Interesting Facts

According to a new study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal if you want to lose weight you should take public transport. (Seemingly you can benefit from the ‘incidental’ physical activity involved".  They'll be telling us we should walk to work next! How much do these people get paid?)

According to a report from the Department of Transport, the slowest road in England is the A306 Northbound at Richmond, which has a rush hour speed of just 3.5 mph. (We are slowing down: In the year ending to December 2015, average speeds on local ‘A’ roads in England during the weekday morning peak were a measly 23.4 mph. The actual speed limit on a dual carriageway can vary from 40mph and 70mph, but you'll be lucky to get the chance.  One theory is that roads are getting congested by all the online shopping deliveries. Outside of London Nottingham is home to the slowest road: The A6005 Eastbound with rush hour speeds of just 6.4 mph.  This shouldn't come as a surprise to Amatsu.)

There are 800 miles of roadworks in place on motorways and major A roads in the UK. (Just in time for the bank holiday traffic, where 14.5 million drivers will set off for the spring break. Gridlock is expected on the M25, M4, M5, M53 and M62.  Happy days.) Source

According to plans unveiled by Transport for London (TfL) London commuters will soon be able to bounce their way to work. (The “Bounceway”, due to open in 2015, will allegedly be trialed as part of TfL’s £1.8 million Future Streets scheme . You might think this is unique - think again: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671342/a-bouncy-560-foot-long-trampoline-road. Now we know what the British Secret Service was using those spy rocks for. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/19/fake-rock-plot-spy-russians) One more thought:  What if you've just had a full English breakfast?  It could be a disaster!

I'll be honest, when I first heard of the poo bus, I thought of this guy:- However, this is actually about a bus that runs on gas generated through the treatment of sewage (real poo), and food waste that is unfit for human consumption. The Bio-Bus (Foto: GENeco) (A renewable and sustainable source of fuel, the bus can travel up to 300km on a full tank of gas generated at the Bristol sewage treatment works – a plant run by GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water. Personally, I love the idea, and the humour of the advertising on the bus itself.)

According to car website HonestJohn, nine out of ten new cars are sold without a full-size spare wheels as standard. (About 25% of cars are sold with thinner ‘space-saver’ wheels, which allow you to travel at a limited speed for a short distance, to get yourself to a garage. Others have ‘run-flats’, reinforced tyres that allow you to continue on with a puncture for a limited time. Almost half of new cars are sold without any spare wheel at all, they are simply equipped with a repair kit: basically some sealant and an air pump that you use to temporarily fix the tyre. Q. Why are they doing this? A. Money. Not providing a spare wheel can easily save manufacturers around £100 per car. Cheapskates!)

In 2000, Bogota in Colombia became the first city to restrict the use of private vehicles throughout an entire metropolis for a day.   (The Islands of Sark and Herm (in the Channel Islands) are car free 365 days a year. Herm has even banned bicycles! I guess it's Shanks' Pony then.) !Note -  Shanks' Pony describes using your feet as a means of transport. 

London buses are no longer accepting cash payments for journeys*. (There are different ways to pay the bus fare: An Oyster card with pay as you go credit, Travelcard or Bus & Tram Pass A Visitor Oyster card A contactless payment card to pay as you go A Day Travelcard In fact, according to the Payments Council, cash payments make up the majority of transactions in the UK - just.  Cash transactions account for 52%, but this is down from 58 per cent in 2009. For now cash is still king, but with virtual wallets, and mobile payment systems, the march of a cashless society seems to be unstoppable. Stop the world, I want to get off.) *That said, legally, they are not allowed to refuse a cash payment.

You've probably never heard of Bissoe, I know I hadn't (it's in Cornwall), but, they have a brand new bus shelter. Why is that interesting? Well, because there hasn't been a bus service since 2008. (This isn't a case of mad councillors, squandering public money though.  The shelter was built for free by a local concrete company, who noticed the old one was looking rather shabby. The production manager, Simon Lucas, said "We are aware there are no buses coming here at the moment but we'd like to hope that the new shelter might encourage them to come back." He added, ""There's no real focal point to the village when people come here, so we thought this would mark it out." If you build it, Mr Lucas, they will come. I think it should be featured in Visit Cornwall.) Source

French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains it ordered at a cost of 15bn euros (£12.1bn) are too wide for many regional platforms. (Officials say around 1,300 platforms will have to be adjusted  to create room for the new trains to pass through, because they were built more than 50 years ago when trains were a little slimmer. Weren't we all.)

According to a study commissioned by Teletext Holidays, Brits spend 18 days on planning their holiday (On average, people in the UK spend 14 days choosing a holiday destination. We spend just over 13 hours researching the accommodation, and 11 hours sorting out all the transport from the flights to car hire. A further nine hours are dedicated to washing and ironing clothes, and eight hours are spent on trips to the hairdresser and tanning salons. We then spend another two days packing our suitcases before finally jetting off. They have even come up with a new phrase PHT - Pre-Holiday Tension.)

According to Europol criminal gangs are using budget airlines to fly into cities to carry out illegal activities - and then flying out the same day. (They are either cheapskates or crime really doesn't pay.)

According to National Rail statistics, nearly 33.3% of Britain's trains are late. (Virgin trains were the worst culprits, with only 47% of their trains on the West Coast Mainline arriving on time.  The best performers were Chiltern Railways with 87.5 per cent and London Overground with 86.2 per cent.)

UK taxpayers fork out over £17 million a year to police football matches. (Presently, clubs are responsible for the costs of policing in and immediately around stadiums, but extra police have to be deployed to prevent violence and disorder in the surrounding area, in town centres and on public transport.  The Football League says that fans pay taxes to cover police costs, and should not 'pay twice for policing'. Maybe we should all get to vote on what our taxes get spent on.) Source - The Wright Stuff and Daily Mail

The original Batmobile car, used by actor Adam West in the TV series of Batman, has been bought for £2.6m ($4.2m) at a US auction. (56-year-old, Rick Champagne, who bought the car, said it "was a dream come true". Funny that, my dreams are a lot cheaper.)

According to a report published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, between 30% and 50% of the world's food goes to waste. (This means around two billion tonnes, of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year, ends up not being eaten, and half the food bought in Europe and the US is thrown away. The reasons seem to range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage, best before dates on food, and those notorious BOGOFF (buy-one-get-one-free) offers, that encourage consumers to buy more than they need. I would say that in Europe it could be down to weekly shopping too.  Once upon a time we bought food fresh from markets, but nowadays we do a weekly shop, and something is bound to go off in that time.  My worst culprit is salad items.  The number of half eaten cucumbers I've thrown away...) You can read the report here. http://www.imeche.org/Libraries/Reports/IMechE_Global_Food_Report.sflb.ashx

The shortest cycle path in the UK is just 8 feet (2.5 metres) long. (That's about the length of two pedal cycles. You can see this wonder of the modern world on the Ridgeway in Plymouth.  Plymouth council insist that it is there to save cyclists’ lives. A spokesperson said: “The red area marks where the off-road pedestrian and cycle route ends and cyclists join traffic. “It is designed to alert motorists to cyclists joining the road, as well as give cyclists the space to do so safely.” And if you think this is a one-off, think again.  There's one in Wales - on a road in Cardiff, that is one inch longer. It makes me proud to be British.)  

Ruthless traffic wardens in Tewksbury have been ticketing cars. (Why ruthless?  Well the motorists had been stranded in recent flooding, and when they returned to their stranded vehicles they found penalty notices stuck to their windscreens. Now you know why your average Brit hates traffic wardens.)

People in occupations, most likely to drive a car with personalised plates include nursing home owners, 13% of them own one, local government chief executives, 12%, and haulage contractors, 11%. (I wonder what the percentage of English teachers with one is.)

According to online insurance company elephant.co.uk, residents of towns and villages in Scotland have the highest percentage of personalised number plates. (14% of motorists in the villages of Killearn, Strathblane and Fintry in Stirlingshire, have a personalised plate, compared with a national average of around 4%. I guess we all strive for recognition.)