I used to ride the same route on the highway each day and found on one ride a bunch of glass from a broken bottle. I rode around it that day, but the next day I brought along a dustpan and brush. When I reached the glass, I swept up the shards. That wasn't the only time I have done this.

So here is my question, do you take the time and inconvenience to clean up glass, etc. ? Or am I just a nut? :D

I'm not that virtuous, but I do pick-up cans and other trash on a "as I have room to carry" basis. I figure it as making my route more pleasant to look at for me.

NO!

There is a recumbent rider in our club that always rides with a broom.

I've cleaned up some stuff... the problem with this Island is the volume of the garbage... The people down here obviously don't take the "don't mess with Texas" signs very serious. I did notice that someone cleaned up an entire 12 pack of bottles that someone decided they didn't want in their auto... and threw out into the road. Nice place Galveston...
Doug

I don't bother cleaning up glass. Around here there are two poplular recreational activities among the general population that would make this extremely pointless:

1. smashing glass bottles

2. driving into inanimate objects

There's no point cleaning it up today. There'll only be some more when you pass the same route tomorrow.

I only pick stuff up if it's near the end of the route and I have room to carry it, or if I know there is a trash can close. Even then, I only pick up the stuff like cans that really block the lane of travel for bicycles. Around here, there isn't a huge problem with glass and trash, so if you pick it up one day, you usually get a while before there's more. In the summer, sometimes the local sherriff's dept. gets a hand from the good guys at the county jail to pick up trash on the roads in my area - most of them are included in the routes I ride on. I usually leave the glass and try to go around it. My tires, on the other hand, seem to be pretty good at collecting any kind of glass that might have been left behind.


-Moab

:) I will pick up nails/screws or big pieces of glass on my regular commute route at stop signs and red lights.On longer rides, only if it's a big hazard to riders and drivers.Like a large size tree limbs or other obstacles.Then I just toss them to the side of the road.

Originally posted by Cadillac
So here is my question, do you take the time and inconvenience to clean up glass, etc. ?

If I did that, I'd be stopping every 1/8 mile and cleaning up stuff. I just figure that it's every cyclist's own responsibility to look out for road hazards. It sucks when you get a puncture because some dickless wonder couldn't be bothered to trash his forty-pounder bottle into a trash can. But then again, it isn't like broken glass sneaks up on you most of the time (unless you ride at night).

And when I see on my rides so many municipal workers standing around leaning on a shovel so often, I also figure why should I do their job? We already pay people to clean up the roads.

broken glass on Missouri roads got worse after the state passed tougher open-container laws. Now people throw their empty bottles out the window so they can't get caught with them.

Dont we pay taxes for sweeping,cleaning and i have never seen or heard of a ticket for littering.

Originally posted by Chris L
I don't bother cleaning up glass. Around here there are two popular recreational activities among the general population that would make this extremely pointless:

1. smashing glass bottles

2. driving into inanimate objects

There's no point cleaning it up today. There'll only be some more when you pass the same route tomorrow.

You don't live in southern Oklahoma do you? If not...does your general populous drive pickup trucks with gun racks in the rear window too?

They dont use racks here,they just carry the guns on them at all times.They drive whatever they have stolen.

Originally posted by shokhead
Dont we pay taxes for sweeping,cleaning and i have never seen or heard of a ticket for littering.

I think there are laws against it over here. However, like many other laws, they are not enforced adequately.

Shokhead - There are laws against littering, and they are very steep at that, at least in NH. The problem is that a person has to be seen littering and the officer has to be free enough at the moment to enforce the law. People might have different feelings about how busy the police are in their area, but there are often more pressing issues at hand than giving out tickets for littering, however much it might inconvenience a certain group, like ourselves as cyclists. From experience in my area, an officer would certainly stop a car for throwing things out of windows as long as he or she is not responding to a more important call.

-Moab

Originally posted by moabrider47
Shokhead - There are laws against littering, and they are very steep at that, at least in NH. The problem is that a person has to be seen littering and the officer has to be free enough at the moment to enforce the law.

Of course, if the fine for littering were to be increased significantly, and there were a few signs erected advising of the law....

Originally posted by Cadillac
I used to ride the same route on the highway each day and found on one ride a bunch of glass from a broken bottle. I rode around it that day, but the next day I brought along a dustpan and brush. When I reached the glass, I swept up the shards. That wasn't the only time I have done this.

So here is my question, do you take the time and inconvenience to clean up glass, etc. ? Or am I just a nut? :D
You did what you thought was best, so I congratulate you for it.

Originally posted by Cadillac
I used to ride the same route on the highway each day and found on one ride a bunch of glass from a broken bottle.
I want to know where you ride that you only found one broken bottle! And considered it unusual enough to notice as anything other than another tire hazard!

John

This was north of Grande Prairie, Alberta on Highway 2 (from 55.5 degree latitude to 56 degree latitude). Great for summer cycling since the sun rises about 3:30 am and sets about 11:30 pm.

However, I have moved much further south now (latitude 52 degrees :)). Even so, I haven't found too much glass on the road in this area.

I take it that there's no recycling system in your area? I mean the kind where you get a refund for a bottle returned? Of course the idiot extraordinaire will smash his bottle no matter what, but for us average idiots the small refund seems to do the trick. Even if people feel too rich to take their bottles back themselves, they'll leave them unbroken for some kid to collect.

--J

I think the biggest problem is the content of the bottles ;)

Seriously, around here you probably see ten broken beer bottles for every bottle of any other type (and you almost never see sports-drink bottles on the road). Even if one counts the plastic soft-drink, water, and sports drink bottles the glass beer bottles probably outnumber them four to one for roadside litter.

Apparently, along about the fourth beer the "crash-tinkle" of breaking glass becomes irresistably fascinating... ;)

John

I think the biggest contributor to roadside litter around here is probably smashed windscreens and other car parts.

We do have a recycling program. It is actually fairly good. Drivers, I guess, find it a nuisance to keep soda/beer/liquor bottles in their cars after the contents are drained. So they toss it out the window. Often they aim it at road signs.

There are a number of people who slowly ride along the road on bicycles looking for these containers. Others will park their cars on the road and walk up and down the ditches looking for bottles. Business must be pretty good because I understand some of these "collectors" have been able to buy new cars with the proceeds from this venture.

To keep my mind focused on riding, I will often count the number of containers along the road. In a distance of 30 km, my total will be over 100. The next time I ride that road, there will be less than 10. Obviously someone has come by picking them up.

the squished hedgehogs are bad...but yes beer bottles is most common although out here in the west there is a lot of windscreen glass...lol

I've once kicked off the road at 40kmh a large empty carboard box :D

Brendon
:beer:

Better riding on the road as the so called cycle lanes are usually littered with glass and other crap.

Originally posted by NZLcyclist
I've once kicked off the road at 40kmh a large empty carboard box :D


And weren't you glad it was empty. Imagine if it had a refrigerator in it :lol:

John

All cyclists should band together and do a class action law suit :eek: against the companies whose poducts are most often found smashed in our riding areas. Seems a little small print is all that's required to release them from liability right now. Perhaps they would quickly switch over to plastic. I've been seeing a lot of plastic Ice House bottles laying around lately........ On the other hand it could backfire and the roads become glass shard paths.

In Edinburgh there is a number you can call and the council will send out a team to remove hazards such as glass etc.

Hmmmm...its odd reading these comments about all the debris in the roads. Perhaps I am just lucky living in a rural area where I ride, but I don't see all that much in western Massachusetts. I have occasionally kicked stuff outof the way or off the roads if it was really obnoxious; but usually its my tires that dothe cleaning and I end up with a flat! :mad:

roughstuff

Very rarely do I see garbage in the bike lane or on the side of the road on my commute or weekend rides. I do know the street gets swept once ever 2-4 weeks depending on the city (I ride through three to get to work).

The only problem I have is decent sized rocks in the bike lanes. Usually there is one here or there, but some spots have what looks like a truck lost some of its load. I will usually sweep it up after a week or so.

One of the best reasons you have for a helmet-mounted rear view mirror (or whatever you prefer) is that you can see the traffic coming from behind you without turning your head. Then...if there IS NO traffic, you can go right out into the main lane where the passing cars have swept the pavement free of debris; instead of over on the shoulder, which may or may not have grit and other stuff. Saves wear and tear and alot of flats.


roughstuff

Originally posted by Roughstuff
One of the best reasons you have for a helmet-mounted rear view mirror (or whatever you prefer) is that you can see the traffic coming from behind you without turning your head.

I experimented with a mirror once, but it just gave me problems. I spent longer trying to adjust it to get a decent view of what was behind me than it would have taken to just turn my head. About the only time I noticed it was when the sun was behind me, and I don't regard being blinded as a fun activity.

This is a rather timely thread for me. On my route to work, a piece of brown PVC drain has been dropped and runover creating a huge splash of semicurved sharp plastic shards.

I rode around it yesterday, and when I saw it thismorning I was thinking "the council's not going to getaround to that, I'll have to clean it up myself" I was planning driving down in my car with a brush and pan and sort it out because the trafic is spreading it about. It will soon become undodgeable

Stew

You know what really gets me, though, isn't broken glass. It's the crap left in front of construction sites (usually home remodels).

Black drill bits. Twice I've had immediate deflation due to them left laying in the black-asphalt street in front of homes being remodeled. Two other times I've gotten nails in my tires that I'm convinced were from other construction sites that I had passed. That really pissed me off because it's just construction people being careless.

And then there the gravel, sometimes large chunks that would qualify as 'rocks' left in the street. I mean, c'mon guys, you're done backfilling but you left a mess. Grab a broom and sweep it up. It isn't usually hard to see, but having to swing out into traffic isn't exactly safe, either.

As much as possible, I try to avoid house construction sites with my car or bike. There are usually a plethora of nails that are just waiting to insert themselves into my tires.

In time (because of rain), these nails make their way to the edge of the road; so construction people think that the nuisance is only temporary. But if you park your car by the curb or ride your bike along the edge of the road (where we are supposed to ride), you will encounter them.

It is interesting that you can hit the head of a nail with your front tire in such a way that it tips the nail at an angle pointing to the rear so that the back tire drives right into the point of the nail. Several years ago, when I rode a motorcycle, I saw this happen in a video demonstration.

I second the motion that construction workers need to find a broom and sweep up their mess. A job is not done properly until the mess is also cleaned up.

Lately I've been picking up all sorts of "discards" from the roads. Sadly they are all in my tires promptly causing flats.