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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Slippery Underfoot

Pictured is a van unable to ascend Cavendish Road earlier tonight. Motor vehicles - especially two wheel drive - are struggling to cope with ice, north-bound on Wightman Road from the railway bridge to the top of Cavendish. Needless to say, traffic is frozen solid in that direction.

Tags for Forum Posts: grit, gritting, ice, parking penalties, penalty charge notices, snow

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Permalink Reply by Bob Ruggles on December 22, 2009 at 19:03
Anyone know what Happens to Road Sweepers during Snow / Ice roads

Remember years ago seeing them going out gritting pavements

I live back of Wood Green High Road - Which should have near permenent Sweepers
Not seen them for Day's or Wheel Barrows ?
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 22, 2009 at 20:21
I suspect that they've got a skeleton staff on over Christmas. Certainly last weeks problems were dealt with very swiftly.
frank demsterPermalink Reply by frank demster on December 22, 2009 at 22:42
Litter pickers are all doing gritting. SWEEPS ARE LITTER PICKING BUT FOR OBVIOUS REASONS NOT SWEEPING.
Permalink Reply by matt on December 23, 2009 at 7:54
Frank

Why don't the council invest in salt spreaders for pavements, the type that can be walked along by one individual. Much better than using a shovel as it's faster and the salt actually spreads properly to de-ice the pavements. Shovelling out salt is ineffective, a waste of time and resources.

See here for an example of such a salt spreader. I use one and believe me what used to take an hour now takes 5 minutes. Of course you'd need a more robust design.
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 23, 2009 at 9:06
Well the shovel is something we can use again and again. It's good exercise and only a handful of us in each street need to do it.

Oh hang on, you are talking about using the shovel to distribute the salt...

No! The shovel is for clearing a path through the snow before it turns into ice!
Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on December 22, 2009 at 19:22
As a lowly pedestrian I usually try to adapt my footwear to prevailing or likely conditions. When are you motorists going to adapt your metal monsters to what you may increasingly meet between, say, December and mid-March? You have nothing to gain but your chains. Better still: winter tyres. What are you waiting for? EU Legislation? Time to fit out your larger carbon footprint with an appropriately deeper tyre thread - say, 2-3cms. Then you could all concentrate on making your discussion threads similarly deeper. Get a grip.
Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on December 22, 2009 at 20:24
Hear hear
Permalink Reply by Malcolm on December 22, 2009 at 21:58
Sadly this is a boil the ocean solution - it only works if everyone (or at least nearly everyone) does it. Otherwise somebody without adequate snow tyres/chains will skid or abandon their vehicle and cause problems for the rest.

So this is unlikely to happen until this sort of weather is an annual and prolonged occurrence, and yes, until there's legislation requiring the fitting of winter tyres. Since neither seems too likely, expect the future to be much like the past. Even in Finland if the snow comes early or unexpectedly there's chaos as no-one has their snow tyres on. And if you've never been to Finland let me assure you they have a lot of experience with snow...

I managed to drive from Hewitt Road to (and up) Muswell Hill last night - it took about 1 1/2 hours - and that was in a 2-wheel drive car. The hill was interesting to say the least, but it could be got up with a bit of wheelspin.
Permalink Reply by GillianM on December 23, 2009 at 9:09
My car's not a monster...... she's small, efficient and doesn't get out much. She would however definitely like to get out today to take my son to his grandparents for Christmas and is feeling very concerned having watched cars sliding down the hill all day yesterday.

I've called the council this morning and the guy said he had made a note that Cavendish needs urgent attention. We'll see!

BTW - am I right in thinking that chunky winter tyres might decrease fuel efficiency?
Permalink Reply by phippsofacto on December 23, 2009 at 13:42
Good point Adrian. I watched in amazement as people tried to get up the road with little success, lots of wheel spinning and sounding of horns. One guy asked me to push him and I laughed at him, normally I would, but he was going nowhere and I didn't fancy getting squashed as he slid backwards. He wouldn't give up though, and 20 minutes later sheepishly reversed past me as I resisted the urge to make a smug comment. My worry was that many of the cars and vans were simply out of control and it was down to fate as to whether they would hit other cars (or my motorcycle) or not. If they can't grit the roads, they should certainly close them next time.
majureyPermalink Reply by majurey on December 23, 2009 at 10:56
So this is why there are so many 4WD owners in CrooshOnd! Life's grim up north london when you live on a hill. ;-)
Permalink Reply by StephenBln on December 23, 2009 at 13:23
I'm surprised eddie and John McM haven't picked up on this.. another reason why the W1 bus along Wightman Road would be beneficial - no more climbing what feels like Mount Everest

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