 

[Cheest]

That makes sense. Nothing like that in my little rural chunk of the world, though a similar thing exists near Chicago's O'hare airport. There's a lighted sign above the shoulder that shows a green arrow if shoulder riding is allowed, or a red X if not, when headed into the city on the Kennedy Expressway.

Expressway is a lie, by the way. Unless it's 2am and that's no guarantee. On the rare occasions I go into the city, I take the train.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Pandanut's description may be a bit confusing.

Traditionally all motorways in the UK have a hard shoulder, usually a red lane at the side for breakdown or emergencies. Emergency vehicle can use them too to get to major acceidents if the motorway is at a standstill.

A smart motorway has a dynamic hard shoulder. The lane can be live and cars drive on it, or if someone breaks down, then the camera are supposed to see that, and the signs say the lanes is closed and to be treated as a hard sholder.

Rather than fixing the infrastructure or adding more lanes, some government person has probably been driving one day and though "there's a free lane, if we use that then it'll stop congestion".
So as well as the lack of safety now, we have years of them digging up the motorway to convert them to smart motorway (M6 has been painful if heading to London with roadworks just for them).

Yes they have me pretty confused. I hope RoSPA and GEM manage to put a stop to them.

Birmingham Expressway was an early example of smart roads and nobody took much notice of the signs nad bollards on that either. So you have to cope with changing speed, mandatory lane instruction AND the morons who carry on regardless and swerve to avoid at the last minute in additionto breakdons and accidents. I would say teh Bolivian death road is probably an equal in yterms of incidents. OK an incident there mighht be a little more quickly cleared from the carriageway!

If you dont like the M6 try the M42. I will NEVER drive on that road again ever.

 

[The Panda Nut]

That makes sense. Nothing like that in my little rural chunk of the world, though a similar thing exists near Chicago's O'hare airport. There's a lighted sign above the shoulder that shows a green arrow if shoulder riding is allowed, or a red X if not, when headed into the city on the Kennedy Expressway.

Expressway is a lie, by the way. Unless it's 2am and that's no guarantee. On the rare occasions I go into the city, I take the train.

Similar sort of thing. If traffic is really slow it does somehting to help I suppose, UNTIL, something goes wrong then its total hell.

 

[vexorg]

The M6 is usually ok once you get north of stafford, then better once you clear manchester area, then a dream once you get north of carlisle.

 

[The Panda Nut]

The M6 is usually ok once you get north of stafford, then better once you clear manchester area, then a dream once you get north of carlisle.

I certainly think the M6 toll is worth the money. Its many years since I did the old M6.

 

[AndyRKett]

I certainly think the M6 toll is worth the money. Its many years since I did the old M6.

Totally agree especially when you see the queues of cars on the non toll section

 

[vexorg]

Worth it even for the view, that M6 part through birmingham is quite depressing looking. I've been forced to go through it recently to get to the M5.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Do we talk about football in this section ? Can't remember seeing posts about it , but I will go ahead anyway .

Tomorrow the English football leagues 1 and 2 finish .[EFL]
I have been a remote fan of Colchester United most of my life [born in Essex but in a rival football town]
I haven't been to a home match since 2011.
Haven't been to a nearer away match either , although there are teams far nearer than travelling Surrey to north Essex , Crawley ,Sutton , Wimbledon all easily reached from my house , I can walk the 3 miles to Sutton if I had the enthusiasm for it .
Some recent history......
At the curtailed end of the 2020 season , Colchester finished in the promotion play off places ,but obviously failed to reach the final or promotion from league 2 to 1 .
In the following 4 seasons 2021 to 2024 ,they have been messing around at or near the foot of the league , narrowly escaping relegation to the National league non league .
This year I believe is the closest they have come to relegation and it's not all over yet .

Some stats.....
Sutton United must win to stay up ,to match Colchester's point total ,they must also turn around a 4 goal difference deficit .
Colchester only need 1 point to stay up ,or at least lose not too badly and hope Sutton don't score loads .
Colchester have a new ish stadium that doesn't deserve to only host non league football but if the team aren't good enough then it is what it is .
5pm tomorrow it will all have been settled and depression will kick in if Colchester are relegated and I will have to go and buy comfort food to offset the disappointment .
Most men would go out and get thoroughly drunk but that would just end in lots of throwing up .
It's 2pm ,just 27 hours to go !

 

[portland_bill]

Do we talk about football in this section ? Can't remember seeing posts about it , but I will go ahead anyway .

Tomorrow the English football leagues 1 and 2 finish .[EFL]
I have been a remote fan of Colchester United most of my life [born in Essex but in a rival football town]
I haven't been to a home match since 2011.
Haven't been to a nearer away match either , although there are teams far nearer than travelling Surrey to north Essex , Crawley ,Sutton , Wimbledon all easily reached from my house , I can walk the 3 miles to Sutton if I had the enthusiasm for it .
Some recent history......
At the curtailed end of the 2020 season , Colchester finished in the promotion play off places ,but obviously failed to reach the final or promotion from league 2 to 1 .
In the following 4 seasons 2021 to 2024 ,they have been messing around at or near the foot of the league , narrowly escaping relegation to the National league non league .
This year I believe is the closest they have come to relegation and it's not all over yet .

Some stats.....
Sutton United must win to stay up ,to match Colchester's point total ,they must also turn around a 4 goal difference deficit .
Colchester only need 1 point to stay up ,or at least lose not too badly and hope Sutton don't score loads .
Colchester have a new ish stadium that doesn't deserve to only host non league football but if the team aren't good enough then it is what it is .
5pm tomorrow it will all have been settled and depression will kick in if Colchester are relegated and I will have to go and buy comfort food to offset the disappointment .
Most men would go out and get thoroughly drunk but that would just end in lots of throwing up .
It's 2pm ,just 27 hours to go !

Grumpy with myself now.
I have no interest in football. You told us in the first line. So why have I just spent a few minutes bothering to read this, and still have no idea what you said.
I need to get out more, but not to a football match.

 

[vexorg]

Grumpy with myself now.
I have no interest in football. You told us in the first line. So why have I just spent a few minutes bothering to read this.

i didn't, just flicked past. The only time I'll watch it for the World Cup. Most of the time i can't understand how they get paid so much money for pitiful performance and worst acting every time a player comes near.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Do we talk about football in this section ? Can't remember seeing posts about it , but I will go ahead anyway .

Tomorrow the English football leagues 1 and 2 finish .[EFL]
I have been a remote fan of Colchester United most of my life [born in Essex but in a rival football town]
I haven't been to a home match since 2011.
Haven't been to a nearer away match either , although there are teams far nearer than travelling Surrey to north Essex , Crawley ,Sutton , Wimbledon all easily reached from my house , I can walk the 3 miles to Sutton if I had the enthusiasm for it .
Some recent history......
At the curtailed end of the 2020 season , Colchester finished in the promotion play off places ,but obviously failed to reach the final or promotion from league 2 to 1 .
In the following 4 seasons 2021 to 2024 ,they have been messing around at or near the foot of the league , narrowly escaping relegation to the National league non league .
This year I believe is the closest they have come to relegation and it's not all over yet .

Some stats.....
Sutton United must win to stay up ,to match Colchester's point total ,they must also turn around a 4 goal difference deficit .
Colchester only need 1 point to stay up ,or at least lose not too badly and hope Sutton don't score loads .
Colchester have a new ish stadium that doesn't deserve to only host non league football but if the team aren't good enough then it is what it is .
5pm tomorrow it will all have been settled and depression will kick in if Colchester are relegated and I will have to go and buy comfort food to offset the disappointment .
Most men would go out and get thoroughly drunk but that would just end in lots of throwing up .
It's 2pm ,just 27 hours to go !

Oh deers. I hope they do it 4 you.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Driving along in either a sand storm or smoke screen, or was is just misty. I find out its not any of these. Everyone else can see clearly. It seems I have eye troubles. Hopefully it can be sorted out. Back to the optician Monday for more tests. It explains why night driving has become very difficult. Its probably 1, 750,000 miles of driving that caused the damage, much of this done in the dark. I should have domne it all in Pandas.