Car drivers frustrated and insulted

[jowwy]

the new road being built above the old road and the size of the retaining wall needed........if that collapsed it would cover the old road ( now a cycle/walking path) and end up in the river and canal network below

 

[jowwy]

Must have been an interesting cost benefit analysis, because building in a tight valley terrain like that costs a fortune, and the main benefit will be cutting accidents, rather than travel time, which is very hard to value.. It will have at least provided a load of construction jobs

the benefits to the area are huge.....its just people wont see it yet, as they are still seeing roadworks. once completed it will be brilliant for the area and reduce deaths, that have plagued that road for umpteen years

 

[Dogtrousers]

Thanks for the pictures. I must go back and take a look.

That picture in post #59 is an interesting mix of old and new. The pub you can see is called the The Navigation, on the canal that @jowwy mentioned. Just below the bottom of the picture the canal passes over a humungous embankment across the Clydach Gorge. All built with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. When it was new it must have seemed like a monstrous scar on the landscape, but now it's been absorbed into the countryside you hardly notice it.

The work on the road has been going on for ages. My parents were still living there when they started work on the roundabout at the Abergavenny end of Gilwern. There were rock crushers running all hours of the day and night. We sold the house over 10 years ago I think.

 

[jowwy]

Thanks for the pictures. I must go back and take a look.

That picture in post #59 is an interesting mix of old and new. The pub you can see is called the The Navigation, on the canal that @jowwy mentioned. Just below the bottom of the picture the canal passes over a humungous embankment across the Clydach Gorge. All built with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. When it was new it must have seemed like a monstrous scar on the landscape, but now it's been absorbed into the countryside you hardly notice it.

The work on the road has been going on for ages. My parents were still living there when they started work on the roundabout at the Abergavenny end of Gilwern. There were rock crushers running all hours of the day and night. We sold the house over 10 years ago I think.

yes the current works is section 3 of the roadworks........1st section was ebbw vale to merthyr and section 2 was abergavenny to gilwern

they are now starting to clear the trees for section 4 of the road which is dowlais top (merthyr) to hirwaun

 

[jowwy]

this is the brynmawr section of the road - look how many different road sectiosn there are in this photo......for me its a tremendous feet of engineering to get this road upgraded and remove so many roundabouts and to increase the flow of traffice

when its completed they would have removed the use of 6 roundabouts in 22 miles of road, helping the flow of traffic through the valley

 

[Andy in Germany]

THose pictures just make the sheer sense of entitlement even more astonishing: so much money and work and destruction so they can drive more safely, and still some people complain and call it an "insult" that they can't drive a bit faster to the next set of traffic lights.

 

[jowwy]

THose pictures just make the sheer sense of entitlement even more astonishing: so much money and work and destruction so they can drive more safely, and still some people complain and call it an "insult" that they can't drive a bit faster to the next set of traffic lights.

and from ebbw vale to abergavenny, she will have to navigate zero roundabouts, when there used to be 4........only she wouldnt know that as she was only 14 when the roadworks started and never drove the old road as it was

 

[sheddy]

Geography question - would the NT site at Aberdulais be more (or less) noisy after the new road ?

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/aberdulais-tin-works-and-waterfall?

 

[rockyroller]

"the media" & cage pilots

unfortunately, the media is so funded by car manufacturers. at least over here it is. bike heads like us can't compete otherwise we would flood the airwaves!

 

[Saluki]

I tend to drive at around 55, in with the trucks, on motorways. My tatty old diesel Hatchback rewards me with 65mpg.
Pretty sure that I annoy other drivers at my 55mph on A roads. My car sits at a nice 2000rpm at 55, less and it doesn’t like 5th gear, and seems happy. I have never seen the need to drive at huge speeds on the road.

At work, I hear the men, and it is the men, whinging on about 20mph limits past schools (teach kids to use crossings), 30mph through villages (why can’t people look out for traffic and it’s their fault, they moved to a main road) and any other limit they come across. It seems that the company car drivers seem to think that they should be able to drive as fast as they want because they pay road tax. I think that they must all be compensating for something as they seem to believe that speed limits somehow emasculate them. Perhaps it’sa construction industry thing, it’s very male.

 

[jowwy]

The bit of road under discussion here is right at the other end of the Heads of the Valleys about 40 miles away from Aberdulais. So I don't think the bit up the Clydach will affect it

A historic site that it may have affected is the Clydach Ironworks https://www.brynmawrhistoricalsociety.org.uk/clydach-ironworks/4588637090 where I used to go walking with my dad - who was a keen student of industrial history.

It hasnt effected the iron works……they are still there and now have a better entry road

 

[jowwy]

I tend to drive at around 55, in with the trucks, on motorways. My tatty old diesel Hatchback rewards me with 65mpg.
Pretty sure that I annoy other drivers at my 55mph on A roads. My car sits at a nice 2000rpm at 55, less and it doesn’t like 5th gear, and seems happy. I have never seen the need to drive at huge speeds on the road.

At work, I hear the men, and it is the men, whinging on about 20mph limits past schools (teach kids to use crossings), 30mph through villages (why can’t people look out for traffic and it’s their fault, they moved to a main road) and any other limit they come across. It seems that the company car drivers seem to think that they should be able to drive as fast as they want because they pay road tax. I think that they must all be compensating for something as they seem to believe that speed limits somehow emasculate them. Perhaps it’sa construction industry thing, it’s very male.

Not all males feel or think that way……

 

[Saluki]

Not all males feel or think that way……

I know this. So many of my colleagues do Think and fell this way. The constant pre-meeting moaning does get one a bit disappointed in the human race sometimes. One whinged about roadworks and a 30 limit that his team put in place.
My bike bud rarely drives over 50. Says he gets where he is going in around the same time. He’s not wrong.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I tend to drive at around 55, in with the trucks, on motorways. My tatty old diesel Hatchback rewards me with 65mpg.
Pretty sure that I annoy other drivers at my 55mph on A roads. My car sits at a nice 2000rpm at 55, less and it doesn’t like 5th gear, and seems happy. I have never seen the need to drive at huge speeds on the road.

At work, I hear the men, and it is the men, whinging on about 20mph limits past schools (teach kids to use crossings), 30mph through villages (why can’t people look out for traffic and it’s their fault, they moved to a main road) and any other limit they come across. It seems that the company car drivers seem to think that they should be able to drive as fast as they want because they pay road tax. I think that they must all be compensating for something as they seem to believe that speed limits somehow emasculate them. Perhaps it’sa construction industry thing, it’s very male.

We get this from both genders here; I always assumed it was a German thing.

Oddly they also complain about petrol prices...

 

[tyred]

I tend to drive at around 55, in with the trucks, on motorways. My tatty old diesel Hatchback rewards me with 65mpg.
Pretty sure that I annoy other drivers at my 55mph on A roads. My car sits at a nice 2000rpm at 55, less and it doesn’t like 5th gear, and seems happy. I have never seen the need to drive at huge speeds on the road.

At work, I hear the men, and it is the men, whinging on about 20mph limits past schools (teach kids to use crossings), 30mph through villages (why can’t people look out for traffic and it’s their fault, they moved to a main road) and any other limit they come across. It seems that the company car drivers seem to think that and they should be able to drive as fast as they want because they pay road tax. I think that they must all be compensating for something as they seem to believe that speed limits somehow emasculate them. Perhaps it’sa construction industry thing, it’s very male.

I do the same really (and I am male) - my car is happiest at around 55 and I rarely push it any harder any more. It makes a noticeable difference to fuel consumption and makes no noticeable difference to journey times.

Of course everywhere I go I often have an Audi stuck to my bumper but they are the one getting stressed....

For thirteen years I had a 22 mile commute and I always drove it at a steady speed to minimise fuel consumption and was never once late in all that time, even in frost and snow (mostly rural roads which rarely got treated). Yet all I hear is people (and I agree it's mostly men) try to justify driving like an idiot so they can get to work on time and moan about things holding them up. Why not leave earlier and just relax?