disappointed rant..

[Sardine]

Potholes as justification for owning an SUV? LOL.

Precisely. There is no justification for driving a suv in London as far as I can see.

ETA: Sorry, I should have indicated in my previous post that I was being ironic

[smilingcat]

I see. Driving a 4x4, a big hunkin' SUV to avoid the pot holes. How shweet. LOL... Must be tough to make a go in the urban jungle. Never know whats around the corner...

And I thought gas (petrol) was EXPENSIVE... how much for a litre? That'll be a quart for us in US.

I'm living in the civilized exoburb of Portlandia and doing quite fine with my very small flock of chicken, and reasonable size yard to produce more than enough food for us. And oh since we don't live in a jungle, tad more civilized here, so we drive a Prius.

[Irulan]

Precisely. There is no justification for driving a suv in London as far as I can see.

ETA: Sorry, I should have indicated in my previous post that I was being ironic

Well, so am I. :-)

[marni]

here in texas, in the greater Houston Metro area, the suburban mom SUV has been replaced by an equal mix of civilian humvees and the high jacked up white Ford f 150 pickups with the trailer hitch, mud crawler tires and come along in front. Needless to say, we are at least 40 miles from anything even vaguely resembling an open field or farm.

Our local elementary school is on a divided 2 lane road which is really only one lane from about 11:00AM to 4:00 PM as the cars all "stack " in the no parking zone for a block on either side of the school while the moms leave the humvees and trucks running while they dart into school to pick up the little preciouses.

sigh.......

[Selkie]

The most popular justification I've heard is that the SUV driver is "safer" than those in smaller cars. Plus, they need all that room to cart their one overprivileged child's stuff around. (snark alert!) How did my parents ever manage hauling four kids around in a 4-door sedan back in the olden days?

[Irulan]

.

To stay relative to the OP's story I have this to share.

I've been doing grocery shopping with a retired two kid trailer. On my way home one day, the hitch clamp came undone in the middle of a somewhat busy intersection. I had a full load in the trailer, and everything went flying. There were potatoes rolling, loaves of bread.... Meanwhile, there were drivers in the intersection that were totally freaked: "OMG, do you have a baby in there?". No, just potatoes. I'm scrambling all over the pavement gathering my groceries....

[tulip]

.

To stay relative to the OP's story I have this to share.

I've been doing grocery shopping with a retired two kid trailer. On my way home one day, the hitch clamp came undone in the middle of a somewhat busy intersection. I had a full load in the trailer, and everything went flying. There were potatoes rolling, loaves of bread.... Meanwhile, there were drivers in the intersection that were totally freaked: "OMG, do you have a baby in there?". No, just potatoes. I'm scrambling all over the pavement gathering my groceries....

Oh my, that's quite a story! That happened to me with panniers full of groceries. They were the cheap-o grocery bag panniers that fold flat when not in use. Eggs are not pretty when they fall onto the street. It was the first time I used those panniers, too, and they were advertised as grocery panniers.

[hebe]

Sadly, people think that their children are safer in them because visibility is better from higher up. Except they are not really safer, and they are far more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists and to the environment. Don't even get me started on people who leave their 4x4s with the engine running in the nursery carpark. Whilst they are stood chatting in the entrance hall other people and their children have to walk through their exhaust fumes. <mutteringdarkly> It is exactly the same here, a perfectly good road with a lane in each direction has its capacity halved at drop-off/pick up times. And this is at a school with a purpose built underpass, so that parents can park away from the main road and walk under it. But no, they all park up on the main road then cross, with buggies and children, from between all the parked cars. Madness.

eta, sorry, I missed all the comments on page 5 too! Yes, it is funny how drivers suddenly come over all responsible when they think you might have spilled a child. And quite strange how they don't seem to believe you when you say no, there's no-one in there.

[hebe]

Another update for my trailer thread dd's nursery has moved to new premises which are less than a mile away, so I am resolved to ride to nursery much more often. The route is easier, on the whole, though it does go through an industrial estate with quite a few lorries and there's an uphill stretch which is hard on early morning thighs when towing close to 60lbs... And there's a roundabout (we cross the rush hour traffic) which I was dreading, but actually isn't too bad as the visibility is much better from a bike than from the car. It's riding on the road all the way, which is much easier with the trailer than having to get on and off multi-user paths.

Anyway, today dh towed her to nursery and I did the pickup by bike too. She does 8 trips there or back in total over 4 sessions and my target is to do at least 2 or 3 of them by bike each week. It doesn't sound much, but it's a lot more than I was managing at the other nursery, which took over twice as long to get to.

[laura*]

And there's a roundabout (we cross the rush hour traffic) which I was dreading, but actually isn't too bad as the visibility is much better from a bike than from the car.

Roundabouts* can work wonderfully for cyclists! I don't know if in the UK you have the concept of "taking the lane", but upon approaching a roundabout a cyclist can simply take the lane and proceed through the roundabout just like any other vehicle. There's no worries of being right hooked or left crossed (left hooked and right crossed for you).

A city here installed a roundabout leading to a popular beach area. It is not clear if it works - it could be that Americans simply don't know what to do with a roundabout, or maybe the traffic is just too jam packed for it to work right. However, it is great when on a bike!

* Hereabouts they're called "traffic circles", but I like "roundabout" better!

[Crankin]

Or, you could live in Massachusetts, where they are called rotaries, and no one knows what to do. I live about 1.8 miles from one of the most dangerous ones in the state.

[marni]

Or, you could live in Massachusetts, where they are called rotaries, and no one knows what to do. I live about 1.8 miles from one of the most dangerous ones in the state.

ahh.. fond ( or terrifying, depending on your point of view) memories of teaching two sons to navigate the Concord Rotary when learning how to drive.

I was once trapped on a 9 in let roundabout in England for 7 times around before I actually was able to spot the roadway I needed. There's something about driving from the wrong side (the right) of the car that is very difficult, I was always looking over the wrong shoulder to see if it was clear to mere or change lanes. Fond memories none the less.

marni

[Owlie]

Or, you could live in Massachusetts, where they are called rotaries, and no one knows what to do. I live about 1.8 miles from one of the most dangerous ones in the state.

People couldn't figure out the mini-roundabout in front of the public library. Thankfully, we don't have them on roadways here! (They have a couple in Arizona, though. Odd.)

[Crankin]

Yes, Marni, tackling the rotary was the piece de resistance of driver's education.
I let DH do that one, although DS#2 was fine, since he had already ridden his bike through it . Of course, I found out about that like 3 years ago.

[Catrin]

People couldn't figure out the mini-roundabout in front of the public library. Thankfully, we don't have them on roadways here! (They have a couple in Arizona, though. Odd.)

We have a good number of roundabouts in the Indianapolis area, primarily in the communities just north of Indy. If they are designed properly, once people become accustomed to them they do decrease congestion and help to lower emissions.