This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Saw the sunshine so wore club shorts and oversocks on the commute, should stick to sweerves in future. Felt like an A-grade srsbsns pro-muter.

Bit chilly this morning, wished I had my winter gloves on, couldn't feel my hands for most of the journey.

Got beeped at for going 20mph in a 20mph zone by a very impatient driver, told him at the lights we were both stopped at, 'got told to fu8k off' nice start to Monday.

20MPH zones will NEVER be enforced, it seems. So drivers ignore them.

Swapped CS2 + city grimness for Limehouse Cut + CS3. Lovely!

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

Just silly. It used to be that you were legally obliged to let buses out when indicationg, but that rule (inexplicably, to me) was changed*.

*possibly bollocks

Which I appreciate, but why then has Lambeth/Southwark spent loads of money on new 20mph signs all over the boroughs?

Exactly, I agree - why bother putting them up but put no pressure on Police to enforce, or install cameras or whatever.

Seems like common sense that if 12 tonnes of bus is indicating to move into a particular space then you don't put yourself in that space. But hey, that didn't seem to stop people this morning.

Great awareness from the driver though - she made damn sure nobody else was coming through (after the 6 or 7 that had already done so) before she moved. Good on her.

Because some (hopefully many) people will adhere to them, and if some cars adhere to the 20mph limit it prevents some others from exceeding it (whilst they're stuck behind them).

And it's way cheaper than actually enforcing them.

^ yes. A lot of Bus drivers are I think really excellent, patient and aware.

Because some (hopefully many) people will adhere to them, and if some cars adhere to the 20mph limit it prevents some others from exceeding it (whilst they're stuck behind them).

And it's way cheaper than actually enforcing them.

I've found when driving at 20 that almost all drivers tailgate, overtake dangerously and generally get right uppity.

Absolutely - I certainly couldn't drive a vehicle that size up the CS7 at that time in the morning without developing some sort of stress-related disorder.

I've found when driving at 20 that almost all drivers tailgate, overtake dangerously and generally get right uppity.

If you drive at the speed limit the majority of behaviour you'll see is people driving badly. You'll have very little interaction with other people patiently sticking to the 20 limit precisely because they won't be going past you or trying to get past you.

I often find that when I stop for a bus pulling out 5 people undertake me to overtake it.

@Greenbank ^^ Ha, good point.

I thought it was still, if not illegal then at least discouraged by the HC to overtake an indicating bus? One time in Walthamstow I saw a crappy little Corsa do exactly that, the bus scraped the side of his car and watching coppers immediately said the car driver was in the wrong.

I may well be wrong. I just have this vague recollection that the rule had been changed.

Along with the rule that it was an offence to push in a bus queue. That one definitely was removed, I remember it distinctly cos I was scandalized by it. Won't somebody think of the elderly?

I often find that when I stop for a bus pulling out 5 people undertake me to overtake it

I sometimes find that when I stop for a bus indicating to pull out I'm stuck there for a long time feeling like a chump, because it didn't mean "I'm ready to pull out now", it meant "I might want to pull out sometime in the next minute or two, so I'll stick the indicator on now to save having to wait later".

This ^^

As they were trying to pull away but a number of cyclist didn't fill like stopping so it was juts stuck, with me stuck behind it.

Yep!

I didn't ride today because I'm saving some trouble with my back.
Anyway I'd probably rather have been in some level of agony rather than enduring the 2hrs 9min journey that ensued.

Kicked off a bus in Brixton because we were so stuck in traffic > Turns out that's because the Victoria line is suspended > Can't get back on any buses because they're all too full > Walk to Stockwell and find that the station is bursting at the seams and you can't even get into the ticket hall > Search for a Boris bike and find that everyone else has already had that idea > Walk to Vauxhall to find that the Victoria line has been restored > Tube to Covent Garden > Arrive at work about half an hour late.

A pleasure!

I have a bad back and I find as long as I have enough mobility to sit on the bike, it's better than taking the bus or train every time. The commuting stress, standing, carrying a bag, dealing with cunts, it's all more painful than riding a bike.

When I moved to London from Manchester I shocked at how well behaved the majority of bus drivers are here.

Couldn't agree more.

My back was bothering me for a little, got back into doing sit-ups, back pain went away. Obviously it's not that simple for everyone, but your core supports your back, especially critical if you spend all your time hunched over handlebars. Worth a try at least...