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Drivers warned to take care during Friday's eclipseSolar eclipse (CC-BY 2.0 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:Flickr)

Drivers warned to take care during Friday's eclipse

A day for an early or late ride to work as drivers suffer yet another distraction
by John Stevenson
Tue, Mar 17, 2015 11:53
8

Drivers have been warned to keep their eyes on the road during Friday morning's solar eclipse, which will take place in the morning rush hour.

Unlike the 1999 eclipse, this one won't involve the sun being completely blotted out from anywhere in the UK. Depending on where you are between 84 percent (in London) and 97 percent (in Lerwick in the Shetland Isles) of the sun's disc will be covered.

That's enough to reduce the light level, at a time of day when there will be lots of people on the roads. It sounds like a good day to ride to work a bit earlier or a bit later and avoid yet another excuse for drivers not to see you.

In London the eclipse starts at 8.24am, reaches its maximum extent at 9.31am, and ends at 10.41am. In Edinburgh, the eclipse starts at 8.30am and peaks at 9.35 am.

Experts from the Royal Astronomical Society and the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: "Unlike every other eclipse of any size, this one takes place right in the middle of the rush hour. It's not the best time from a safety point of view."

The Highways Agency is therefore warning people to drive carefully.

"Safety is a top priority. As always, we advise road users to drive carefully, adjusting their driving according to weather and road conditions and during the eclipse we’d ask them to do the same,” said a Highways Agency spokesperson.

The good old British weather might mean the eclipse won't be visible anyway.

Helen Roberts of the Met Office told the Bristol Post that it was too early to say for sure, but it is very unlikely the phenomenon will be visible.

She said: "In forecasting terms it is still quite far ahead.

"But what we can say at the moment is it looks like the whole of the UK will by under some cloud cover.

"There are likely to be breaks in the cloud, but it is really difficult to say where these will be at this point in time."

solar eclipse
Highways Agency
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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8 comments

Avatar
levermonkey | 9 years ago
0 likes

Well Gizmo,
Was the world plunged into darkness?
Did the River Thames flow backwards?
Were the Four Horsemen seen galloping up Camden High Street?
Was there a tofu riot in Islington?

No because unless you are in the path of totality you wouldn't notice a thing. The original story and your comment were and are complete and utter bollocks. Your apology is accepted!

Avatar
mike the bike | 9 years ago
0 likes

My Gran' would hide under the stairs in a thunderstorm; it's a good job she isn't here to witness this trauma.

Avatar
sfichele | 9 years ago
0 likes

Sorry, the sun wasnt in my eyes?

Avatar
velodinho | 9 years ago
0 likes

Utter bollocks. A complete non-story.

Avatar
stever | 9 years ago
0 likes

Rest of world: 'Ooh look, an eclipse -- that's quite interesting.'
Cyclists: 'We're all doomed!'
1

Avatar
levermonkey | 9 years ago
0 likes

Complete and utter bollocks.

This is a partial solar eclipse. You will be completely unaware of the eclipse. A cloud passing in front of the Sun will have an effect many magnitudes greater.

This is a complete non-story other than to warn you that the lawyers will be using it as an excuse for there motorist clients.

Avatar
jollygoodvelo replied to levermonkey | 9 years ago
0 likes
levermonkey wrote:

Complete and utter bollocks.

This is a partial solar eclipse. You will be completely unaware of the eclipse. A cloud passing in front of the Sun will have an effect many magnitudes greater.

This is a complete non-story other than to warn you that the lawyers will be using it as an excuse for there motorist clients.

Complete and utter bollocks. Even a partial eclipse can make it noticeably dark if enough of the sun is obscured (well, obviously). Yes, thick thunderclouds may also have the same effect but to say you'd be unaware of it happening is not correct.

Avatar
sandsollom | 9 years ago
0 likes

The Highways Agency would also like to point out that it believes that there might be reduced light levels between sunset and sunrise. It is asking drivers to be especially careful between these hours and, if possible, fix some sort of light, or lights, to their vehicle.

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