What is the lowest bridge you have ever driven under?
And did you stop to check if the car would fit or just plough on through?
My lowest was a 1.3m bridge in the Octavia near Cagnes-sur-Mer last week - I did get out to check (actually SWMBO did) and I took the aerial out. About 4" clearance.
|
|
Potter Higham in Norfolk ( in a boat ) Pal has a boat over there which doesn't really fit under. He's developed a technique though which involves accelerating towards it and then at the last moment cutting the power so the bow dips, when the craft is halfway through he then gasses it so the stern dips and it sort of see-saws its way under. Got to time it right apparently.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Wed 19 May 10 at 12:51
|
Potter Heigham for me too Humph. Family had a boat on hire for the hols in the 60s and the boatyard said it would fit. The only way to go through as you say is with power and if the boat doesn't fit it's too late. On ours all the deck rail was pushed in as it wedged. Amazingly Mum was doing a cine film of it so that footage was wheeled out at every family gathering like an earl you've been framed!
For those who don't know the bridge this footage is of someone getting it just right. At about 32sec see how close the mast spars are to the stonework.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq7MEOl5PhQ
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 19 May 10 at 13:54
|
We're off topic aren't we but I've been under there (PH). The underside of the bridge is "painted". The last time I was in Norfolk it was winter and I reckon that bridge must be impassable for months on end.
Back on topic, Middlesbrough had some special "low" buses to get under Albert Bridge (if I've remembered the name correctly). Now and again a driver would forget they weren't in one of the low ones.
JH
Last edited by: Tooslow on Wed 19 May 10 at 13:58
|
|
Not quite a bridge but I still hesitate when driving my car along the approaches to the Channel Tunnel when you have to drive under all the height barriers.
|
I once saw a guy with a Brit reg wipe four bikes off his roof going under a low bridge in France. Expensive !
Conversely, I could drive under Autoroute toll barriers or under the ones going out of multistorey car parks etc in the Westfield. Not that I ever.....of course......perish the very thought. That would have been dishonest and....
|
>>We're off topic aren't we but .... an interesting way to get the mast past a low bridge.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Bridge,_Bermuda
www.tug44.org/unusual.locks/somerset-bridge/
|
Whoops ! I spelled it wrongly, my apologies ( oh and sorry about the topic drift too )
:-)
|
To continue the topic drift, Humph, you can use exactly the same technique to stop your car scraping its chin on the ground on the far side of a speed bump, as the bump kicks up the rear wheels at the same time that the front suspension is compressing when the nose comes down onto the road. A prod of the accelerator as the front wheels mount the bump will lift the nose enough to prevent that nasty scraping noise without reducing one's speed to the ridiculous crawl desired by the local authority and by the ghastly whinging residents.
I recommend this technique to anyone irked by speed bumps. It works. Of course all the bushes in the suspension, plus the bottom ball joints and shock absorbers, will still come in for gratuitous wear. Then of course there's the noise, pollution, engine wear and extra fuel consumption evidently also desired by the aforementioned authorities and whinging twerps.
Repair all roads deliberately damaged by the so-called authorities now!
|
Far too complex AC. Just hit 'em about 40 mph and the car lands a couple of yards beyond them. Saves any bother.
Edit - Above technique best reserved for company cars obviously......
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Wed 19 May 10 at 14:53
|
|
Might work on your brick-on-stilts HD, but it doesn't on my Robert Crumb-cartoon jalopy...
|
|
Not going fast enough then AC. Try 50 mph. There will be a critical velocity, maybe yours just needs a bit more commitment.
|
|
I'm afraid not. The problem is my jalopy's nose-down, bum-in-the-air stance, 'engineered' (hah!) in for reasons of image. Believe me, I've tried a lot of ways.
|
|
Hmm, how disappointing for you. I suppose you could try approaching at 35 or so in second and then really boot it immediately before the hump thus getting maximum rise on the springs. It would though be important to ensure that the stopper was firmly on the the in-car decanter well in advance and that the the crystal tumbler was drained and firmly held in a suitable cup holder. Wouldn't want to spill any.
|
This one gets me. If the level crossing's shut I can't help ducking as I go under the bridge.
I once got part way down the road under the bridge with a caravan on tow before I remembered.
tinyurl.com/3x8cv4e HUGE link shrunk to restore correct page width
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 19 May 10 at 18:58
|
Now you're getting very close to home Tubby Tom:)
I once went under that bridge riding pillion behind Mr pda. I had my eyes shut enjoying the ride when he yelled 'DUCK'. I opened my eyes to see him laid on the tank in front of me, still going full pelt and the bridge in front of my head!
He thought it was hilarious, I still haven't forgiven him yet:)
Pat
|
35 in second, then really boot it... I see what you meant about company cars H. Company fuel bills too I suppose...
No, there's a happy medium between mimsing as they want and behaving like a joyrider in a stolen car or 'company car driver'. Don't forget these damn bumps are quite often in places where you can't go very quickly for a variety of reasons (chicanes, other traffic, etc.).
The object of the exercise is to minimise the bumps and smooth everything out as much as possible while maintaining some sort of speed - not slowing to five or 10mph as some smug idiots boast of doing - and not really to destruction-test the car's suspension while amusing the passers-by with sparks and graunching noises.
Have you ever thought of applying for a presenter's job - 'Some say the hair growing out of his ears and nose consists of optical fibres, and that his mother was a wombat. All we know is that he's called the Urban Stig' - with TG?
|
>> without reducing one's speed to the ridiculous crawl desired by the local authority and by >>the ghastly whinging residents.
The residents probably wouldn't have to whinge if it wasn't for the speeding numpties in the first place. If you were a regular pedestrian or resident in those affected streets you might change your tune. Speed bumps aren't an elegant solution - but there again speeding, noisy, irresponsibly driven cars aren't that enjoyable (except for aforementioned numpty drivers) either.
|
I don't give a damn what speed drivers go at on the road, within reason of course as there clearly are safety limits. However those limits are nowhere near as low as people faffingly make out.
I don't waddle into urban roads without looking and I make sure that children under my influence don't do it either.
Noisy... ah yes. Where I am staying at the moment, in Kensal Rise, there are a couple of chaps who yowl up and down on very noisy motor bikes in the evening. The noise is so offensive that one tends to think they are doing it just to be annoying. But reason suggests they are just having an enjoyable blast and are too thick to notice that the noise irritates people.
Do I care enough to complain? No. Do I think it's dangerous? Not really although I haven't looked. Do I think there's any good reason for having speed bumps? No. I think they're a criminal attack on the quality of the road system.
|
Well, your view does seem full of contradictions - you don't mind what speed people, as long as, in your opinion, it's safe (the sub-text is that your opinion is paramount..) You find m/cycles' noise offensive - yet it's a very good 'warning' system to other road users in many ways. You can't imagine someone of less mobility older/younger/disabled etc., not having your sprightliness - so fast vehicles are ok.
If you don't mind me saying so, you set your views to your greatest convenience, without taking into account the broader picture. Speed bumps aren't fun for me either - you don't imagine all the 'whingers' actually enjoy driving over them do you? No, we put up with them because our society seems full of people without much (or any) sense of community or shared environment.
|
>> your view does seem full of contradictions
It's the people who can't cope with the many contradictions of urban life who decide (their own opinions being paramount of course) that when all is said and done it's best if everything slows to a miserable, bumping, suspension-damaging crawl because there are some old, disabled or young people about.
What a load of utter twaddle. Children should be kept under control in city streets. Those who are disabled, or (like me) a bit less spry than they used to be, would be well advised to take extra care, or even move about with an able-bodied companion. Traffic speeds have no relevance to these things.
This argument reminds me of one I had with Now Wheels on the subject of Ken Livingstone's offensive road-guzzling 20-yard-long articulated buses. They are easier for the disabled, she said. Actually they are no easier for the disabled than getting into the lower floor of a double-deck bus. And when did you last see a London bus filled to the brim with disabled and elderly people?
There always were elderly or disabled people and there probably always will be. Does that mean everyone else has to do their best to imitate them? Faugh! Do me a favour.
|
Well, all forms of transport, be they vehicular/cycle or pedestrian deserve recognition & appropriate conduit. It seems, in the world of AC, that all are subservient to the mighty motor car.
Although average traffic speeds (urban especially) may be no higher than they were in the Victorian age the freqency, ubiquity & acceleration of cars nowadays make many streets no-go areas unless you have the spring-heeled agility of the gymnast & gluteus maximi of Usain Bolt - yes, traffic speed is highly relevant.
As much we urge our children to be careful, or encourage frailer types to seek able-bodied companions - the simple fact is the elephant in the room or toad on the road - the vehicle driver, is the cause for need of that. It's only urban areas that have speed bumps - you still have tens of thousands of miles of roads to get speed thrills!
We don't have imitate the elderly & disabled - it will come to all of us soon enough!
|
>> all are subservient to the mighty motor car.
Better than all being subservient to the pathetic waddling pedestrian surely?
What makes you think, kensitas, that any pedestrian however disabled should be able to cross the road absolutely anywhere without being alarmed by 'toads'? Would you walk across a busy motorway? Would anyone in their right mind? Well, the same thing applies to busy roads and junctions in towns. There are places where you can cross the road even if you've forgotten your zimmer frame and are on all fours, and places where you do indeed need to be Spring-Heeled Jack to get away with it. Just the way it's always been.
There is no need whatsoever for speed bumps or misnamed traffic calming furniture. It has been decreed by local politicians sucking up to faffing ****.
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 28 May 10 at 11:51
|
I was honked at by a female toad in black BMW today, for being rude enough to walk in the road through the village (pavement currently fence off for works) - for the first time I felt alien towards a 3 series.
She was fat, ugly and no doubt waddled when she managed to get out of her car. However I have news for her that arrogant sneer does not go well with an 10 year old E46 1.8 petrol (I know my 3 series lady) nor a moustache for that matter. And my chirpy shout of "Can't afford a X5 then" was heartfelt.
|
What would you have shouted if she'd been Claudia Schiffer in a heavily-tweaked, snorting M6, PU?
Just innocently curious...
Edit: I agree with you and even with Kensitas that bullying driving and aggressive hooting are deplorable and annoying.
My car has a tuneful American horn and on the rare occasions that I use it I do so in a very tentative, bipping manner.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 20 May 10 at 19:46
|
|
A variation on the theme of Ding Dong !
|
|
But parp parp, not poop-poop.
|
|
AC, the difference between both women and cars could not be more, despite the toad's pretentions
|
|
I miss Toad, where has he gone?
|
Was Toad (good handle of course, enviable indeed) the same geezer of mature years on the HJ site who had a Supra that he called Toad?
Short-term memory loss mumble drool...
|
>> Was Toad (good handle of course, enviable indeed) the same geezer of mature years
No, he was called Tomo.
"Toad, of Toad Hall" was someone completely different, who for quite a while had an annoying 'parp parp' as his signature, among other annoying things.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 21 May 10 at 01:23
|
Toad was a funny intelligent guy who knew what forum persona he wanted... sailing close to the wind from a mods point of view sometimes given the very strict HJ guidelines. Pre moderation on HJ he was fine and here he'd be an asset.
A 2002 Toad poem in response to me probing our village slow down auto sign....
To speed into radars is clearly quite wrong,
Even to the tune of a Country Style song.
To hit nearly 40,
In a Xantia is clearly quite naughty.
And if PC plod knew,
You sped at thirty-two,
At the judges behest,
You’d be joining Rose West.
And I can’t see much laughter,
In a cell with Lord Archer.
If when bored with his books,
He takes a shine to your looks.
After 10 years inside,
Your eyes will open wide,
‘Cos you’re back on the street and the 2012 Defender is neat,
It cruises at 25,000 feet.
Ok, I know it's not proper verse but all the lyric pairs rhyme!
Parp, Parp!
Toad
|
>> There is no need whatsoever for speed bumps or misnamed traffic calming furniture. It has
>> been decreed by local politicians sucking up to faffing ****.
Someone in favour of speed bumps: tonight's 'Outnumbered', iPlayer
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fq31t start at 15:00
:)
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 28 May 10 at 11:52
|
|
Really funny that tonight....
|
>> Really funny that tonight....
Always is! It'll be a pity when the young kids grow up.
|
>>Better than all being subservient to the pathetic waddling pedestrian surely?
You're absolutely right really AC & I give up. I secretly love, despite my Guardian wrappings, driving my Extravaganza V8 SE with verve along the pedestrian-infested avenues - the only consolation with speed bumps is the opportunity they give to blip the throttle on the up & down shifts - gives those old waddlers a right startle I can tell you.. hneh..hneh..hneh..!
|
I didn't have the bottle to drive under this one...
www.flickr.com/photos/50355155@N07/
|
B,
my goodness, you are tall!
JH
|
If only - at 6'6" he's got nearly a foot advantage over me. It is however a universal truth that the best things come in small packages...
But have sooooooooo nearly been the guy with a loaded bike rack on the roof driving into a car park with one of those height limit barriers - it was only the fact there was a car coming out of the car park (and the look on the driver's face) that stopped me.
Last edited by: borasport on Wed 19 May 10 at 17:12
|
I remember some years ago, having parked our bikes at Arromanches, we walked out of the car park without our helmets on.
The lifting barrier came down smack on the top of one lad's head !
How we chuckled !
As did about 100 other onlookers............no lasting injury though.....he was a scouser !
Ted
|
>> I didn't have the bottle to drive under this one...
>>
>> www.flickr.com/photos/50355155@N07/
these is an access tunnel under the M25 between J10 and j11, slightly taller than that one.
the laguna went under it, but the scenic, touran or altea wouldnt fit. Its closed with a gate now, but still open to those who know how to.......................
|
There is a very low bridge between Shoreham (A259 Brighton Road) and Shoreham International ( Brighton City) airport.
Cars only IIRC.
|
|
I once sat on the riverbank wall outside the Blue Anchor in Hammersmith and watched a pleasure cruiser of some sort smash itself into the Hammersmith Bridge at a fairly high tide. We could all see what was going to happen long before it did, can't understand why it never occurred to the skipper.
|
Do narrow bridges count?
I remember sitting outside the Anchor at Pyrford having lunch. An old boy drove over the narrow lock bridge straight into the heavy steel upright girders that stopped wider vehicles going over the bridge. It was a hellava bang with bits of the car cascading into the Wey navigation. About 70 people outside having lunch had a perfect view of it. A large ripple of applause rose up.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 19 May 10 at 21:10
|
|
Did you just steal my story and change all the words except "Anchor"?
|
Its called Plagarism, dave.
And I told it better.
|
|
you were when you and your wife had the tele moment too. Good job I was there.
|
Ahh that was you? I've still got the bite marks.
I'm off to watch "V" before this degenerates.
|
>> I've still got the bite marks.
Last time you supped that stuff you emailed me the video. Anyone tell me how to do a tiny owl thing ?
|
This 6'9" bridge was closed to motor traffic a couple of years after I passed my driving test:
bit.ly/cenyHM
Slightly annoying, as one of my friends lived 6 doors up from it, and it meant a ¾mile diversion. I saw a Transit van hit it once (not a Luton body, just a regular Transit.)
|
|
I watched a documentary on the safe storage of paintings in a quarry in N Wales - it was mentioned that one railway bridge was too low for the trucks tasked with carrying the crates, they had to lower the road to increase the headroom - apparently it remains the same to this day.
|
This is a bridge signed at 7' 9" that I use a few times a week.
farm1.static.flickr.com/122/277102298_70c4bd98a7.jpg
If you keep to the middle you have a bit more height but not enough for this -
farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2687826563_fb3883fc71.jpg
Like Humph I used to enjoy driving under car park barriers in my Westfield, usually shouting "duck" to passengers at the last minute!
|
This is one of our local ones......under the railway.
At least it's one way now so you can only hit it from this side
tinyurl.com/343eocc
Ted
|
|
I think the old barrier at Checkpoint Charlie was the lowest. Someone escaped in an MG Midget with the windscreen removed (or folded down perhaps).
|
>>This is one of our local ones......under the railway.
That's clever, it's a square 'ole. 7'3" X 7'3".
|
"My lowest was a 1.3m bridge in the Octavia "
Are you sure you weren't driving a go-cart! I'd like to see a photo. That's extremely low. Unbelieveable.
|
>> "My lowest was a 1.3m bridge in the Octavia "
>>
>> Are you sure you weren't driving a go-cart! I'd like to see a photo. That's
>> extremely low. Unbelieveable.
>>
I followed a pedestrian through - he wasn't as tall as me and had to duck.
|
|
have just checked the brochure and Skoda list the car as 1462mm high so all I can conclude is that the French authorities put a sign up with a certain margin for error as the car did fit underneath (with aerial down).
|
Low Bridges - Runfer D'Hills
