Round my way on there is quite a bit of mud off tractors on the roads which is fair enough. The problem is most of the time it's massive clumps of mud the size of bricks.
Surely it's simple enough for a farmer to jump out the tractor before turning off the field, get a shovel and just get the main big clumps off in-between the treads? I know you'll still get some mud but at least some effort has been done?
The thought of hitting this mud on a dark raining night on a bend in a car gives me shivers, never mind a bike!
Can't think of any other way apart from making all tractors with hard compound slicks.
This has been a topic of conversation for us on the route to work over the past weeks.
The stretch of main road is literally made dangerous because of it, all varied sizes from huge chunks to pebble sizes all pummelled in to the road. When it rained heavy last week it was just a bed of thick sludgy mud for about 1/2 a mile.....can't imagine it was fun for cyclist or bikers.
Imo they should be made to pressure wash the tractors off before they go on to the road.
I believe they have a responsibility to clear any debris from the road
An excellent idea and not so long ago, they'd have probably got heaps of European funding subsidies for such a thing, alas.....not now.Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
I live in rural Wales, giant lumps of horse poo everywhere, muck all over the road near farms that rusts cars something rotten, seen sheep and cows on the road, tracktors going backwards on the wrong side of the road around a blind corner that very almost killed me.
My dad always used to say I should look out for farmers as most of them have two glass eyes.
Or write a 'MUD ON ROAD' sign with some old Hammerite paint on a small piece of cardboard and leave it hidden in the bushes somewhere nearby......
#Jobsagoodun
It goes with tractors causing huge tailbacks, nobody cares or enforces the law, they can do whatever they want when they want.
Farmers have a legal obligation to minimise mud transfer to roads. In my experience living in rural Gloucestershire I have never seen (or seen evidence of) any attempt made to remove mud before exiting a field and turning onto the road. It simply isn’t enforced and consequently there’s no incentive for farmers to clean the wheels. I have seen the issue cause or contribute to two accidents since 2012.
Same thing in NW Leics, a lot of my recreational cycle routes are occasionally plagued by long swathes of mud clumps from farm vehicles. Eventually it gets compacted by passing traffic into semi-permanent road cobbles.
Part and parcel of living in the countryside as far as I am concerned.
Next you’ll complain about the smell when they fertilise their fields.
And to be clear, I don’t have a farm and I cycle, ride or drive on country lanes every day.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Don't be a prat! We're discussing the single issue of mud on the road which does cause dangerous driving conditions. Particularly bad for cyclists and motorcyclists but also for cars. The smell of muck spreading etc. isn't dangerous.
On the cards to be banned (as commonly carried out now) from 2025.
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-air-pollution
I was not being flippant: mud belongs to the countryside. Tractors belong to the countryside. Since they were invented. And before them it was horses and bulls. They carried mud an shit then and they still do. You knew that when you decided to live where you live. Yes it is slippery in the wet. I know, I live with it every wet day.
But asking farmers to wash up before hitting the tarmac is unrealistic. Yes some might make an effort and remove part of it, but they’re going to work more hours for no more pay, so the incentive is nil. And consequently it won’t happen. Even if someone dies because of it, it won’t change.
It reminds me of those people who buy a house next to a pub and want it to close at 9:00. In both case they experience a genuine nuisance but it was there when they decided to buy, and the other party is (for most) barely scrapping a living.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Bar university, I've lived in the countryside my entire life. There has always been mud and manure on the road. I've never once considered it an issue and have never heard of an accident as a result of it.
Close to where I live there is a steep gorge where the road is made up of very sharp blind corners. The farmers cows, and a herd of goats freely walk on the road day or night. Never proven an issue either.
Last edited by hafle; 6th October 2019 at 19:12.
I don't live in the countryside, I live in a small town but my route to work takes me down a road which is used between farm and field on a busy B road. The state of it is appalling covered with a thick pebbledashed layer for aslong as it flies off the tractor.
Firstly, we are not talking about a bit of mud, everyone in the countryside accepts this. However, where a tractor leaves a sodden field straight onto a road a huge amount of mud is deposited for hundred of metres. It's dangerous and there is a legal obligation on farmers to minimise or clear it; they don't. The solution, in part, could be relatively simple with brushes attached to the tractor that are driven onto the tyres as the tractor leaves the field, a little like is available for robotic lawnmowers though on a completely different scale.
I don't experience mud on the road near my home despite it being in rural Gloucestershire. However, for many years I commuted on various small A and B roads. These roads were often covered in mud to a dangerous degree and the farmers were not meeting their legal obligations. Your pub analogy is about as relevant as the muck spreading - both b*^"s&*t!
Also reminds me of them that say climate change is a load of cods wallop and just keep burning the shat out of fossil fuels. Oh and dog poo, Just leave it on the ground like we used to. It goes white and blends in with the daisy's in the end.
Seriously though I just can't see the problem with a 5 minute mud scrape before they hit the road. It would only take a freak few deaths in a month or 2 caused by mud on the road before it would hit the media and then something gets done about it.
A lot of these vehicles often don't display a plate, are they somehow exempt.
Look, even if 10 people died every year nothing would be done about it. And even if it was made illegal it is totally unenforceable.
Just cycle, ride or drive carefully. Not pleasant on the road , but it doesn’t last long.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Mud, horse sh!t, gravel, hedge cuttings....on the road?
In the country?
I'm shocked.
"Don't take my silence for agreement. I've just realised you're too stupid to argue with."
Bwahahahahahahaha..... Good one that.
Just be aware that in agricultural country the roads are used by farmers.
You should not be driving faster than the distance you can oversee/stop in anyway.
Should farmers be aware that roads are also used by motorists?
I guess it's not always practical to clean down their equipment before joining the road but some do. Where I live nearly all do it in heavy use areas with their own road sweeper attachments and nearly all put signs up advising travellers of what's ahead.
A farm local to me walks his heard of cattle across a fairly busy A road...They always hose the road down after.
When we have heavy snow the farmers are always there on hand to help tow people out and get them back on their way..often spending hours doing it for free.
I'm not a farmer...I just don't see the 'i don't care' attitude from them. Where possible they make the effort.
Shouldn't you be taking one of your lovers up the Col D’Ares in your clapped out rust box rather that talking shyte on here?
Hahaha! Very good
Simple choice, either we encourage farmers to produce as much food as they can and to aim for self sufficiency or we impose legal restrictions that will hamper their way of life and reduce efficienncy.
The chances are that some farmer was messing up the road before most of us were born, so either put up with it or go somewhere else.
Every road creates an annoyance for someone, be it a messed up rural road, a suburban road that is easily blocked or a motorway. It is all about compromise.
I crashed my car quite badly a few years ago because a bunch of agricultural contractors had liberally covered a local busy A road with mud. Luckily I only had a few bruises and scratches. How they get away with this is another one of life’s mysteries I’m learning to accept. Why anyone would defend it I have no idea. It’s illegal because it’s dangerous, like drink driving, speeding and not stopping at red lights.
Some interesting info here, most of which I was not aware of.
https://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice/mud
I work for a groundworks contractor, we have a road sweeper booked in every day, not your farmer example, but muck on roads is certainly a serious consideration that is managed on all the developments I work or have worked on with very very few exceptions . It would not be hard to identify the farmer from the field notify the council who have a duty of care for their public roads and let them deal with the farmer. Most councils have road sweepers on every day, but not eyes in the back of their head so need to be notified.
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The Gov don't really help with self sefficiency anyway, the amount of allotments around is pathetic, my nearest one is over 1 hour round trip.
You need planning permission to get a decent pollytunnel and the chemicals to control pests and disease is illegal for the public to have making growing very difficult. I would love to grow all my own food ( I know how and have done it before ) but the Gov make it completely not worth it. Rant over lol
Since moving to the countryside nearly 4 years ago (rural Norfolk) I have noticed that some tractors do drop a fair bit of mud, although I’ve rarely seen any clumps larger than say half a brick. I will say I now drive very differently with a few years experience under my belt - constantly on the look out for pheasants, which can easily take out your radiator, and are somewhat kamikaze for no apparent reason! - also farm vehicles can appear anywhere and you will need to drive up the verge to avoid them on occasion. The mud can be a pain but again - I drive assuming it will be there at certain times of year. And give it a few weeks and the roads - and every car - will be liberally coated with a mix of mud and sugarbeet, and I’ll be topping up the screen wash every week until they stop harvesting. I agree we all need to take responsibility for safety but it’s a very different commute compared to my Wimbledon to Soho days, and I drive accordingly. What is dreadful up here is tailgating - many drivers seem to think ‘the limit is 60 so I’ll drive at 60’ which is fine on a sunny day, not so good in the dark with a mix of frost and sugarbeet juice under the tyres! I’m also getting used to proper stonechips, the type that total your windscreen - yet still my insurance is considerably cheaper
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I think we all know how to drive to conditions etc but the point is what is wrong with a 5 minute stab at your tyres with a shovel before entering the road. Obviously you will still get some mud but about 85% off the big thick mud would not be there and a bit of effort put in.
Your analogy might hold if it was illegal for pubs to stay open after 9pm. In the case of mud on roads there is a legitimate expectation that those responsible will clear it up, because that's what the law requires. That's the "incentive", or it should be.
Unfortunately for the law to be enforced you need people in charge of enforcing it. And even in there was a decent drive to restore those numbers, there are loads more crime issues that would require their attention.
A few days of heavy rain will partially get rid of the problem.
Again, it’s not ideal but we don’t live in an ideal world.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Oh my, you don´t want mud on the road because of your lack of basic driving skills and throw mud at me.
Dear FFF, autumn is at the door, so you should expect leaves in corners too. Who will you blame for that? The council?!
Next you will want the wildlife orgs to put nappies on birds so your windscreen does not get soiled.
Btw. you also were the bloke advocating dangerous driving past cyclist because those should not be allowed on your road either.
Just Zénnnnn and enjoy the ride. If Brexit is going to be made BJ´s Titanic success, there will need to be a lót more tractors about to feed the nation.
But, I take your point; off I am.
Jeez, please leave the Brexit talk in one of the interminable threads you seem to enjoy.
Yes up to a point. If you see mud on a country road, think agricultural vehicles and slow down. Of course that's going to be difficult for some in the Audi, BMW brigade.
I regularly visit a farm for raw milk, and drivers are flying past it at 60 - 70mph. They have great difficulty getting livestock across the road because of speeding drivers and regularly receive abuse from motorists.
Even myself trying to pull out from the farm is a complete gamble with bends near it.
Sadly I think a lot of it has to do with most farms using contractors for their field work. And we all know how the contracting game seems to go.. and .... GO GO GO GO!!
..and that takes several months.
Went down to the village just now. Two kms. One km. provincial road, one km. local. 6, síx, tractors with trailers going 30 km/h where 60 resp. 40 is allowed. How dáre they!!
What´s more, they leave not only mud, also olive juice on the tarmac. I can only imagine what FFF would post if he´d pass the roads here after a first light shower of rain on that...
Poor FFF. For mé the driving is simply adapting to circumstances, enjoying the privileges of living in the countryside.
Went to the post office btw. to collect a parcel. Two pairs of shoes for a love
That's racist that is....
You live in the country Dick features it's what to expect however, no one is moaning about that...and that takes several months.
Went down to the village just now. Two kms. One km. provincial road, one km. local. 6, síx, tractors with trailers going 30 km/h where 60 resp. 40 is allowed. How dáre they!!
What´s more, they leave not only mud, also olive juice on the tarmac. I can only imagine what FFF would post if he´d pass the roads here after a first light shower of rain on that...
Poor FFF. For mé the driving is simply adapting to circumstances, enjoying the privileges of living in the countryside.
Went to the post office btw. to collect a parcel. Two pairs of shoes for a love
Its about tractors crossing busy A&B roads and leaving clumps of thick mud everywhere.
Youd have a hard job driving to anything other than the conditions in that hunk of junk you drive around.
As an aside ‘collecting 2 pairs of shoes for a love’ is a phrase that really made me chuckle. Not sure whether to diff my hat to you for your old fashioned chauvinist charm, or to remind you it’s 2019 and the era of Austin Powers has passed!
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Or even doff my hat, wouldn’t want to inadvertently start a conversation about limited slip diffs with you
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Hi
Use your local 'fixmystreet' to report it to the Local Highway Authority, including 'a danger to users of the highway', particularly if on a higher speed road.
Easy enough to do and you are kept informed via email/comms of choice - if not remind them.
Street-Light Syndrome - everyone in a street awaits their neighbour to report one that is out and nowt gets done.
L-K
I'm guessing a lot of the mud is coming from farmers harvesting sugar beet, it's not really possible to clean the wheels before leaving a field, the gateways are the worst of all for the mud since this is the most trafficked area of the field. The fitting of brushes won't work because of the tread patterns on tractor tyres. Pretty much the only way to clean the wheels is to bring in a pressure washer and blast it off taking lots of time and dumping lots of water in an area you certainly don't want it (think more mud, ice if it freezes) or drive down the road and fling the mud off the wheels as you go and then have a separate sweeper tractor sweeping up behind you - which is the method we used.
Yes I have heard of accidents after mud on the road, we have a young girl write off her car on a corner after a frost even though we had swept the road at least three times before leaving it. Luckily for us the didn't face any procesuction because we had swept the road to the best of our ability (or at least to a reasonable level) and the police (whoever) could see the marks on the road from the sweeping process.
Dear Sir, in 2019 there is nothing old fashioned about romantic charm. It may make more of a difference than ever, makes more of a positive impression than ever, but it has never been out of fashion.
As to the limited slip... Two of my old fashioned cars have no-slip garter belt transmission; just the way I like it.
Anyway, again; imo the mud is a non issue. Just one of the real world circumstances. Like potholes, cracks, ruts. It would help to put up a warning sign for the less awake but that would lead to assumeing there is none if not signposted.
In the Netherlands, there are put warning signs ´Bietencampagne´ during sugar beet harvest. Over here there are signs ´tractor crossing´, sometimes an a cattle crossing sign.
I mean, in some areas the risk of deer crossing, even boar crossing is signposted but that does not mean that they do not cross elsewhere.
The opening post is imo simply illustrating that common sense is not all that common. Another variant of drying a cat in the micro-wave and then complaining that there was no warning against it....
Some interesting info here, most of which I was not aware of.
https://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice/mud
Good post Maysie
A540 cheshire yesterday. Farmer moving hay stalk & sh** northbound.
Behind the tractor was roadsweeper (large) much longer in terms of northbound delays but job done.
This is not a particularly bad area for accidents etc but I guess that in light of the current very wet weather someone used common sense.
Happy days !!
B
I was in my car rather than on the bike :-)
Last edited by Brian; 13th October 2019 at 09:57.
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