[Talk-GB] Shoulders

[Martin Wynne]

On 15/04/2022 12:46, Andy Townsend wrote:

> Thanks for mentioning verges. <climbs soapbox> As someone who fairly 
> regularly walks along rural roads it's really useful to know which roads 
> have usable verges.  They're no use to cyclists though, and I suspect 
> that the small gaps between the painted edge of the carriageway on some 
> "expressway-style" UK roads are.  How should those be tagged?


I also walk rural roads and need verge information.

In particular, whether there is a crash barrier between the "shoulder" 
and the verge. Having recently needed to walk along the A49 in the dark, 
I found this barrier a significant obstruction:

  https://goo.gl/maps/5JGju9QpVsk8jojm7

The "shoulder" is just about wide enough and much more comfortable to 
walk on than the verge. Until that is, you see a 40-ton artic bearing 
down on you at speed. The instinct then to move away from the road is 
obstructed by the barrier - several times I flattened myself against it 
and still felt uncomfortably close to the moving vehicle. After a few 
close shaves I got fed up and climbed over the barrier to stumble along 
on the verge, when there was a nice smooth strip of tarmac only a few 
feet away. In daylight I can see now that I would have done better to 
cross to the opposite verge, but at night it's not easy to judge which 
side of the road has the easiest walking. Which keeps changing of course.

Whatever this "shoulder" is called, it obviously has some road traffic 
meaning, because at junctions it is surfaced with red chippings which 
presumably have some alternative meaning. As in the streetview above.

It does seem odd that wherever a public ROW footpath joins a road the 
highway authority is required by law to erect a "Public Footpath" sign, 
but is not required to provide a safe means of access to it on foot. I 
know of several locations where emerging from the footpath lands you 
within inches of fast moving traffic on a main road, with no usable 
verge on either side. Here is one such:

  https://goo.gl/maps/2nDg9et3TggkFNZm6

Streetview seems to have caught a rare occasion when there isn't fast 
traffic on this road.

I can look after myself, but imagine a young family out for a walk in 
the countryside emerging through that gate. There is no warning of any 
kind on the other side that a pleasant walk through the woods will 
finish like this.

Martin.