This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Also, I fucked up on the right turn from Cranmer onto Brixton recently and nearly got left turn killed by a lorry that wasn't indicating.

That is some last sentence.

Excuse my coming in here - didn't enjoy that right turn either. Then tried carrying on up Foxley Rd straight over Camberwell New Road - there's a hidden-ish bike lane - left round the side of the Brandon Estate come out next to Kennington tube and you've skipped Oval death trap as well. Assuming you want to skip it.

Being a roadie on the geared, back from Leyton to Bricklayers. Had another guy drafting behind me pretty much from Bow until Whitechapel. Last minute indicating by a car at one point coming West toward Whitechapel, saw it just in time but was a bit close. Car sat there for ages before then turning. Took a fair sprint but caught back up to the other guy, asked if it was my fault (I'd prefer to know). His reply was simply "yea I saw it and was like, oooohhh shit". Had a quick chat and sprint with him til Aldgate.

There's almost always a queue of stationary traffic the length of Patmos Road waiting for the lights to cross Vassall Road, and with parked cars on both sides there's no room for bikes to pass.

saw a funny one last night.
cycling up burdett road from the wharf to victoria park.
guy in front moves across to turn right into a side road across the oncoming traffic that is stationary.
at the head of the stationary traffic is a bus. i see him swing across in front of the bus and i think 'i wonder if anyone is flying up the inside'. obviously the guy turning right doesn't look left and cuts right in front of the guy coming up the inside of the bus. queue one massive endo and then nearly stacking it from the guy up the inside. all whilst the guy carries on into the side road.
made me laugh anyway.

death sentence?

That is some last sentence.

Cycling along the Lea the other week I think I found another reason why cyclists shave their legs. There were so many bugs that as I rode along they were getting stuck in my leg hair, pretty unpleasant.

Scoop them up for a nutritious high protein snack.

Yo SE's! There has just been a crash on New Cross Rd eastbound near the bus garage/post office. Two lanes are closed eastbound and traffic is being diverted onto one of the westbound lanes, expect chaos on all major surrounding routes so be safe y'all!

The crash is between a motorcyclist and a motorist and it looks real bad, I hope everyone involved is going to be ok.

Waiting in front of taxi at Angel red light to filter right (straight ahead and left are green):

Taxi driver: BEEP BEEP (unintelligble shouting)
Me, smugly: It's a red light. What are you beeping at, mate?
Taxi driver: My friend.
Friend, in another taxi: Yes, he was beeping at me.
Me: Oh.

3.5/10 would overreact again

I met a real life road-tax-paying white-van-man in the flesh today. I thought they were just an apocryphal straw man. He was every bit as stupid, ignorant and horrible as in the stories.

Nice roll in to the city from Sydenham this morning - lovely cycling weather.

lol'd

Witnessed a guy get side-swiped by a car on the commute home last night. Our traffic was moving slowly and an oncoming car tried to speedily nip between two cars to turn right. Guy (filtering on inside) seemed to take a big hit (from car, then floor), but seemed fairly unscathed, fork of bike was bent. Driver hit the accelerator and zoomed off, but we all got her plates and description regardless. Heal up buddy.

Going by the road near the school I pass at 8:50 and both sides of the road are lined with cars, some more parked in the road with hazards on. Going to take a week or so of them and send them to the school to highlight the issues.

Driver hit the accelerator and zoomed off, but we all got her plates and description regardless.

Fucking unbelievable. You'd have to be a complete sociopath to do that. Seen it myself actually but it's still chilling.

That's awful. But the law do not like it when people run away.

Last two days I've had to ride in/out of central at rush hour. How do you lot cope doing this every day? Behaviour whether from stupidity or arrogance was astounding.

Luvvly 20 mile morning ride in, 2nd time this week, improved time by 3 mins too, 1Hr 17Mins 50 Secs. Aiming to get up to 3 times a week whilst the weather is OK, 120 miles a week is the goal.

Nice quick chat with fella at the lights at Grays Inn Road/Holborn Junction rounded it off nicely.

Todays commute expressed as a Tree = The Mighty Oak.

Had a nice chap with a cabbie last night as we waited at a set of lights while all around us, cyclist pootled through them. Asked if it drove me nuts people RLjing and said it was his biggest pet hate as they put themselves in danger. Nice fella.

Todays commute expressed as a Tree = The Mighty Oak

#didchuckle

sort of commuted with my son to the metrocenter on our singlespeeds for a laugh. Theres a particularly congested section of the ride which is heavily trafficked and feeds an amazing hill to hoof down. However being the sensible dad I suggested the boy cover his brakes and keep it under 30 (the speed limit) as we go down it. Entered the feeder section and had the boy in front of me, I ride out a bit to provide a buffer around him. At which point a bus drops in behindus for the full length, stopping at the lights before the hill I pantomime sorry for holding you up.
Bus driver opens the window and tells me to go in front of him with my boy and he proceeds to crawl down the hill behind us holding traffic up for us the whole way. He would have been cursed by every driver but it was a really kind gesture, even gave us a jaunty wave as we separated.

Commute score 9/10 nice bus drivers

Filtering down the right hand side of a bus indicating to pull out: silly and illegal or just silly?

CS7 performing an immaculate impersonation of a car park this morning. Would weave/filter again 7/10

A few moments of lunacy over the weekend:

About a dozen pissed up boris bikers pootling over Mare Street to go the wrong way up Victoria Park Lane, evidently they thought the mayhem they were causing was a great laugh.

Cycling home with my girlfriend after a gig on Friday night, heading east up Pentonville road as two pairs of cars racing each other flew past us without even considering moving over, probably the most scared I've been on my bike. Then as I reach the top of the hill a car coming from the other direction wants to turn right onto Baron Street, moves to cut across me so I slam the brakes on and he stops when I scream at him, when he gave me the hand gesture to hurry up I lost my rag and swore a great deal, was still buzzing with adrenaline shakes after the couple of close passes.

This morning, however, was lovely.