I was surprised to learn that Steep Hill in Lincoln is ‘only’ 1 in 7. Though again, it’s been changed, you can’t drive all the way through.
Definitely wouldn’t want to drive those cobbles on an icy morning.
Actually, Steep Hill is another good example - steep roads that’ve been changed so they’re only through routes for peds (top to bottom), or vehicles (crossways).
Bryn666 wrote:I was in Harlech last Tuesday and the locals were making the most of their new found status.
Lots of people on bikes and foot climbing up but didn't see anyone brave enough to drive down it. And given the car I was in was a Qashqai I had no desire to prove the stereotype.
I went down it in my old Focus. Gave the brakes a bit of a workout
Q for Keith W . Would Runswick Bay get a look in in this contest. Long time since I visited it, but I always had headaches with FIL Reliant Robin on the hill, especially as parking was off the side of the road over the kerb.
Due to the measurement being taken by the centre line, not the absolute steepest point. Baldwin Street is ruler straight, whereas Ffordd Pen Llech snakes. As a result the gradient is shallower away from the hairpins.
I suspect it will remain a heavyweight 2nd place though. No one will build a road that steep today.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
jervi wrote: ↑Wed Apr 08, 2020 20:30
When I make my millions. I will build the steepest street.
I'm thinking maybe a shortcut up ditchling bostall?
It's about 1.2:1
Or if that isn't steep enough I'll just build one down a cliff and one would require a winch to get up (or down gracefully).
Combining two projects, I'd build a road down Beast Cliff to get to the only bit of the UK in grid miriad square O.
Due to the measurement being taken by the centre line, not the absolute steepest point. Baldwin Street is ruler straight, whereas Ffordd Pen Llech snakes. As a result the gradient is shallower away from the hairpins.
I suspect it will remain a heavyweight 2nd place though. No one will build a road that steep today.
Due to the measurement being taken by the centre line, not the absolute steepest point. Baldwin Street is ruler straight, whereas Ffordd Pen Llech snakes. As a result the gradient is shallower away from the hairpins.
I suspect it will remain a heavyweight 2nd place though. No one will build a road that steep today.
Looks like we'll have to have a crack at it!
The terrain certainly exists for it.
Rumour has it Dunedin Street was designed in London on a 2D map with no contour lines, not sure how true it is but given the blunders of this magnitude that still occur it certainly wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
Bryn666 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 16:30
Rumour has it Dunedin Street was designed in London on a 2D map with no contour lines, not sure how true it is but given the blunders of this magnitude that still occur it certainly wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility.
Many North American town grid patterns and street names were designed on a flat map, well before there was urban development, this being the pattern to be used when/if built.
Take West Vancouver, in BC, Canada here https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Wes ... 23.1601982
this was laid out more than 100 years ago on virgin mountainside. N-S Streets were numbered sequentially, and E-W Avenues were named alphabetically. In some places the terrain is too steep for a road, so there is a break, then the name continues a block or more away at a notably higher level. The individual plot numbers go with this, so a house on an avenue at 2650 is halfway between 26th and 27th Street. All logical, but no regard to geography.
Al__S wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 10:59
how steep can your fantasy streets be? the limit should obviously be "can actually walk on it with normal shoes, no need for safety equipment"
I think you'd have to be able to drive on it for it to be considered a street.
SteelCamel wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 16:52
I think you'd have to be able to drive on it for it to be considered a street.
Church Lane in Whitby is definately a street. No idea how steep it is, but it is _really_ steep at the bottom. But I'm sure it's drivable given suitable conditions (primarily lack of pedestrians, like now).
Last edited by Alderpoint on Sat May 09, 2020 10:09, edited 1 time in total.
Steep hills aren't necessarily a problem for engines today, the bigger issue is vertical clearance as most vehicles would likely beach on the sag curve.
I wouldn't like to test traction on the Whitby example due to the setts.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
Al__S wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 10:59
how steep can your fantasy streets be? the limit should obviously be "can actually walk on it with normal shoes, no need for safety equipment"
I think you'd have to be able to drive on it for it to be considered a street.
Possibly? I think a good test of "is it a street?" is whether there are addresses on it- eg on Fleshmarket Close in Edinburgh there are, a whole load of businesses and homes along there for which the steps are the sole access.
Bryn666 wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 23:10
Steep hills aren't necessarily a problem for engines today, the bigger issue is vertical clearance as most vehicles would likely beach on the sag curve.
You don't need a steep hill to do that. I grounded my Mondeo at both ends simultaneously on a ford (pun not intended) somewhere in the military range on Dartmoor. Luckily by getting people to get out (that wasn't popular, as we were of course in the middle of a river) I got enough clearance to get free. It would have been embarrassing to have to call the Army, especially in a foreign-registered vehicle.
I thought it was here but according to the current satellite view on Google there's a bridge there now. Unless that bridge has appeared in the last 6 years, I must be misremembering the location.
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The Ffordd Pen Llech has never looked quite as steep to me as the street in New Zealand.
I remember going for a walk with my dad in the Lake District near Ambleside in 2011 and there was a very minor lane that we walked up a hill on which felt very steep at one point, to the point that I felt like I was going to fall over when walking down it. I reckoned it was at least a 1/3, but the road isn't officially open to motor vehicles (only for access) and to the best of my knowledge there was no gradient signage. It was at a kind of sharp S-shaped bend near the bottom end of the road (which Google maps doesn't seem to have marked correctly to what I remember it being, though it's obscured by trees on aerial photos).
