Phil (ascentale)@cainmark asks:
Q5. What do you do if a route you planned is suddenly closed for repairs and no detour is marked?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
daihard (he/him)@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5: If it happens in an area familiar to me, I'd try to take nearby streets to see if I can get around it without much ado. Otherwise I'd see if Google Maps can give me an alternative route. #BikeNite
Wandering Hermit@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
A5) I generally ride on forest roads on public land, so this is very possible. Usually I pull out my cell phone and the OnX mapping app (which shows every little track and trail) to look for a way around. If none is available, I turn back and ride somewhere else.
ajft [SEC=continvoucly morged]@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite #BikeNite A5 improvise adapt overcome. Or sit down and sook for a bit. Or panic. Usually a mix of all of the above, nowadays probably rely too much on being able to pull out my phone & bring up a map, other than that judicious guesswork -- like riding down the shoulder of a Spanish motorway for about 5km because the local road had been plowed up and not yet rebuilt
Solarbird 
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5: I've never got lost, one way or another, I'll find something.
Mensch, Marina@moira @ascentale @cainmark @bikenite Getting lost or not is a matter of perspective: if you ride your bike to discover your environment getting lost is a purpose.
Captain Button@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
A5: Either turn around and go home or figure out my own detour.
Recently had both due to a brush fire and utility work.
Marty Cormack@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
#BikeNite A5:
It helps to have a Smartphone with online maps, and it helps to ask for help.
In 2019 I was on a solo self supported cross state bike packing trip. The planned route and campground was closed due to the road having partially slid about a foot down the hillside the day before my arrival. But the park ranger was kind and helpful, let me camp in the picnic grounds, and told me to leave very early in the morning before the road crews arrived.
#BikeNite A5:
It helps to have a Smartphone with online maps, and it helps to ask for help.
In 2019 I was on a solo self supported cross state bike packing trip. The planned route and campground was closed due to the road having partially slid about a foot down the hillside the day before my arrival. But the park ranger was kind and helpful, let me camp in the picnic grounds, and told me to leave very early in the morning before the road crews arrived.
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
#bikenite A5a:
I also was riding the Great River State Trail in Wisconsin when I came to a bridge that had recently been burned by vandals. I had to turn around and abort that trip.
#bikenite A5a:
I also was riding the Great River State Trail in Wisconsin when I came to a bridge that had recently been burned by vandals. I had to turn around and abort that trip.
EQ@ascentale A5: I had a few of those lately. Since I'm running Turfgame app I always have a satelite map available which is not very useful for rerouting. But as a turfer I'm used to have to find a way to the zones. Last summer a bridge under construction and the detour was marked with a map and estimated extra km's and height diff. This was way too far so I pulled up a map-app, found a detour. Sadly that one was going straight up the hillside and down a very long staircase. #bikenite
@ascentale A5: Another time I was in half unknown territory in Germany outside Bonn I think. There was a big sign about blocked bikeroad but I had been there last week and knew the road I needed was going into the forest up a hill so I just kept going. Next to the sign was another biker in full lycra and racing bike. When he saw me going past he just went after me. I bet he was a bit disappointed when I went up the dirt track between the bushes... Still feel sorry for him. #bikenite
oheso@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
A5. This happened at Bridgwater in the middle of a Lejog ride: the canal path we were following was interrupted by a large construction project. We'd had luck with a few closed roads allowing cycles through up to the point, so continued on. We were soon slogging through deep mud.
A security guard directed us to an exit, and we eventually found our way back to the course. We spent half an hour the next morning cleaning the mud off our bikes!
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
A5. A day or two later on the same ride, a similar situation: the cycling course was interrupted by construction. In this case we could see the temporary office on the grounds, so we got someone's attention.
"You didn't hear this from me, but if you continue along there you'll come to a temporary bridge someone's made of pallets."
It was after the pallet bridge we got lost. Eventually found where we wanted to be.
Brownian_motion@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite These days it’s mostly pull out a cell phone and open some mapping app and find a way around. Sometimes it just guesswork but I try not to, invariably I go the wrong way. #bikenite A5
Frank Bennett 🇯🇵@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5: Like this? I turned around and went back, a 1km trek uphill, and found another route to Kyoto. (It doesn't show in the photo, but the fence was topped with electrified wires.)
#bikeNite
#bikeNite
Sam H (he/him)@v_perjorative @ascentale @cainmark @bikenite According to the barkeep at one of the izakaya I visited that evening, the fencing all over the hills east of Lake Biwa is to keep wild boar out of the fields. I don't think they can jump *quite* that high, but maybe there are also deer in the forest. (Often these countryside fences have a latched gate with a note that travellers should close it after crossing, but this one was locked up solid. So yeah, big "fuck off" energy on this one. 😿)
Trouble@fgbjr @v_perjorative @ascentale @cainmark @bikenite deer are very good at jumping. Some can clear an 8 ft (2.4m) fence from a standstill. Others report up to 12 ft (3.7m) with a running start.
🏁⚡Omar Two Tone⚡🏁
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
A5. I'd go back until I find an alternative route being guided by a map app, I usually ride in familiar routes where I know at least two different ways and if it wasn't any other route I'd go back home by the same route I came to the obstruction.
😀🚲#BikeNite A5 usually I will take a picture of the closure & send it to pdxreporter.org / 311 to ask them to use a proper traffic control plan (Portland requires bike lanes and sidewalks to have an accessible detour or car lane reassignment rather than "lol just merge with high-speed stroad traffic", but they're not great at consistently enforcing or even holding their own crews to that standard.) But a parks dept trail, i.e. the river path underwater, "too bad, go away" 🤷
hobbssend it. I got hybrid tires for a reason 😤
rand ❌👑@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5. I don’t generally ride a fixed route (although I often ride the same routes). So if I’m stopped, I just go somewhere else. If I can’t find my way forward, I pull up a map on my phone. #BikeNite
NilaJones
AI6YR Ben@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A6. I don't typically go places I don't know very well. In local streets, where I know my way around, I just re-route to the secondary routes I have plotted out before. In an area I don't know very well, I generally have also done some contingency planning, and also will just turn around if I have to. I am a very careful cyclist and don't cycle places I haven't researched, lol (over-researched).
Bob Jonkman#BikeNite A5: Usually detours are not a big deal. When I'm commuting there are plenty of other streets.
But if I'm out for a recreational ride on country roads a detour could add several kilometres to the ride! So maybe I'll take another route altogether.
Once, with a friend, we ignored the "Detour for Road Work" sign, and headed to where they had just finished laying fresh asphalt. They let us be the very first to use the new road surface. Smoothest ride ever!
edd@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
#bikeNite #bikeNiteA
A5
I've only had this happen once, in South Wales.
A road closed sign, but apparently still pedestrian access.
It would have been a several km detour mostly uphill, so I slowly carried on until I could talk to someone. He let me through with a warning to get out of the way of any lorries as they wouldn't be expecting any traffic.
#bikeNite #bikeNiteA
A5
I've only had this happen once, in South Wales.
A road closed sign, but apparently still pedestrian access.
It would have been a several km detour mostly uphill, so I slowly carried on until I could talk to someone. He let me through with a warning to get out of the way of any lorries as they wouldn't be expecting any traffic.
Matthew Newell@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes
In England it's rare you can't just get through (walking or riding). Where they actually maintain roads rather than patching I ask if I can walk through . If not possible
1.Check on Garmin whether an easy glance shows a bypass (pause navigation, ride). Or
2. Look at phone and maps for above. Or
3. Allow Garmin to reroute . Or
4. Ask a local
LovesTha🥧@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite a5 #bikeNite
All my riding to date has been:
Commuting-another option is easy
Out and back routes-having to turn around isn't that big of a deal.
I'd like to do rides with more complex routes soon, and while road closures are fairly easy to get information on, bike paths get closed for any old reason and tools to find out about them are worse.
Megan Lynch (she/her)@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5. I generally end up backtracking, especially if I'm unfamilar with the route. If it's a place in an area I'm familiar with, I take the next best route I can think of.
Sometimes I'll take a photo to submit to bikinginla.com (in cases in LA) to let folks know and if I think the jurisdiction has done a terrible job of signage, safety, detours, I'll use the photos to send with a complaint as well as publicizing it on social media. #BikeNite
Ken Smoker@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5: Happens every Spring/early Summer. Where I live, the rural-ish roads get chip-sealed on a rotating schedule. Not technically closed, but definitely not road-bike-friendly. Sometimes have to manufacture multiple re-trace/re-routes on the same ride. After two or three weeks, those roads become rideable again.
Inky says "What the hell?!"@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5. Adventure time!
Or turn around and go a different way.
Or turn around and push the distance out in the other direction.
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
#bikenite A5a:
I frequently ride rail trails when I travel. After a few aborted rides due to closures I was unaware of, I always first check the rail trail's web site (many have one) for announced/planned closures. But you can still get stymied by recent unplanned closures, usually storm related. Sometimes there's no getting around a large downed tree.
#bikenite A5a:
I frequently ride rail trails when I travel. After a few aborted rides due to closures I was unaware of, I always first check the rail trail's web site (many have one) for announced/planned closures. But you can still get stymied by recent unplanned closures, usually storm related. Sometimes there's no getting around a large downed tree.
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite
#bikenite A5b:
I've also learned the hard way, when traveling and riding rail trails, I try not to park at the far end and do an out and back. Instead I try to find a trailhead or parking spot near the middle; go one way and back, and then the other way and back. That cuts the maximum distance from your car in half in case something goes wrong.
#bikenite A5b:
I've also learned the hard way, when traveling and riding rail trails, I try not to park at the far end and do an out and back. Instead I try to find a trailhead or parking spot near the middle; go one way and back, and then the other way and back. That cuts the maximum distance from your car in half in case something goes wrong.
rowmyboat@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5: I mostly ride routes well known to me; depending on type of closure I'll either hop the fence & go through or know a reasonable (to me) route around that doesn't add much distance.
Couple years ago an underpass on the path was closed starting at the morning commute of the first day of class in this college town. No detour marked & only option was the shoulder of a busy local highway. TERRIBLE planning. #BikeNite
Sam 
@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5 Assuming it's not an area I know, this is what paper maps are for! Or I'll get out a mapping app on my phone if I've unaccountably left my map at home. I wouldn't go anywhere without access to mapping of some description.
Asphalt and Earth@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5 I have the OS maps app installed on my phone and will use that as a backup for directions.
I hate it when the only diversion takes you over a massive hill. I’ve been known to take a few ‘farmers drives’ as well that cut through, or just make my own route across fields!
JF 
@ascentale
A5: first thing I will do is check whether it is actually closed. So many time "closed road" means closed for car but not for pedestrians or cyclists pushing their bike on the edge of the road
@cainmark @bikenite
David S@jfparis @ascentale @cainmark @bikenite yep. Grove heath Road (near Ripley) was "closed". It was super easy to get through, barely an inconvenience.
MJ Ray@Pionir @bikenite @jfparis @ascentale @cainmark that annoys me. At least in England, the legally-required code of practice for roadworks for over a decade has said to use "Road Closed Except Cycles" if it's passable by cycling, which most are. But nobody is enforcing the law. Even councils, who should be enforcing the law, are ignoring it for their own works!
@mjr
Takes ages to change habits (partly is also anchored by the good old copy pasting the previous work plan).
Over my 10 years cycling in London, I am pleased though to see that the "cyclists dismount" signs are now less common and replaced with the "narrow lanes do not overtake cyclists" (that's being ignored by many drivers but all you need is one complying and holding the flow)
@Pionir @bikenite @ascentale @cainmark
@jfparis @mjr @bikenite @ascentale @cainmark
I once reported a close pass through roadworks on the battersea embankment roadworks about 8 years ago. I actually got asked to go to the magistrates court and the driver didny bother to turn up, but the magistrates seemed swayed not only by the close pass but by the ignored don't overtake cyclists sign on my video, although I never heard what the outcome was.
Mark Connolly@ascentale @cainmark @bikenite A5. Depends on where it happens. Urban areas are fairly easy to find an alternative way around. Trails/paths are trickier, and have resulted in my backtracking more than I would have liked.
I wish we had a reliable source for road/path closures that could be incorporated into @CyclingGuide — last summer using it for the first time in Sarnia, Ontario, we encountered three closures on the first route we tried!
Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲A5. I asked this because when a house was being moved, they didn't just block the street, they blocked all the connecting streets and the sidewalks. It was moving so I just had to wait, but it was a house so it took a while.
I did come across a road closure, wiped out by a flood and rocky, but saw the other side so walked my bicycle on the grass by the road.
Jon Roach