Country lanes - no curbs

[DerbyBorn]

Was thiunking as I drove along a lane with deep ruts where the tarmac met the grass - and wondering what damage it may have done to the vehicle - that such lanes are a problem - the tarmak crumbles at the edges and keeps breaking away. Clearly constucting a road with curbs (kurbs?) woudld be costly - but having seen a machine continuously casting a centre barrier I wondered is a machine could do it.

Imagine a rotating trenching mechanism - toothed wheel - followed up by a concrete mixing and filling machine - possibly dropping in some reinforcement.

Could it work?

[Malcolm Race]

= american

Kerbs = english (kurbs?) woudld be costly - but

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[David]

Trying to think of a SUV which is wider than a farm tractor, a sheep trailer, a cattle truck, bin lorry, delivery lorry, farmer's pick up truck etc.

Oh, hang on, if you are not in Chelsea but instead out in the country you might be a farm worker driving on your local roads.

SUVs can be a problem in towns, where much smaller vehicles can make sense, but country lanes are one place where they are used properly.

Cheers

Dave R

[The Natural Philosopher]

kerbs

[Nightjar]

The problem with kerbs is that they trap water and require drainage to be added. The simpler solution is to build the roads a couple of feet wider and paint a white line a couple of feet in from the edge. That provides the edges with just enough protection from the effects of heavy vehicles.

[Tim Streater]

Plenty of places round here where if you meet a farm tractor, like as not you back up until there is room (often made by people driving up the bank to make an unofficial passing place).

Yes and so what.

No they aren't. For the most part they are completely unnecessary,

[Tim Streater]

Good luck with that round here, such as at 51 15 53N, 1 04 08E. In general your solution would require digging out banks and tearing down hedges. Here's another where passing (even by cars) is just possible if you drive up the bank: 51 12 20N, 0 59 07E.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Like I can be bothered pasting that in god knows where. Just provide a URL to google maps.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Like I can be bothered pasting that in god knows where. Just provide a URL to google maps.

[alan_m]

There are those promoting road safety advocating that white lines, including the centre line should be removed from rural roads to make people drive slower. These are the same experts who have contributed significantly to urban pollution by introducing so many road calming measures that traffic is often at stop for long periods.

[Nightjar]

That solution, which is one of the preferred DfT solution for rural roads, is intended for predominantly flat countryside, where the side rutting described by the OP is most likely. The rutting removes lateral support to the road edge, which is then less able to resist heavy loads. If the edge is restrained by substantial banks, it is far less prone to that sort of damage.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Streater writes

Quite. Also very surprising to discover drivers (outside normal commuting hours) totally unable to reverse a car.

Also, they are frightened of scratching the paint so drive well clear of any hedge.

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[Roger Hayter]

That would be a total disaster round here, since the absence of the centre line is the only thing that successfully warns morons that it is not unconditionally certain that there is room for two cars to pass.

[Brian Gaff]

I'm sure it could if the construction site was free of services which might get rather large holes otherwise.

In Guernsey, very few roads outside of towns have curbs. The blind over there have a bit of a dice with death every day. Brian

[Tim Streater]

White centre line on rural roads ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha etc.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tim Streater used his keyboard to write :

It is relatively easy, just learn to make smaller adjustments at the wheel.

A solid 100yd run of cars parked on the right, with just enough space for the bus I was on, to get past on the left. Car driver dived in coming opposite way, he got as far as the front of the bus, before he twigged he had absolutely nowhere to, to get out of its way. Buses are not allowed to reverse, so car driver hopeless at reversing, had to struggle to reverse those 100 yards. The bus's passengers in uproar :-)

[S Viemeister]

White centre line would look rather odd on our single-track roads...

[Marland]

Have you forgotten what the S in SUV is for? It?s Sports, I haven?t yet seen Farmworkers driving to work appearing in the Olympics yet.

Farm workers are hardly in the income bracket to buy the vehicles marketed as SUV?s More likely to have an old Astra.

Since Landrovers etc moved upwards towards the luxury end of the market the vehicle of choice by those who earn their living in agriculture seems to be the more practical large pickup with crew cab and more suitable for driving with dung covered wellies and smelly dogs than a Range Rover Sport or Porsche Cayenne Yes Tractors and lorries have got large for country lanes but people who live in the country have handled narrow single track roads for years. Occasionally you have to squeeze in to pass and accept that may mean stuffing the paint finish into the brambles. Now if you are the Wife of somebody who has earn?t a few bob and moved to the country and then decided that you really must have a White Range Rover to pose at the school run then you are understandably reluctant to stuff that in the hedge and spoil the finish, so you force people of the road instead, and there a lot of them about nowadays. Things get quite bitchy while they sort themselves out around are local primary school and had a right paddy when she was forced well into a passing place by the school bus that also brings children from a bit further away to it. And their Husbands commuting to the towns and cities for work completely unconnected with farm or forestry are not any better.

GH

[Marland]

A lot of the problem is the abandoning of local road lengthsmen who knew their patch and regularly knew what ditches ,drains and culverts to keep an eye on. this chaps have been swept away in the name of efficiency and contracting out to contractors who get called in retrospectively and haven?t a clue where old drains are and never solve the problem. Near where I grew there is a dip in a road where there was once an overbridge where the Lord of the Manor had his drive and the peasants were kept down out of sight as they made their way along the road hidden from view. The Bridge went in 1952 but the dip remains and until the last local road maintainer got made redundant never flooded because he and his ilk knew when and how to keep a long drain and culvert clear. Now it floods after even moderate rain and the road has been closed for weeks, a local at his own expense did supply a diesel pump but after a month could not afford to keep it running. The Council denied that the aforementioned culvert even existed as the contractors ? Could not find it?. Well a local has since shown them, the council now say it was built in the

1700?s , yes we knew that, it was working fine till you let it block up recently . They claim it that as clearing or rebuilding it will cost about 300,000 they can?t do it and they won?t locals attempt themselves.

G H

[dennis]

Bad choice, they are wider than most of the small SUVs. They are even wider than transit connect vans.