More drastic measures with the tyre

I had gone to the tyre centre on a Wednesday. I hoped they would sort out my slow puncture forever! But by Sunday, my tyre pressure had already dropped to less than half of what it is supposed to be. I needed to get back. 

Not good

On the Monday, I loaded my spare bike into my car, and set off. That I wanted to bring a bike to work without sitting on it had nothing to do with the car, by the way. More about that later. At the tyre centre I didn't have to wait long. Another chap took my wheel off. After a while he came back and told me there was nothing he could do for me. It wasn't the tyre; was the rim. They could try to seal it, but that had already failed twice before. So he said they wouldn't charge me anything, but they couldn't solve my problem. So I just continued to the office.

In the office I looked up some scrap yards. I knew there was one in Gaerwen; I had scrapped my Fiesta there, back in the days (can't seem to find the blog post about this, though). And I phoned one. They said they did indeed have rims in the right size in stock. So I decided to leave work a bit earlier and go and pick it up.

The people I had phoned turned out not to be the scrap yard where my Ford had gone. Oh well! They still had a rim for me. They said it wasn't the same shape, but it was the same size, and I don't have that car for good looks. I bought it. And with the bike having been delivered in the office, I had plenty of space in the boot. And I drove it straight back to the tyre centre. 

The scrap yard

Replacement rim!

There all the men recognised me by now. And one of the chaps who had already had a try earlier now swapped the rims over. It didn't take him long! And then he popped into the office. When he came back he said they wouldn't charge me for this either. He felt bad that I had come there four times before my problem was finally fixed! That was kind of him.

While he had been in the office I had had a good look at the car. To be honest, I couldn't spot that one of the rims was different from the other ones. It's not obvious at all!

But with material change now having been made, I hope that this is sorted now, and that I can stop spending my time inflating my tyres. If this topic doesn't come back, it will have been a success!

Car ecosystem

My car is known among my friends as ‘the Ecosystem’. I suppose it is an abbreviation of the original ‘mobile ecosystem’. And there is a reason for that. I don't see the point in washing that car. Maybe letting algae liberally grow where they want might not be good for the car, but I have no illusions that it will be the panels that in the end will spell the demise of the vehicle. The engine will give up before anything else.

The algae on the boot of the car are, in my eye, not very decorative. But I have several species of moss growing in the windowsills. And I think these are beautiful! They make me smile. And recently one species of moss went into flower in its mossy way. So if I'm driving now, I have three fruiting bodies cheerfully waving around in the corner of my right eye. I thought I'd share that!

Trying to renew my car sharing scheme membership

It was only last year that I joined the local car sharing scheme. It feels so much longer. But with it being more than a year ago now, I did come to the point where the scheme wanted to check my situation. (I wanted to drive to Chester in the shared car but couldn’t.) Once every year, British drivers are asked to log onto the DVLA website (the body that issues driving licenses) and get some code with which the car sharing company could check if they had committed any disconcerting number of traffic offences. People with foreign licenses can’t do this.

I phoned the company to ask what my options were. They said I should go to the post office to have my license verified, so I went to the local supermarket as it has a post office counter. But they said they didn't provide this service, so I would have to go to a real post office.

There is a post office in Menai Bridge, but I didn't go there for a while; I was busy marking. But as soon as the marking was done I popped in, and ask them if they could sort me out. They had no idea what I was talking about. I showed them the webpage where British drivers can go, and they said they did not provide a similar service. I had to go back and phone the car sharing company again.

They said it was not a case of checking for traffic offences; they said I just needed it verified. That the post office can do. So the next working day I went back. I got that sorted, scanned the resulting form in, attached the other sources of information they wanted as well, and hit "send". And then I just had to wait. But not very long. 

The next morning I already had a reply. It had come in the same day! But after my bedtime. These people have strange working hours. The message welcomed me back, and said a new card would be sent to me. Can’t they just reactivate the old one? But ok then. As soon as I have it I will be back in business! 

20 mph

It had been in the news for a while! Wales would get a lot of 20 mph speed limits. And I had understood that most 30 mph limits would be lowered to 20 mph. I figured it would be a good idea; lower speeds means fewer accidents. And of course it has its disadvantages; driving through towns goes slower, and cars don’t seem to be made for that sort of speed. But I'm sure they have thought about that.

And then the day came! So what has happened in my area? To be honest, I am glad they have not made the entire 30 mph zone in the town 20 mph. That only happens when are you reach the town proper, rather than the outskirts. And even then they’re being cautious.

Approaching town from the east

I was still getting used to it (I drove to work for reasons of the beach trip I’ll blog about next, and my bike being in the office), but it will soon be normal. And then let’s see if it shows up in accident statistics! 

Sustainable transport in the valley

After the citizens’ assemblies, the idea was that working groups would take the ideas generated in the assemblies and run with them. I had signed up for the sustainable transport working group. And one day I got an email inviting me to a meeting at 5 pm on a Thursday. I would see Jenny that day, but she was okay to be moved. So I was available for the meeting!

The venue was the office of Dyffryn Gwyrdd, the organisation who is behind quite a lot of these Green initiatives. It's on the High Street, a stone’s throw from where I live! So the logistics were easy. When I walked in, two gentlemen who had been involved in the assemblies were already there: Chris and Huw. Chris was mainly there to facilitate, while Huw is involved in projects having to do with sustainable transport. And soon the second volunteer walked in: Pete. I was getting to know him a bit; he went to all assemblies, and he is a student in our college, I had met him in Machynlleth, and I sometimes bump into him on my commute. He does that on E-bike every day, and it is quite a distance! It was not difficult to see why he was interested in sustainable transport.

Nobody else showed up. So it was just the four of us! And we basically did some brainstorming. I thought that there should be more awareness of the various schemes we have in the valley, such as an electric bus going to Llyn Ogwen. Partneriaeth Ogwen bought up a building that used to hold a small supermarket that went bust. I thought they could probably use its windows for drawing attention to such things. Very many people come past this building every day! 

Huw also mentioned something I wasn't keen on; it is not certain that the electric car stays in the village. It was a trial! I hope it continues. But we will be getting an electric cargo bike. That is quite handy as well, but for different things.

We also thought we could use "bike to work day" to draw people out of their cars. We could do an organised commute! When you've done it once, maybe you go more often. And if not, well; we bike to work anyway. If no one shows up, or no one who does show up ever commutes by bike again, we haven't really lost much! At least we would have tried.

Some of the thoughts we had hit their heads against a brick wall of practicalities. But it was good to have a big brainstorm! And after about 1 1/2 hours we called it a day. Chris will type it all up and send it through. Let's hope we can make a tiny little bit of a positive difference!

Marking instead of rescuing

We had another cave rescue training planned! It was quite far in the east; Google Maps said it would take me one hour and 20 minutes to get there. That is a bit far on a weeknight, but so be it. I did decide, though, to use the electric car, as these are serious distances, and it is worthwhile trying not to emit greenhouse gases while getting there. So I booked the vehicle. I also emailed some other people who live in the west, who might want to jump in. If some of them would take the bait, I could save a lot more exhaust gases than just my own! But only one person responded, and he said that he thought it was an excellent idea, but due to circumstances he couldn't take it up.

On the evening I got ready, and then walked to where the car is parked. I tried to flag myself in, but it didn't work. What was that? By the dim light of a street lamp I found the phone number to call on my access card and phoned it. Of course I ended up in a queue.

After while I got through. I then had a discussion with a rather helpful and polite man on the other side. It had been a problem with my account again! When I booked the vehicle, I sort of assumed that if it would let me make the booking, I would have enough money on my account. That was naive. And of course they couldn't take the payment there and then. The good news was that I could cancel my booking, and I could get some of the money back.

Next time I will have to manually check that I indeed have the money on my account! It has to be there beforehand, otherwise none of this works. We have a committee meeting coming up; also quite far away. I might try again then.

But what for that evening? While sorting all of this out, so much time had passed that I didn't think it was worth going back home, switching to my own car, figuring out how to get where I needed to go (I had counted quite a lot on the GPS of the EV) and then setting off after all. I didn't want to drive all that way only to find an abandoned parking lot and having no idea where the others had gone! So I sent a message to our training officer, and decided I had an evening in. And I could put it to good use; I had quite a big pile of marking left to finish, and I could make some progress with that now. Not ideal, but making the most of a bad situation! And I'm sure the cat was happy to have my company. 

Menai Bridge abruptly closes

I live on the mainland, and my office is on Anglesey. Hence that my commute involves a bridge. And not just any bridge; the Menai Suspension Bridge, or Telford Bridge, was the first major suspension bridge in the world. It is also a Grade one listed monument. And rightly so! It is beautiful. It has changed since it was built in 1826; the bridge deck is suspended from chains, and these have been replaced, I think in 1938. It has also had footpaths bolted onto the sides. I suppose in the olden days, traffic was slower and pedestrians could just walk on the road. Nowadays that’s not recommended.

There recently had been some activities on the bridge. Men aided by cherry pickers had been inspecting the various bits of the bridge. That meant they had to close one lane, so that traffic lights had to be introduced, and queues were not uncommon. But it wasn't really bad.

Then one day I was teaching on the mainland, and suddenly my phone was going ballistic. Something was happening! When I was done teaching, I checked what all the fuss had been about. And the answer was: the bridge had been closed with immediate effect! To absolutely everyone! And that was, of course, quite a big thing for the School of Ocean Sciences, because that is the only part of the University that is actually located on Anglesey. 

The Bridge on Friday the 21st! Picture by Christopher Davies, North Wales live.

There are two bridges to Anglesey; it is not as if the whole island was now isolated. But the thing is; the other bridge is only suitable for motorised vehicles. And it is also a bit of a distance away. In a car that's trivial, but if you are not in a car it isn't anymore. I have never cycled across it. I am not entirely certain if you are legally allowed to, but I have seen people do it. That looks scary, by the way. So everyone who now wants to drive between the mainland and Anglesey has to take the detour. But what about people who are not travelling by car?

Everybody knows that by default, I cycle in. That was what all the pinging in my phone was about. My friends were worried that I would be stuck on the island, and offered me a ride home. Very kind! Fortunately, I was on the mainland already. So that day, this would not affect me.

I also saw that there already were emails flying around about the situation. The main worry was that there had been teaching going on on the island, and that students would have walked over for that. These would now be stuck! But it seemed that the Student Union sorted out a minibus to bring the stranded students back over the other bridge.

With this very vital artery now closed, this would pose some difficulties for us. We also have some colleagues who live quite far east, who come in by train. They then (folding) bike or walk from Bangor to Menai Bridge. No way they could keep doing that! Would they now have to come in by car? And would I now have to come in by car? With the old bridge closed, I couldn't really commute by bike anymore. That really bothered me! It's also not very good for the environment, and SOS already has a parking problem. If everybody has to come in by car it would make things worse.

We also have people biking in from the island; they could still keep doing that, but if they would have to teach on the mainland then they would also have to drive. So practically, everyone would have to drive. Not good! And as well; if you have to take the detour, and there might be queues, it can take a while to get from one place to the other. Timetabling only gives you a 10 minute slot to move between locations. That wouldn't be enough with the old bridge closed for cars! Would timetabling have to always make sure there would be an hour between sessions on the different sides of the Menai Strait? They would probably already have enough worries on their mind!

I also wondered about exercise. The days are short now, so I can't really run after work anymore. Maybe I could run before work? Running from work also would be an issue; if I do that, the first thing I do is cross the bridge. On the Anglesey side of the bridge, beautiful nearby routes are limited.

A picture I took during one of my runs from the office

That evening, the police released a statement saying that they would still keep the bridge open for pedestrians, and that would include dismountEd cyclists. They said, though, that numbers will be limited. I wondered if that would mean queues. I would find out soon! But at least my commute was secured again. And I would again be able to bike between my office and the main campus, be it that I would have to walk a small stretch of that. So the big problem was solved.

It is a bit of a worrying situation, though, if they think a few pedestrians are already so heavy that they can bring the entire bridge down. I mean, that would be the reasoning behind limiting numbers, wouldn't it? But up until the early afternoon, lorries would still have crossed that bridge. I don't think local authorities will close such a vital piece of infrastructure if they don't have a very good reason for it. So something must really be amiss with the bridge!

Repair is expected to take us into the New Year. And as long as there is pedestrian access, it won't affect me all too much. But it won't be pleasant. The new bridge, Britannia Bridge (or rather, the slightly less old bridge, as this one was built in the 1840s; originally it was only a rail bridge, but since 1980 it has also accommodated road traffic) only has two lanes on it, and already struggles with the amount of traffic that is trying to use it on a regular basis. If it has to take literally all the motorised vehicles, it will be worse! And there was already mention of a 30 mph speed limit, while originally this was 50 mph. I already heard village gossip about people being stuck on the wrong side of Britannia bridge for hours, due to the travel chaos the abrupt closure of Telford bridge had created. There will be more of that!

The authorities also have the issue of storms to think about. Britannia Bridge closes for high-sided vehicles and motorbikes in high winds, and to all traffic in really really high winds; the latter is rare, but not unheard-of. The former traditionally happens several times a year. But closing both bridges for some or all vehicles would be extremely disruptive! What are they going to do? Do it anyway and accept that people will get stranded? Just not close Britannia bridge in a storm? And just hope that no vehicles will be blown off the bridge? Or blown sideways into the wrong lane, creating head-on collisions? It is easy to see the disadvantage of that.

We will have to see how this pans out! But I do hope that in early 2023, we will get the bridge back in all of its former glory and structural integrity! It is a fine piece of engineering, and I hope they can get it ready for the next century again…