Mow along the highway

[chipsndust]

Interesting thread.

I live in a rural area, my "lawn" goes up to the county road. Also have about 100 yards of wooded land along the road which I keep about a 30' wide strip mowed.

I always make two passes (with 62" mower) with the discharge away from the road. Even then, I disengage the mower if a car goes by.

I never discharge clippings and mystery objects toward or onto the road.

 

[aczlan]

Blowing clippings on the road could cause a motorcyclist to wipe out for lack of traction, they could also cause a car to lose traction if they are doing a panic stop.
Could you be held legally liable? I don't know, but I would feel guilty if someone was hurt or killed due to me having blown clippings onto the road. As such, it is not worth it to me to blow clippings onto the road.

Aaron Z

 

[The Haymaker]

Blowing clippings on the road could cause a motorcyclist to wipe out for lack of traction, they could also cause a car to lose traction if they are doing a panic stop.
Could you be held legally liable? I don't know, but I would feel guilty if someone was hurt or killed due to me having blown clippings onto the road. As such, it is not worth it to me to blow clippings onto the road.

Aaron Z

I am a biker, and grass clippings are the least of my worries. What about the two miles of road I have to travel to work that every spring is COVERED with Bovine discharge and every fall it is mud going to and from the Flood Bros. Farm?

That same person who would sue over grass clippings would also sue over going off the road and removing a bridge abutment in an attempt to miss the neighbors rogue gerbil who ran from my unmowed lawn.

Me, I worry about the important, more apt to happen stuff, like the sky falling.

 

[aczlan]

I am a biker, and grass clippings are the least of my worries.

I am not talking of just a little grass on the road, I am talking of grass like a person I see on the way to work does it. They wait until they have 2' high grass along the road, then they cut it and blow most of it into the road. There is a full inch of grass on the road for most of that the lane. Definitely a hazard to safe driving.

Aaron Z

 

[dodge man]

I'm like Alczan, I've seen people coat the road with a thick layer of grass, the kind that doesn't blow away after the first car goes by. The are doing it on purpose, as they have a side discharge mower. The person I'm thinking of is a comercial mower also. I also stop mowing when a car goes by, just seems like the nice thing to do.

 

[sweettractors]

I have never seen anything other than rotary cutters in use by MODOT or our county highway department. I use the same chain guards front and back as they use and have never had anything get past them. I do agree that mowers should no be used in the presence of cars though and shut mine down on the rare occasion someone comes down my road as this is standard practice for everyone I know besides MODOT and the county.

Rotary cutters, heavily chained here in Ky. If I am personally mowing my right of way, I stop while a car passes. Ken Sweet

 

[TripleR]

I grew up on a farm with a dirt then later gravel road. My brothers still live on that farm and it is still gravel and probably always will be. When we built our new house on another farm the road was gravel. I moved to the country after living in "civilization" for a little over twenty years knowing full well about the issues of "country living", so grass on the roadways, horse droppings or cow flop were no surprise nor were slow moving BIG tractors/equipment, grain trucks, ATV's etc. Many people move to the country with unrealistic expectations and are not only unhappy, but are a PITA to those already there. Not that anyone on here would fall into that category, just a general observation.

 

[brin]

I grew up on a farm with a dirt then later gravel road. My brothers still live on that farm and it is still gravel and probably always will be. When we built our new house on another farm the road was gravel. I moved to the country after living in "civilization" for a little over twenty years knowing full well about the issues of "country living", so grass on the roadways, horse droppings or cow flop were no surprise nor were slow moving BIG tractors/equipment, grain trucks, ATV's etc. Many people move to the country with unrealistic expectations and are not only unhappy, but are a PITA to those already there. Not that anyone on here would fall into that category, just a general observation.

TripleR ---- I totally agree with you...it is common for farmers moving round bales from the field to the cattle to drop a few piles of hay along the way ..just one example...If folks want to shut them down after they move to the country then I just don't know what we have come to...What is the farmer supposed to do ...stop and get off the tractor...and pick up an armful of hay...again just an example..it could be manure or a bushel of feed corn...it comes with country life...get used to it or go back to the city...my 2 cents.

 

[TripleR]

TripleR ---- I totally agree with you...it is common for farmers moving round bales from the field to the cattle to drop a few piles of hay along the way ..just one example...If folks want to shut them down after they move to the country then I just don't know what we have come to...What is the farmer supposed to do ...stop and get off the tractor...and pick up an armful of hay...again just an example..it could be manure or a bushel of feed corn...it comes with country life...get used to it or go back to the city...my 2 cents.

We won't even mention the corn, beans, wheat etc. from grain trucks. Several years ago I was on the way to work and hit a patch of beans in a curve, swapped ends a couple of times and wound up in the ditch. Fortunately I was able t drive out no worse for it. For the most part these loads are secured, but sometimes things happen. I lived in a large metropolitan area on my first job and I will take the rural roads over I-35, I-435, I-29 etc. any day.

 

[zoltanthegypsy]

Off-topic, I guess, but let me tell you about grass on the road.

I launch a 22' boat (7500 lbs w/the trailer) at the bottom of a bluff. The road is just a pair of tire tracks cut into the side of the cliff, and about as steep as I can climb w/the truck in 4WD and the boat behind.

One day I was brainlessly weed-whacking whatever was growing along side the driveway (annual rye, or something else w/stems like tough drinking-straws) and letting it blow onto the road.

Might as well have been ball-bearings.

Half way up the hill I found myself (and the truck, trailer, and boat) sliding backward. The choices were jack-knife into the bank, lose the whole show over the side (and our lives, perhaps), or just go with the slide and back down the hill and around a corner. Somehow the 3rd option worked out. All it took to get traction back was to rake the crap off the road.

This is one of those "too soon old and too late smart" stories on myself. Learn from my mistakes children. Don't blow anything onto the road. You may be saving me or some other old fool.

Z.