This morning's commute and other commuting stories

haha more?

I had a fucking p******e this morning but otherwise great commute 7/10

I was sprayed in the face by windscreen wash this morning. Waiting for a light in standstill traffic, Mr Addison Lee driver decided it was a good time to do it...I looked at him with squinty disbelief and said some words which I regret saying.

I get that all the time on my commuter, they always do it on purpose.

Really? I thought it was a total lack of awareness and stupidity but nothing more.

No road user has a 'right of way'.

Late Central Line, copy of Timeout and my mp3 player. I didn't have to swear at anyone.

You're right, it's not correct, though motorists have the privilege to drive on the road, whether cyclists/peds have the right.

Not at all clear what you're trying to say, Ed. And somewhere in the tangle you seem to be saying that motorists have a privilege to use the roads which cyclists do not, which is incorrect and silly.

Hippy's right that road user don't have right of way, just merely a privilege.

This is all.

are you even a real cyclist???

They aim them sideways. Sometimes it isn't water.

Whoops, hang on, sorry, that post was about windscreen washers.

i2 = −1

Hippy's right that road user don't have right of way, just merely a privilege.

This is all.

"Priority" is the word you're after, I think.

Drivers are on the road by "privilege", rather than "right" (as they need to be licensed to use them), while pedestrians and cyclists have the "right" to use the roads (as they are not licensed to use them and can just... use them... by default unless it's a motorway (which nobody has the "right" to use, because of licensing)).

"Right of way" is the phrase that is often used in place of the more subtle "priority", so you'd yield priority to traffic from the right at a roundabout, and you have priority on a straight road over traffic joining your road from a minor road etc etc

i2 = −1> then i=√3

This morning was a good commute. Blue skies, trees turning gold, birds singing. They've even resurfaced the top bit of Rye Lane, although I did have to swerve around what appeared to be a pile of rolled oats

Better to stick with priority. Less confusing and don't forget "The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they advise you when you should give way to others."

"Priority" is the word you're after, I think.

That's exactly the work, than you.

@itsbruce you're no help.

I wonder where the whole "right of way" thing comes from. I say it sometimes (it used to be more frequently) and need to catch myself and correct it but I don't know how it got into the public consciousness. Really ancient legal terms, maybe? In an old version of the Highway Code from the 1470s? The only actual "right of way" that I know of in legal use relates to access rights on various routes, like bridleways and that kind of thing. I wonder how it became transmuted to "I can drive over anyone in my way on a public carriageway lol". Or if it was even transmuted at all. I bet @TW or @Oliver Schick know the answer to this.

I wonder how it became transmuted to "I can drive over anyone in my way on a public carriageway lol".

Essential reading and essential book purchase if you want that question answered:

http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/

Carlton has helpfully put 'Murder Most Foul' on-line (since the RoadPeace reprint doesn't seem to be available any more):

http://issuu.com/carltonreid/docs/murder-most-foul

(Terrible proofreading but a good book.)

There's also Bob Davis' book, now available for free download:

http://rdrf.org.uk/death-on-the-streets-cars-and-the-mythology-of-road-safety/

Knock yourself out. :)

The short answer to your question is hinted at here:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/179185/newest/

tl;dr--the 'upper' classes started cycling, motor cars were invented, the 'lower' classes took to cycling en masse, cycling wasn't special any more, the 'upper' classes took to motoring, causing a huge death and injury toll, didn't want to be held to account for it, and 20th century futurism/progressivism talked a lot of bollocks about the supposed shape of the future. People bought into the American dream of unlimited mobility, cities sprawled, causing a greater and greater need to travel, from 1970s onwards deaths an injuries entered a sustained period of decline, partly owing to more and more traffic at a standstill, especially in city centres. Increasingly desperately defended attitudes persist that driving all the time is the future and anyone who doesn't play is a spoilsport and just gets in the way. Stereotypes are changing from 'cyclists are poor and/or eccentric' to 'cyclists are "upper"/"middle" class twits who only care about themselves and run over small dogs'. The story continues ...

@bothwell Americans.

@Clockwise @bothwell Oi! It's not my fault that planned obsolescence for motorised vehicles encapsulates the pinnacle/nadir of modern consumerism and neoliberal ideas of urban expansion, nor is it my fault those myopic cretins purposefully mis-understand the linguistic difference between right and 'right' in the same way the fundamentalist Christian right will look you in the face and say 'It's Charles Darwin's THEORY of Evolution' without any understanding the nature and power of scientific theories.

Hoo wee my subscription to London Review of Books is paying mad dividends.

@youramericanlover I gave up here http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n02/iain-sinclair/the-raging-peloton

Ooh, nicely. I saw Carlton's Kickstarter when he first launched it and then forgot all about it, so good to have a reminder that his book is out. Will pick that up on Kindle along with the Davis download. Hope there's a better way to read J.S. Dean's one than needing to read it through Issuu.

Thank you!