Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#111

Post by zhte415 » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 9:06 AM UTC

Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #29

csours wrote: post #26

Things that look and feel like something you've done a thousand times, and may do a thousand times again with no danger. Except that sometimes, things can change very quickly. There's a creek bed near me that dried out almost completely over the summer; usually there's some water flow and occasional shallow pools where small fish live. While it was completely dry, I wanted to walk as far downstream as I could. I woke…

As soon as it started raining, wouldn't you have just gotten out of the creek via the nearest embankment?

It's not easy to get up at an embankment. Mud and a 10-20mph current of water (water's heavy) pushing you away. Unless a root of a tree to grab on to, or a really solid rock, very hard and getting into the situation best avoided at all costs.

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#112

Post by iso947 » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 9:19 AM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #72

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you remember what happened to the replacement the night before Clinton was inaugurated?

Does anyone downvoting this remember what happened to the replacement the night before Bill Clinton was inaugurated?

Have any other Clintons been inaugurated?

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#113

Post by bloak » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 9:26 AM UTC

lawtalkinghuman wrote: post #109

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No.

But the government are trying to get all rights of ways registered on a definitive register by 2026. If it isn't on the list, it won't be recognised as such. There is a high likelihood that a lot of customary rights of ways will miss the deadline. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/25/countdow...

This sounds rather important. I hope that draft versions of this definitive register will be published online so that the general public can easily check for omissions.

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#114

Post by iso947 » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

theodric wrote: post #91

ovi256 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one in France is the causeway to Noirmoutier island. It's a two way road that is impassable at high tide. At both ends, prominent panels display warnings, the current time and the time of the next high tide. Still, there are regular occurences of people that lose their cars and have to be rescued from the shelter poles, and, very rarely, worse. Incidentally, it's about the same length as this 3 mile path, 4.2 km.…

The article's assertion that it's unique in the world is misleading. There are many tidal causeways. I've personally driven across one in Northumberland that connects the mainland to an old monastic island.

That’s lindisfarm, there’s also st Michaels mount.

This path looks more like the rights of way over Morecambe bay though.

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#115

Post by tombrossman » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 9:45 AM UTC

eCa wrote: post #22

Many moons ago I visited Jersey (the one in the English Channel). One of the many highlights was visiting La Corbière[1], a lighthouse only accessible via a causeway that is submerged at high tide[2, 3]. Fascinating place. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Corbi%C3%A8re [2] https://www.google.com/maps/@49.1806882,-2.2470043,3a,75y,22... [3] https://www.google.com/maps/@49.18135,-2.2449889,3a,75y,243....

I live there now and it's great. If you return try the guided walk to Seymour Tower. I did a short blog post back in 2012 with photos, including the rescue tower halfway out. https://www.tombrossman.com/blog/2012/seymour-tower-walk/

TL;DR 30-40 foot tidal range. Sea level rises faster then walking speed at times, you really must pay close attention.

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#116

Post by arethuza » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 9:51 AM UTC

bloak wrote: post #103

floatingatoll wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a cultural difference, such that the UK tone for "proceed and you may die" takes for granted (with, presumably, support from their legal system) that the reader is at fault if they ignore the phrasing used? The US is particularly vulnerable to lawsuits seeking vengeance, and spends a lot of time agonizing over phrasing that is defensible against both literate and illiterate people. So it could be possible tha…

I don't know about UK-US, but I think I've noticed a difference between the UK and Germany in this respect: in the UK the sign tells people that something is dangerous and gives some hint of why; in Germany it just says "Verboten" with no mention of the danger, which in the UK would seem to be highly negligent and asking for legal trouble. Something that injures a burglar could equally well injure a police officer, a…

"it's amazing how many people can legally enter private property without the owner's permission"

Scotland has 'right to roam' so we can wander about pretty much anywhere (with a few sensible restrictions) and there are actually very few signs at dangerous spots - I can only think of a handful. The idea that you would go onto someone else's land, have an accident and then blame the landowner seems a very strange idea to me.

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#117

Post by globular-toast » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #35

In Seattle, the old I90 floating bridge across Lake Washington had a "bulge" where a section of the roadway could be pushed into the bulge to make room for boat passage. When the section was retracted, the highway abruptly ended, and a barrier was put up. The Bulge was infamous for traffic accidents where you suddenly had to swerve right then left then right at highway speed, with narrow lanes lined with concrete wal…

> you suddenly had to swerve right then left then right at highway speed

Surely you didn't "have to". Didn't it occur to anyone that slowing down might make it less dangerous?

Here's some pictures to help understand what this thing was:

Aerial: https://i.redd.it/cyol33goebfy.jpg Street view: https://imgur.com/a/mDH0H Artist's impression of operation: https://i.imgur.com/nIeXbXt.png

(Found in the reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/5ticw5/til_a_dange...)

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#118

Post by globular-toast » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 10:15 AM UTC

stormdennis wrote: post #9

One day many, many years ago when we lived in inland Essex (we're not English) we decided to go to the seaside. Using our road atlas we headed to the blue. We never found the sea just lots of mudflats with no sea in sight. It was my first experience of such a coastline

Yeah, on the small scale road atlases anything up to mean high water is shown as "blue". On 1:50,000 ("Landranger") maps and larger maps those areas would be shown either as brownish (mud) or yellow (sand) with the mean higher water mark shown with a thick line and mean low water with a thin line. Blue essentially means "this bit is always water" (ie. it's below mean low water).

Maps in other parts of the world will show such places as darkish blue to indicate they are tidal. I prefer the Ordnance Survey way (but I am British).

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#119

Post by neurostimulant » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 10:16 AM UTC

shajznnckfke wrote: post #12

fuzxi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has some, they're just not loading for you.

Interesting, AdBlock via mobile Safari’s content blocker feature was blocking the images.

The images aren't loading on Firefox mobile too, but shows up when switching to desktop view.

Re: Desolate English path has killed more than 100 people (2017)

#120

Post by skrebbel » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 10:17 AM UTC

crote wrote: post #37

ovi256 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one in France is the causeway to Noirmoutier island. It's a two way road that is impassable at high tide. At both ends, prominent panels display warnings, the current time and the time of the next high tide. Still, there are regular occurences of people that lose their cars and have to be rescued from the shelter poles, and, very rarely, worse. Incidentally, it's about the same length as this 3 mile path, 4.2 km.…

France also used to have Mont-Saint-Michel, but that one is no more.

At the risk of taking this even further off topic: It very much still exists, and I'd recommend against visiting while the pandemic lasts.

We went by, on holiday, a few weeks ago and the authorities simply crammed the entire place full of tourists. It felt like a BLM protest without angry people: every square meter had at least 5 people on it. Corona? Haha! Tourism income please. We ran away minutes after arriving.

Coming from NL, where authorities allowing that kind of madness would be front page news, this really baffled me. It seems that the French think that as long as you wear a face mask, nothing else matters.

I had just blindly assumed that the local authorities would limit parking (it's in the middle of nowhere, pretty much unreachable except by bus or car), or do some sort of reservation system, so tourist counts would be limited and people could keep their distance. Instead, the only sign of government presence were the four heavily armed police officers at the entrance, and they didn't give a damn either.

That said, just like looking at Paris from atop the Eiffel tower is a bad look because, well, no Eiffel tower, the Mont-Saint-Michel is best enjoyed from a distance. So maybe we didn't really miss anything except an overpriced crêpe-au-chocolat.