Thorn Cycles Forum

Community => Non-Thorn Related => Topic started by: Andre Jute on September 30, 2018, 03:57:47 pm

Title: Dangerous potholes
Post by: Andre Jute on September 30, 2018, 03:57:47 pm
Jags and I have often mentioned that our roads here in Ireland are not too good. I've published photos of potholes of amazing size. Now a woman cyclist has been seriously hurt by one of these potholes, and is undergoing brain surgery as I write this. Another woman cyclist involved in the incident has a broken arm. First newspaper report here:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/woman-seriously-injured-after-bicycle-crash-in-co-cork-1.3646391

The further details I give are from a pedalpal who called me, who presumably heard about it on the local radio.

The incident took place at Gurteen Cross (photo in the newspaper article), a turning point at several of the figures-eight we ride around the town. Gurteen Cross is only about 4km from my house.

Take care of yourselves.
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: jags on September 30, 2018, 04:10:06 pm
Andre when i went to Spain (camino ride i couldn't believe how good the roads were super smooth our average speed went up 5mph .
roads here are dire only a matter of time before someone is killed due to bloody potholes.
be careful out there buddy stay well away from potholes ;)

anto.
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: mickeg on September 30, 2018, 06:14:41 pm
FT has a piece on potholes and other cycling hazards, like other cyclists, pedestrians, etc.  Not sure if this will open for you or not, they have a tight paywall.  But they might let you open one piece.
https://www.ft.com/content/b6ffcb9c-c239-11e8-8d55-54197280d3f7
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: Danneaux on September 30, 2018, 07:19:17 pm
In a similar vein, this time in York/North Yorkshire...
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7156821/inuries-cyclist-pothole-flung-into-air/
Do be warned, however, the article opens to photos of serious facial injuries as well as showing the potholes that caused them.

The most challenging roads I've encountered in this regard were Bulgarian.

Be careful out there,

Dan.
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: John Saxby on September 30, 2018, 08:14:28 pm
Grim news indeed, guys -- do take care.

Each spring in Ottawa (and many other places in Canada), there's a morbid contest to photograph the worst pothole.  Anecdotal evidence (auto-repair shops enjoy a growing demand for repairs to rims & suspension) suggests that the problem is getting worse.  Repairs are patchy and uneven.

My response is to avoid riding at night.

(There's a longer discussion on why the "infrastructure deficit", as it's called, is so bad--voracious potholes are only one example of the problem--but it's certainly not going to be sorted out any time soon.)

Safe journeys, all.
 
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: jags on September 30, 2018, 09:44:08 pm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ylsTz2DgXc
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: Danneaux on September 30, 2018, 10:01:14 pm
My goodness, Anto!  :o

Best,

Dan.
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: jags on September 30, 2018, 10:22:07 pm
 ;D ;D ;D

might never be seen again Dan.
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: John Saxby on October 01, 2018, 12:47:01 am
Just be grateful it doesn't freeze...
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: mickeg on October 01, 2018, 02:32:57 am
Not just potholes, but a lot of hazards.

There have been a lot of heavy rains in my community this year.  There has been a lot of surface water runoff in places that were not designed for it.  And a lot of the surface water runoff carried a lot of debris with it.

I was riding up a shallow hill in the sun, at the top of the hill I rounded a small angle turn and started to accelerate in the shade and then I found the pile of cobbles in front of me.  (In USA we ride on the right side of the road, not left.)  I could hear some traffic approaching from behind, so I did not veer into the traffic lane to avoid the cobble field, braked as hard as I could but not quite enough, hit the cobbles and crashed.

No serious damage, walked oddly for about a week or two from a very sore knee.

Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: jags on October 01, 2018, 03:12:24 pm
ooops that's bad, could have been a lot worse i suppose. :(
Title: Re: Dangerous potholes
Post by: Andre Jute on October 01, 2018, 11:40:51 pm
I could hear some traffic approaching from behind, so I did not veer into the traffic lane to avoid the cobble field, braked as hard as I could but not quite enough, hit the cobbles and crashed.

No serious damage, walked oddly for about a week or two from a very sore knee.

I'm sorry to hear you got bruised, George.

We have a similar sort of hazard here: low-lying tree branches over the lanes. They clear the top of the SUVs in common use hereabout, but on my bike my head is above the roof of a Range Rover. Since I often ride in the dark, with BUMM lamps that have a vertical cutoff, I don't even see them before they knock me off my bike by hitting me in the face. It doesn't happen often, because I ride familiar lanes and mark all the low-flying branches (and potholes and other road irregularities) on daylight rides, but it discourages fast riding after dark on lanes I hadn't ridden in daylight for more than a few days.

The other oddity is a single crossroads in the countryside, other side of town from where yesterday the pothole hurt two cyclists, nothing to distinguish from all the other minor crossroads. I was cycling up the slight incline to the crossroads and, though I wasn't going fast, had stopped pedaling to give a truck I could hear but not see over the hedgerows a chance to cross or turn before me. The next thing I knew I was on the tarmac with the bike on top of me and the truck, which had turned the corner, lurching towards me as the driver braked hard. The truck stopped with a few feet to spare and the driver came to help me up. He told me the corner is known to all the "flatsiders" (or "hardsides", paneled trucks and large vans) as having anomalous, unpredictable gusts of wind strong enough to endanger a truck, apparently over the hill from the river-valley beyond but for no reason one can tell from the visible topography. I had nothing broken but hurt enough to be foul-tempered when I hobbled into my doctor's surgery. "You won't die," he said cheerfully as I walked in. "How the •¶§∞ would you know?" I snapped. "You walked in here," he said, a killer argument because it was obviously true. I was bruised from knee to armpit for weeks, and pretty extensively scabbed too from road rash. Thing is, I'd ridden there a couple of decades, passing or turning at the crossroads more than a hundred times every year, and the wind had never caught me before.