Travel Chaos

[flatandy]

I think we might need a general travel chaos thread, what with all the UK rail strikes, Southwest Airlines in the US failing to have any staff in the right places and getting 5 days of flight cancellations as a result, and so on.

Anyway, today's travel chaos comes from the US Federal Aviation Authority, who had to ground every flight in the US this morning because their collision notification system went on the blink.

They say "it's not a cyberattack". I think that might not be 100% true.

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/11/faa-notam-outage-flights-us/

[mids]

It took me nearly 20 minutes to cycle to work this morning. I had to wait almost 4 minutes at the pedestrian/ bike crossing. I keep thinking of complaining about that. It's not bike friendly and the traffic is usually quite slow so I don't think shorter waiting times for bikes and pedestrians will slow the car traffic by an appreciable amount.

[flatandy]

That was something I absolutely hated when commuting by bike in London. When you took the bike-specific routes there'd be lots of repeated waiting for very long stretches on bike crossings. This was particulary true at Elephant and Castle on the then new Boris Bike Superhighways. It would take about 10 minutes to get round if you timed it wrong as you had 4 or 5 big roads to cross. If, instead, you just cycled as if you were a car on the main carriageways of the roundabout - it took balls of steel or utter stupidity or both - you'd be through in about 45 seconds. It was basically a system to discourage cycling or to make you do high-risk things.

[wetkingcanute]

I ride this throughout the day - everyday - for work. It's the best bit of kit I've ever bought.





650cc Suzuki Burgman

[ootlg]

650?? for that little scooter?? Why would it need six hundred and fifty cubic centimetres exploding beneath your bottom?

Ah! I've just noted the 'throughout the day' bit - do you deliver pizzas all day, or post?

[mids]

Jan 11, 2023 14:09:06 GMT flatandy said:

That was something I absolutely hated when commuting by bike in London. When you took the bike-specific routes there'd be lots of repeated waiting for very long stretches on bike crossings. This was particulary true at Elephant and Castle on the then new Boris Bike Superhighways. It would take about 10 minutes to get round if you timed it wrong as you had 4 or 5 big roads to cross. If, instead, you just cycled as if you were a car on the main carriageways of the roundabout - it took balls of steel or utter stupidity or both - you'd be through in about 45 seconds. It was basically a system to discourage cycling or to make you do high-risk things.

It's a big issue when trying to route these cycle paths. Sometimes you're treated and have to act like traffic and sometimes you're treated and have to act like a pedestrian.

[ootlg]

Best thing for town driving is a beaten-up old transit.

[wetkingcanute]

Long time ago I had one of them and a girl friend called Gloria. She always seemed to be sick in it on a Monday.

[ootlg]

Monday? I met Gloria Hunniford.

[wetkingcanute]

Thus passes the glory of the world I suppose.

[perrykneeham]

You've been waiting a long, long time to do that pun, haven't you?

[voice]

Where I live there is one road in and out and as we are between Vancouver and Whistler it's no exaggeration to say the road is usually closed at least once per week due to pile ups, sometimes for hours at an end. And traffic just gets worse year on year. Glad I work in town now.

[wetkingcanute]

You've been waiting a long, long time to do that pun, haven't you?

Annos et annos!

[ootlg]

Jan 11, 2023 17:02:30 GMT wetkingcanute said:

Thus passes the glory of the world I suppose.

I don't get it.

[perrykneeham]

Sic gloria transit mundi.

You weren't alone.

[ootlg]

Blimey. Obscure or what..

[ootlg]

Oh sh*t. It was in reply to his own post, not mine. Hahaha... I get it now. (duh)