Video: Does the Cinder Track require extensive renovation?

Ush wrote:

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

The walker/pedestrian in me has significant sympathy for the anti-tarmac argument. I would prefer that fast utility/commuter routes used strips of land alongside existing roads, either reappropriated from the roads themselves or from adjoining land (or just took over existing roads entirely - motorists can stick to the motorways and dual-carriageways built for them at great expense). Once these sorts of paths get tarmacced not only do they unavoidably have a different feel to them, but I'd worry that you'll eventually get motorised traffic appropriating them as has happened with the every other throughfare.

 

All this ^^^.    There are enough places tarmacced-over already. 

Removing the trees and gorse hedges would turn a lovely path into a scorching heat trap in the summer.

In addition:  we read/post a lot of complaints on this website about cyclist/ped conflicts... MrCrud's video is a nice antidote to all that, showing adult humans sharing a public space.  Nice one!

Indeed, my folks live near a old railway which is now a cyclepath, one of the issues is that due the gradient though mild, and a tarmac surface bikes pick up speed easly and are fairly slient quite appart from folks unwillingness to slow, which oddly cars do, since they are the local folks who's properties have access over it.

pre tarmac is was a gravel/hardpack grass track which kept the speeds down, though wasn't a bad surface.

Ush wrote:

spen wrote:

If that path is perfectly rideable then I can only assume that he finds it extremely difficult to ride in a straight line, why else would he keep swerving from side to side, after all it couldn't be to avoid the ruts, pools of water and large stones eroding out of the path surface could it.

Why do you insist on being able to ride in a straight line without the odd adjustment for the road surface?  

Even on a road surface you've got be able to adjust for variations and irregularities in the road... there's just a few more of them on this path... which is lovely as is.  If you want a high-speed, low variation surface then there's already an extensive network of them blighting the land.  

You might be happy to, but I, and I guess many elderly potential riders, don't want to spend all the time looking at the ground to plot a course - I and they want to pootle along enjoying the scenery.  And when with kids I don't want to constantly be their eyes for them either.

Since it's a bridleway, tarmac is inappropriate but there are a number of other surfaces that are  - the bridleways on Epsom and Ashtead common have been resurfaced in the past 5 years as  2-3m wide paths with well-drained compact surfaces of uniform composition that now attract wheelchair users and people on ordinary uprights at all times of the year, whereas before they looked like some of the narrower sections of the video, and you only saw Goretex-bedecked "enthusiasts", CX/MTB-ers and horse riders (you still do).

PS The pic prefacing the video at the top of this article show a man who seems to be standing on a badly eroded and sterile embankment. In the video itself, at around 1:15 the walkers step off the track for the rider - very polite but it shows there's inadequate width even with only 3 people around, and you can imagine that if a less I-have-to-be-friendly-because-I have-an-agenda-to-film-but-still-fairly-accommodating rider came through there might well be perceived conflict because of that.

Jitensha Oni wrote:

I and they want to pootle along enjoying the scenery.  And when with kids I don't want to constantly be their eyes for them either.

Pootling would be a perfect speed for that sort of track.  It's the sort of thing I grew up riding on. As a kid it taught me to watch where I was going.

Also, w.r.t scenery, a 2-3m wide track created by hacking down the trees, hedges and bushes in an orc-like frenzy seems counterproductive.  I suppose a wall of hi-def LED billboards powered by solar panels could be created alongside the track to project images of a countryside, long since vanished under wheelchair friendly "bike" paths.  At appropriate intervals robotic mannequins of dogs and ramblers and farmers could shout at the eco-cyclists.

oldstrath wrote:

Well, it's already better than a lot of Sustrans paths. Not sure I'd want to commute on it every day, but us that a real usage?

Also better than a road I used today.

Ush wrote:

Jitensha Oni wrote:

I and they want to pootle along enjoying the scenery.  And when with kids I don't want to constantly be their eyes for them either.

Pootling would be a perfect speed for that sort of track.  It's the sort of thing I grew up riding on. As a kid it taught me to watch where I was going.

 

Also, w.r.t scenery, a 2-3m wide track created by hacking down the trees, hedges and bushes in an orc-like frenzy seems counterproductive.  I suppose a wall of hi-def LED billboards powered by solar panels could be created alongside the track to project images of a countryside, long since vanished under wheelchair friendly "bike" paths.  At appropriate intervals robotic mannequins of dogs and ramblers and farmers could shout at the eco-cyclists.

there's gotta be some sub-clause to Godwin's law that includes references to Tolkien in internet threads!

beezus fufoon wrote:

Ush wrote:

Jitensha Oni wrote:

I and they want to pootle along enjoying the scenery.  And when with kids I don't want to constantly be their eyes for them either.

Pootling would be a perfect speed for that sort of track.  It's the sort of thing I grew up riding on. As a kid it taught me to watch where I was going.

 

Also, w.r.t scenery, a 2-3m wide track created by hacking down the trees, hedges and bushes in an orc-like frenzy seems counterproductive.  I suppose a wall of hi-def LED billboards powered by solar panels could be created alongside the track to project images of a countryside, long since vanished under wheelchair friendly "bike" paths.  At appropriate intervals robotic mannequins of dogs and ramblers and farmers could shout at the eco-cyclists.

there's gotta be some sub-clause to Godwin's law that includes references to Tolkien in internet threads!

Thorin's Law?

mistercrud wrote:

This is on the Sustrans Cinder Track site, "Improvements" just South of ravenscar. They actually are complimenting themselves on the work they have done! In the distance, you can just see the track as it was...narrow, leafy, charming.  I can now reach 30mph effortlessly down this section. Before, 15mph was sufficient.

What is wrong with these people? It only gets slightly busy about 20 days a year.

Sort of with you and sort of not.

Personally, I prefer smooth tarmaced routes (only because I no longer have a CX bike ).

Though Sustrans' work seems to have pretty much ruined what would have been a great bridleway.

Spike64 wrote:

This was the quality of the surface the last time I rode it. The video is pretty selective !

@spike64

What's so bad about that...I can't see any HGV's, no cars not even a pedestrian! It looks truly idyllic.  Oh there's some cobbles and loose gravel and rocks...Deal with it, part of the fun is managing your 2 wheeled steed across all sorts of surfaces in all types of conditions. Sky is blue..life is good.

Completely support the idea that this kind of path needs no further interference. I am sure there are plenty of more worthy contenders for Sustrans to help segregate motorised traffic from the less protetected road / path users.