Businesses invited to join meetings on planned closure of A38 in Lichfield

https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/2026/01/19/businesses-invited-to-join-meetings-on-planned-closure-of-a38-in-lichfield/

#Scottish garden centre set to close after 32 years

It notes that “rising costs have been crippling” since the #Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the impact of “constant #roadworks in the local area” which have reduced footfall “dramatically”.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25765348.strawberry-corner-garden-centre-closes-32-years/

#Gardens #business #roads #construction #bankruptcy

Roadworks At The Edge Of The City

https://justin-farrimond.pixels.com/featured/roadworks-at-the-edge-of-the-city-justin-farrimond.html

It's the end of the road at the edge of the city. Roadworks have traffic in gridlock.

#PhotoOfTheDay #PhotographyLovers #Roadworks #Photography #Art #Print #Cityscape

Why do roadworks take so long in the UK?

The answer is about underfunding – and a vicious cycle that Terry Pratchett explained decades ago.

#Roadworks #Potholes #UKPolitics #Infrastructure
https://thewhipline.substack.com/p/why-do-roadworks-take-so-long-in

Council cut a long thin section of the road up at the start of my street from this morning till around 2pm, and left it taped off with a giant 'NO THROUGH ROAD WORK IN PROGRESS' yellow metal sign on both sides of it, already a small mazda has knocked down the signs and two cars (one a large ute) have driven across/over it, likely getting tyre/rim damage in the process, wish drivers would use some common sense around here... 🤦‍♂️

#Adelaide #RoadWorks

This is the Zeppelintunnel in Sebaldsbrück, Bremen. It runs underneath the railway lines, and has been a building site for between four and five years.

The tram cannot drive through because of the water, and the lorry cannot suck enough of it up quickly enough to make the tracks passable.

Could it be, since we only had light rain, that someone forgot to plan adequate drainage for a tunnel below street level?

#life #Bremen #Zeppelintunnel #roadworks #flood #planning #architecture #photography

Pedestrians, Road Works, and Project Management

Reading Time: 3 minutes

When you plan road works that are meant to improve journeys for people cycling, and on foot, it is essential to remember that people who are on foot, or on bikes, need proper infrastructure to get from A to B, because if they don't, then they go from being on foot or on bikes, to being in a car. If we take this to the extreme, if you don't plan for pedestrians, or cyclists, or cars, then people just stop visiting.

No Thinking About Pedestrians and Cyclists

For several weeks road works have made it noisy, muddy, and confusing to walk from A to B along a certain route. On some days you're on one side of the road, and on others you're on the other. They make you cross, but sign posts and directions are not obvious.

Last weekend they placed ramps, which make sense, when machinery is moving from the parking to where works are taking place, but on the weekend those ramps should have been removed. This weekend, a cycling route was blocked, in part by dirty, and muddy tarmac, but also by metal planks blocking the cycle route.

Two Noisy Weeks

This entire week, and the entirety of next week the road is closed because they are resurfacing the road that they resurfaced within the last few weeks. I'm not sure the road is open for pedestrians and bikes.

It's not that these road works are in one place, and that we can re-route, and avoid them. They are in three places, so it has become impossible to walk from the village, to town, without being affected by road works.

Pandemic Habits

For years I had not gone into this town, because of the COVID pandemic. Recently I got back into the habit but the road works, that are meant to improve cycling, and walking, have ruined it instead.

The situation is so bad that yesterday I got into the car, to drive a few kilometres, to run where there are no road works.

They're spending millions of Francs to encourage people to walk and cycle, but they're discouraging walking and cycling, rather than encouraging it.

If I spent two months on road works, I would make sure that cyclists are safe from cars, and I'd ensure that pedestrians are safe from cars and cyclists. The road works that have taken placce throw bikes into a bike lane for 200 meters, before bikes are thrown back into car traffic. It's absurd.

Connecting Villages

If I was to spend two months, I wouldn't have done works here. I would have improved the cycling and walking network between every village, to make it safe to walk from every village to every village, parallel to roads. Villages have no pavements, or walking routes to connect each other, so we are forced to walk along the road, and in wet and sometimes muddy grass.

The paradox about the new "cycling" lane is that dogs and people will walk on the cycle path, and cars will mount the pavement to pass other cars, due to car spreading, and narrowed roads.

Rivers of Cars

One of the biggest issues with the increase in traffic is that roads are becoming like rivers. If you're on foot, on a bike, or even in a car, if you want to cross the river of cars, it will take patience, and luck. They're adding cycling paths, and widening pavements, but they forget that the issue is high volumes of cars. The infrastructure that was fine before, becomes a congested mess when there are too many cars.

In a place where we had a pedestrian crossing, it was removed, so when traffic is heavy, but not so heavy that cars get blocked, it becomes impossible to cross without running. This is especially true now that they removed the centre island in one place, and the pedestrian crossing in another. What was inconvenient before has now become dangerous.

Strava, Google, Garmin, Apple

Strava, Google, Garmin and Apple have tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of walking path heatmaps from decades of people walking with mobile phones, GPS devices and more. These heat maps highlight where people walk. These maps should be used, especially ahead of road works, to map a route that is convenient for people walking and cycling.

If you want to defeat the automatic habit people have, of getting into cars, you need to make walking and cycling safe and convenient. It was safer and more convenient before they destroyed the old infrastructure. In theory it will now take two years for them to make certain walks walkable once again.

And Finally

When project managers prepare for road works, they need to consider pedestrians and cyclists. This is especially true of road works that are meant to encourage people to walk and cycle. If you block people from walking, and cycling, for two months, as some road works have done, this year, and will do, for two years along another route, then you discourage pedestrians and cyclists. You encourage more car traffic. You also encourage people not to visit your town at all.

I love walking and cycling, and yet the changes that I see encourage me to avoid walking along the new infrastructure, because, in my eyes, it has made it more dangerous rather than safer.I am disappointed.

#efficiency #logistics #pedestrians #roadWorks

Road Works that Forget About Pedestrians

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For two years they worked on a motorway bridge. For two years they cut down trees, added tons of soil, and then widened roads for cars. Never during that time did they consider that people might want to walk along the most direct route from A to B.

More recently I have been walking into and out of town and for a while I had to walk on a dirt path. I had to avoid heavy machinery, large puddles, and cross the road on a busy road several times.

Yesterday, and for the last week, the cycle lane that they had "completed" was then dug up so that a deep hole was the end of the cycle lane. The result is that you either had to dismount your bike to get onto the road, or ride on the pavement with pedestrians.

Yesterday, to add insult to injury the workers added a large truck in the middle of the pedestrian path. blocking the route. In the end I walked through mud, luckily relatively dry.

It's fantastic to improve cycling and walking infrastructure, but only when it doesn't destroy people's walking and cycling routes for weeks at a time.

It's got to a stage where I don't want to walk locally anymore. I'm tempted to get in the car, and go for a local drive, somewhere away from road works, where they don't forget about pedestrians.

The thing about walking is that it takes ten minutes to walk a kilometre if you walk fast. It takes an hour to walk six. With these road works detours that would be nothing in a car become a nuisance on foot.

High Traffic With No Walking Infrastructure

The other nuisance is busy roads with nowhere for pedestrians to walk. The walks that I loved during the pandemic became too dangerous for me to walk along them both because of traffic but also because of mud. Every time I came back with muddy shoes I had to spend half an hour removing that mud from my shoes.

Blocked for two entire weeks

Within a few days they will close a road for two entire weeks, to resurface it. In other parts of the world they can do that in a day or two, but in Switzerland they will close it for two weeks, and in that time there is no mention of whether people will still be able to walk along the route, or not.

Three Walking Routes affected by works

This wouldn't matter, if it was one road, for a few days, but it isn't one road. It's three roads at once. The direct road between Nyon and Eysins will be cut for two weeks. The road between Nyon and Crassier also has road works that have made walking less pleasant, but there are also further works on the Route de Divonne, that make walking more unpleasant.

A Positive Blip

In Nyon itself, there are road works, to bring steam heating to apartments and other buildings. For this they are digging up roads. The process takes months, if not years, so they are creating new "walks" for people to walk along and I have grabbed this opportunity to explore routes that I would not otherwise be authorised to use.

And Finally

For years, or even decades, the default was to get into the car, and drive for twenty minutes to an hour, to go for a walk. Now my default is to put my shoes on and walk from the doorstep. I got down to using the car twice per week, for food shopping and that was it.

With the road works that complicate my walks, and degrade the pleasure I derive from my local walks, it is increasingly tempting too take the car and walk somewhere else. Some people drive to the Lac De Divonne, or to the Arboretum. I don't want to get that habit back, but with the way things are degrading my habits might be more car centric, ironically because of how they are adding cycling and walking infrastructure.

TLDR

If you plan road works for encouraging people to walk, don't destroy people's favourite walking paths in the process. Ensure that people's pedestrian habits are not impacted. You want people to keep their pedestrian habits.

#apathy #counterproductive #disorganised #douce #environment #mobilite #roadworks #walking