C-19 long term effect on canal life

[Jerra]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Or another way of looking at it is that there are 38 people, for every hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year (come rain or shine) for EVERY mile of C&RT waterways., 

 

 

How many people would you guess were going along some parts of the London canals at computo'clock.

 

To look at it another way (OK not english canals but scottish) I walked along the towpath at dusk near the end of the canal.    A post there was counting cyclists for the day and it numbered nearly 300.    I have never been along the canal when the cyclists haven't been out numbered about 20 to one by walkers.    So on that little stretch of canal alone it is not unreasonable to have counted 6,000 visits for that day.   Say that happens 300 days a year and you have 1.8m for that little area alone.

 

Divide that 6000 by 24 and you have 250.   Divide the 250 by your 38 and you have covered 6.5 miles of canal and that was just one short stretch.   More people were joining the canal all along the length to where I left it at the water of Leith.

[pearley]

11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Or another way of looking at it is that there are 38 people, for every hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year (come rain or shine) for EVERY mile of C&RT waterways., 

 

 

But we have moored in some pretty isolated places thus year and continually surprised at the number of people walking, running and cycling by.

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, pearley said:

But we have moored in some pretty isolated places thus year and continually surprised at the number of people walking, running and cycling by.

I imagine that not many people are using the towpaths during the night, or, for many, during the day (working hours) or when it is blowing a gale and snowing.

 

Being realistic the figure should probably read a 100+ for each hour for every day of the year for every mile, and there will be many miles of unused towpath - particularly alongside the Rivers where there is no particular tow-path (example : the 20 miles downstream of Newark on the Trent)

 

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

In addition to £2.4m from the Highways Agency and others "to enhance the environment around Titford pools, improve biodiversity and prevent damage from M5 'run-off'"

 

(Good job they did)

That was a great benefit to boaters, you can cruise round the pools now, once you have filled all the pounds up Crow and run aground getting from the pump house to the pools. Maybe someone else should have used the £2.4 to do up the pools?

 

[Slim]

51 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Or another way of looking at it is that there are 38 people, for every hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year (come rain or shine) for EVERY mile of C&RT waterways., 

 

 

As they say, Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Slim said:

As they say, Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

The method of acquiring the information and extrapolation leaves a 'little to be desired'.

[cuthound]

5 hours ago, Slim said:

As they say, Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

 

And that 94% of all statistics are made up on the spot! ??

[matty40s]

Just now, cuthound said:

 

And that 94% of all statistics are made up on the spot! ??

The other 13% are meaningless.

[Dave123]

The canals have been busier this summer than they have been in a long time. Still busy even now! I just hope this can translate into a sustained increase in use and that CRT can use this to get more money to keep the infrastructure patched up, both by showing Gov't how important and popular canals/staycations/people switching to an alternate (&wfh) lifestyle/access to local green spaces are and probably by charging boaters and boat buisnesses more too.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Dave123

[LadyG]

8 minutes ago, Dave123 said:

The canals have been busier this summer than they have been in a long time. Still busy even now! I just hope this can translate into a sustained increase in use and that CRT can use this to get more money to keep the infrastructure patched up, both by showing Gov't how important and popular canals/staycations/people switching to an alternate (&wfh) lifestyle/access to local green spaces are and probably by charging boaters and boat buisnesses more too.

Hmmm, I would think that the CRT can predict income from boaters very accurately, there won't be many more boats suddenly appearing, but as all boaters were locked down for ten weeks from 23rd March, leisure boaters would want to get some use out of their boat over a shorter summer season. There were few package holidays etc etc, this would increase vusage (more maintenance?) , but no increase in licence income.

I don't know how they can be busier now as they get locked down again on Thursday, boaters are having to winterise their boats, they will want to be on winter mooring by Thursday.

Edited November 2, 2020 by LadyG

[TheBiscuits]

4 minutes ago, LadyG said:

they will want to be on winter mooring by Thursday.

 

I'll bet CRT aren't selling many winter moorings for November at the moment...

[LadyG]

3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

I'll bet CRT aren't selling many winter moorings for November at the moment...

I was not thinking about those CRT winter moorings, folks just need to find a safe place and winterise, I don't think anyone ever thought current CRT winter mooring scheme is anything other than a cash cow: all businesses need a cash cow.

Edited November 2, 2020 by LadyG

[doratheexplorer]

On 01/11/2020 at 09:38, Athy said:

We find that many people do still come and help. But there are exceptions.

   Last month we were going up Little Bourton lock and a boat arrived at the top, put a rope round a bollard and the two two crew just stood on their back deck and watched us. As I was opening the top gate I cheerily called out to them "Are you going through the lock?"

   The lady rather archly replied "That's why we usually wait at a lock landing".

My reply "Oh sorry, I thought you'd moored up to have your lunch" went right over her head.

 

Social distancing guidelines were still in effect last month.  Many people are quite rightly keeping their distance this year.  I have more of an issue with a big group coming right alongside me to help push gates etc.  I've had to walk away a number of times to leave them to it.

[LadyG]

1 minute ago, doratheexplorer said:

Social distancing guidelines were still in effect last month.  Many people are quite rightly keeping their distance this year.  I have more of an issue with a big group coming right alongside me to help push gates etc.  I've had to walk away a number of times to leave them to it.

Just the same, they can ask if you want help, or make a their excuses, being snarky is going to get folks back up, right,y.

[Athy]

11 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Social distancing guidelines were still in effect last month.  Many people are quite rightly keeping their distance this year.  I have more of an issue with a big group coming right alongside me to help push gates etc.  I've had to walk away a number of times to leave them to it.

Fair enough, but social distancing rules were in no danger of being breached, with one person on each side of the canal.

You say that they were still in effect last month; surely they still are?

[doratheexplorer]

4 minutes ago, Athy said:

Fair enough, but social distancing rules were in no danger of being breached, with one person on each side of the canal.

You say that they were still in effect last month; surely they still are?

Yes, they very much still are.  Things are ramping back up.  But around September, people were increasingly behaving like they'd got amnesia.

[LadyG]

9 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Yes, they very much still are.  Things are ramping back up.  But around September, people were increasingly behaving like they'd got amnesia.

eh?

[Athy]

31 minutes ago, LadyG said:

eh?

They were eating tinned rice pudding.

[LadyG]

On 02/11/2020 at 15:40, Athy said:

They were eating tinned rice pudding.

Ambrosia the food of the Gods

 

On 02/11/2020 at 15:40, Athy said:

They were eating tinned rice pudding.

Amnesia