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biotechpete

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Everything posted by biotechpete

  1. They have strong winds though which can be just as tough. The route I think you mean is a widened footpath near parkwood springs. It won't be lit and will not be suitable terrain for all cycles. It's being funded mainly by sustrans who maintain the transpennine trail - which as an example is often covered in mud and flooded in parts.
  2. There is a surcharge for taxi drop off and pick up at Manchester airport you're looking at £15-20 at least, each way from Hazel Grove. I normally pay £12-15 for a prebooked minicab from Stockport station. Stockport bus station will soon be rebuilt and linked by a short walk to the train station. Perhaps in time for these timetable changes.
  3. There is a non-stop bus from Stockport bus station which takes the motorway to the airport. It takes about 10-15 mins but is timetabled as longer to account for traffic delays. It costs £2.50. https://www.highpeakbuses.com/bus-services/skyline-199/
  4. I've requested this be fixed on a couple of occasions and on the second it was dug up and relaid (poorly) several years ago. A guy I know who works in the industry in the area said the contractor is notoriously poor. I don't think the gully is actually connected to any local drainage which is the source of the problem. The gully is full of water days after it's rained. The only outlet is evaporation and the fact it's always wet contributes to it's regular collapses. The scale of the problem is more related to the pedestrians and the business premises there which get soaked with muddy waves of water metres high each time a bus or a tram plough through it thoughtlessly.
  5. Couldn't agree more with this. I've lived in the area longer than 7 years and it's the worst I've ever known it. It's not just the ususal boy racers either. It's the school mums in their SUVs too.
  6. The scooters I've used in other countries are restricted to about 15mph. They're widely used on small roads and bike tracks. Can't see why we couldn't allow the same here if we modify our city centre streets for people instead of 2 tonne metal boxes.
  7. Give you a ticket for that "causing a hazard to yourself and others" law breaking did they? Just because they stopped you doesn't mean they did so lawfully. As I can too attest to after having been stopped and breathalysed without due cause.
  8. This is a common misconception. The road traffic act 1984 and rule 124 of the highway code through which speed limits are enforced refer and apply to motor vehicles only. There is no offence of travelling in excess of the speed limit on a bicycle or other form of non-motorised travel. The offence of wanton and furious cycling makes no mention of speed and in any case can only be applied in the case of an accident where serious injury or death has ooccurred. It is an offence against the person and not a highway law therefore a cyclist cannot even be legally stopped by police simply for being over the motor vehicle speed limit. The other offence police use is careless and inconsiderate riding but speed by itself has never been prosecuted in this way.
  9. Does the speed limit apply to e-bikes? I would imagine their not classified as motor vehicles and so not subject to the motor vehicle speed restrictions.
  10. You can book through a travel agent, though I wouldn't recommend it if you are on a budget. Sometimes you can find a deal often it's a lot more expensive. I've done Alpe d'Huez, booking my own accommodation direct, then taking my own gear in the car. Bought the lift pass in resort. The things you need to think about about are 1. What resort do you want to go to - cost, family friendly, night life, good ski school, easy runs, hard runs etc? 2. How will you get there - flights and transfers or drive. 3. Do you need to hire equipment? 4. Do you need a ski school? 5. How much is the lift pass? Quite honestly I wouldn't ski in France by choice. The resorts and skiing aren't that great value. Lots of people go just to be seen there. In Europe I'd go to Austria, Italy, Bulgaria or Andorra. The cheapest way I've found is flights to Thessoloniki and bus transfer to Bansko. Alternatively if you have the money to spend on Val d'Isere you'll likely find much better value resorts and higher quality skiing spending a week in North America. Ski magazines and websites often have advice for resort choice. Most resorts have their own tourist websites which list accommodation, ski schools, equipment hire, lift passes etc.
  11. A while back they said they were having trouble attracting chefs to keep the place running. Apparently Brexit Britain was not a place they wanted to come to and were preferring Germany instead.
  12. Mine clearly was, it's just that you seem not to have taken the points onboard. What that proposition in practice means is scrapping VED. It's blatant cakeism. Why 'shift' VED to fuel? How about putting VED on income tax, or insurance premium tax, or whatever? It's a tax designed to raise revenue to pay for public services.
  13. I think there's a fundamental flaw in the inherent assumptions at play in this discussion in as much as people seem to think that VED and fuel duty are somehow designed to pay for roads, they aren't. As the house of commons transport committee puts it As with all taxes, the best way to prevent avoidance is to spread the costs in multiple ways. VED is higher on big cars mostly because drivers of big cars can afford to pay a bit more tax. Roads are largely paid for, not from general taxation, but from council tax. Indeed the costs of motoring, roads, pollution, injuries and related issues result in a subsidy from tax payers to motorists. Reflecting these costs in fuel duty alone would be over 15p/km or a pump price, based on average mpg of over £2.70 per litre. All that said, I'd like to see VED or some other tax include some element of vehicle weight and therefore road damage caused.
  14. I saw what I thought was a golden labrador this morning running along the A57 towards Hollow Meadows, near the Mortimer Rd junction. There didn't appear to be any owners around so I circled back when it was safe to turn around, to look for it. Unfortunately I couldn't find it. Thought I'd post it here in case anyone knows of a lost dog fitting the description.
  15. The lack of devolved funding and the failure to succeed in CCAG funding could easily fall as further valid criticism of SCC and the political administration. Yes GM has flagship schemes, but the amount of new infrastructure is irrelevant to the basic design of what is already in place. My borough has consulted cyclists in a cycling forum for over 20 years. As such, much infra is already in place at a reasonable standard, CCAG and mayoral funds are being used to fill missing links and resurface paths. But the ambition, the desire to build good, usable infrastructure has been there for ages. Yes people still complain and compromises crop up but the cycling officers generally succeed in getting designs implemented. Perhaps that's why they get funding where Sheffield fails. The standard of current infrastructure in Sheffield has nothing to do with what funding they get now, or in future, it's a reflection on design practice and historic long term planning, for which fair criticism can be made of those who designed and built it.
  16. Having spent some time with officers and planners on the other side of the pennines, looking with enthusiasm at the ways to implement equivalent standards to the London cycle design standards, I feel criticism of Sheffield's efforts justified.
  17. The forestry commission planted a number of, often non-native, fast growing woodlands to replenish our tree stock which had been decimated during both world wars. Now that these trees are mature, and our national wood stock is fairly secure, they are being logged, partly because coniferous woodlands have pretty poor biodiversity. The replacement trees are slower growing native deciduous woodlands which offer much better habitats for wildlife.
  18. The direct trains from Sheffield to the airport are operated by transpennine express. The trains on the route are relatively new Siemens trains, the ones I have been on have been recently refurbished too. On a number of other routes to the airport there are even newer trains being introduced this year.
  19. Clubs are not entitled to close roads, without authority, at random. Local authorities will grant the right to close the roads at the club's request, or they, or police, in fact stipulate it as a condition of an event licence. Other events such as road running or cycling events may also similarly close roads. The local authority has the power to close roads for events using either section 21 of the town police clauses act 1847, most commonly, or a temporary traffic regulation order under section 16A of the road traffic act. In either of these cases, the closure can be enforced by cones and signage. Contravention of a road closure, in the first case is an offence under section 36 of the road traffic act 1988. That is a failure to comply with traffic signs (offence TS50, which is three points and a £100 fine). It is an offence in itself to contravene a road traffic regulation order with a vehicle under sec 16C of that act. In this case, the offence is a moving traffic offence under Traffic Management Act 2004. The traffic management act 2004 also gives the local authority the power to designate individuals as "traffic officers" to direct traffic. This is in effect anyone who is working for whoever the local authority designates an authorised person. Ie a steward at a club could be a traffic officer at the say so of the club should the local authority designate someone at the club an authorised person for the event.
  20. Well he apologised when told to, he spent a day or so doubling down on his comment trying to defend it.
  21. Brexit will result in such mass unemployment that they'll make full monty 2. In the new version, Carlisle's grand-kid will be injecting crack in an abandoned supertram shed. The universities and hospitals, will no longer be the city's biggest employers. The universities having suffered massive loss in student numbers after a scandal of locals being recorded mugging foreign students for food. The NHS will be in the process if being privatised and sold. The hallamshire will be closed down due to high maintenence costs, but the council will inexplicably buy it to save it from demolition, only to leave it derelict.
  22. Manchester believed they had a better case last time around and that they have one now. Tram-train through Cheadle is in the latest multi-modal plan.
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