This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Plenty of bikes on the road but probably even more singlularly occupied cars going fucking nowhere. I don't think I saw one vehicle with more than 2 wheels move forward the whole way from Clodharbour Lane to Blackfriars. What the fuck were they thinking driving in today.

Also I can count 10 people out of about 120

Check you've still got your wallet and other valuables.

Since it's illegal to ride a bicycle on the pavement, then getting off and pushing it would be legal, no?

"Propelling a bike" on the pavement is not, per se, illegal.

Riding a bike is a form of propelling it. So is pushing it.

But pushing a bike along the pavement is not illegal. The offence is riding it on the pavement.

Fred is a dog, not all dogs are Fred.

Boris Bike station outside the office, Soho Square. Must be 500+ bikes. The tfl guys are having to dock them to end people's journeys, then manually undock them and tie them all together. Madness.

Thats a lot of bikes. So they will spend the day ferrying them back out to outlying empty stations and the night bringing them back into central ?
Will there be a chaos over who gets a bike to ride home on tonight ?

Same, commute was no better or worse than it usually is. Only thing that made it seem a bit different was some car blockage in Regent's Park and an odd lack of buses on Gower St.

Clipped a wing mirror which I took as a sign to calm it all down. From then on it was you first; you've got yourself in a bad spot there, come back out in front of me. Surprise and gratefulness from all (most) (some). Would be Jesus every day except the one when they want me to die for your sins. Undertakers though, pfft.

wut?

They're having to turn people away now.

The picking through traffic on the carriageway was fairly familiar and managable.
The junctions though...
The junctions.

Pretty much a giant traffic jam from Green Lanes to Warren St, traffic absolutely nose to tail and a shed load of buses (including a variety of old routemasters) in the bus lanes. Spent a lot of time filtering and was rewarded with the occasional point where you'd get round a load of buses to find a big empty bus lane.

Drivers were all surprisingly patient and pleasant, left big gaps to filter, had a chat with a passenger in a white van whilst stuck in traffic.

The unexpected silver lining was that I was too lazy to fix the puncture on my proper bike so rode my brompton in which is ideally suited to stop/start traffic and filtering.

Saw a lot of expensive carbon bikes with tri bars and the like with riders who'd clearly never commuted on them before which was entertaining.

I'm sure it's going to get real this evening though...

Tube strikes always have a special place in my heart because is tube strike years ago was the reason I started cycling to work.

As long as I get to celebrate by incorporating things like maximum flow© mad skidz© and mash™ on my ride home tonight I'll be a happy chappy.

So many bicycles in my way that I grudgingly slowed down this morning and it all turned out to be a gratifyingly pleasant experience. Saw things I haven't seen. Spoke to folks who I would have ignored. Didn't break sweat so still in my bike togs at my desk. Anyway no-one here to schniff my schent. Sun's out. Friday tomorrow. Got strawberries and xtra thick double cream in the office fridge. Thank you strikers.

Got strawberries and xtra thick double cream in the office fridge

#Sext

The tfl guys are having to dock them to end people's journeys,

Sorry, I don't quiet get it. Does this mean people are unable to dock their bikes and are just dumping them and leaving the'meter' running?

I've never ridden one of these so don't know the drill.

Maybe. The short answer is that no-one knows whether pushing a bicycle counts as 'propelling a vehicle' because the issue's never been decided by the courts.

True (for bicycles), but a prominent QC (who looks into lots of cycling related stuff) believes it would be. There are (unsubstantiated) comments elsewhere that there have been successful prosecutions for pushing motorbikes past stop lines in a similar manner, and I can't see how those two vehicles (motorbikes and bicycles) could be treated differently. (Crank vs Brooks could similarly be applied to someone pushing a motorbike from one side of a road to the other across a zebra crossing as that, in itself, is not illegal.)

I'd say it's perfectly arguable that walking while pushing a bicycle is not 'propelling a vehicle' since a bicycle is propelled by turning the pedals while straddling the bike, not walking alongside it.

And that's where he disagrees. The "driving or propelling a vehicle" part of s.36 of 1988 RTA is there to stop people using such loopholes to get around stop lines and red lights (by getting out and pushing, etc).

Indeed, I'd say that Crank v. Brooks is relevant in this context, as a pedestrian is not a person propelling a vehicle, but a person walking on foot, and the fact that they're wheeling a bicycle doesn't stop them from being a pedestrian, which was the dicta in Crank v. Brooks.

The CvB distinction was that a person pushing a bicycle should be considered a "foot passenger" as if they were not pushing a bicycle at all. The bicycle is/was irrelevant to the situation that CvB concerns (i.e. that a motor vehicle did not accord a "foot passenger" precedence at a zebra crossing).

The CvB ruling doesn't make the bicycle disappear when one is being pushed, it just clarified the status of the person pushing the bicycle. s.36 of 1988 RTA doesn't care about the status of the person (whether they are "foot passenger" or not), it concerns whether a vehicle is being driven or propelled past a signal.

But until (if ever) it goes to court and there's a binding precedent on the point, there's no actual answer just opinions. And opinions, as the old saying goes, are like arseholes.

Indeed.

Fignon i guess your right, if the station is full to the extent in the picture then hitting the docking station button for "help i can't park it's full" which then directs you to the nearest empty station and gives you a free 15mins to get there, i guess all the surrounding stations are full.

So if staff release bikes to open up docks then you can dock and stop your meter running, staff then manually release (or whatever they do) your bike and pile it up and keep making slots availabe so i assume all riders in the area that can't dock elsewhere will be directed to this station and now holding point by the computer system when you ask it for somewhere to park.....

Someone's put a boris bike in the cycle parking in my office this morning. Maybe because they couldn't find a docking station. I hope it won't be there all day instead of on the roads where they're needed.

Nip out in a bit and dock it for them.

Every journey is timed and doesn't 'end' until it's docked into one of the stands. The TFL staff have kept three stands free and people are having to wait to have their biked docked (so the 'meter' stops) but then they're having to remove them and pile them up.

Thanks,

I wonder if people go down with 'docking stress'...

Sounds like a nice job on a sunny summers day.

I bet those TFl boys feel like Michael Cane in Zulu.

BBC has just posted a picture from Soho Square

Had some bad news this morning. Decided to go for a bagel. Had to remind myself not to ride like an asshole.

So I ended up riding like an asshole. On the way was fine, some massive dick moves, on the way back I guess I should have been pulled over and reminded that the white van man revving behind me was probably having an equally bad day, stuck behind a dickhead cyclist who refused to accelerate from the lights, then deliberately sprinted toward stationary traffic, knowing when to filter.

Someone needs to put Kalms in my salmon&creamcheese.

(That said, totally love riding the Kuota on errands)