This morning's commute and other commuting stories

I saw the bike ninja with the hotpants today.
(caad2, tt bars, ss, slow, face mask?)
Fortunately, he had full shorts on.

Full-on, 100%, Malibu advert total gridlock in Bushey this evening. I was the only thing moving for a kilometre. Beautiful.

When the Belfast police on the pushbikes try to use the cycle lane...which they can't cos it's full of cars.

Instead of fining everyone for moving left before the lane ends (to get to the traffic lights turning left) they just went "meh" and on the kerb.

took us nearly a full two hours to get from notting hill to #wn4l yesterday afternoon.

take the car! i said. It's sunday and it'll be far less hassle than public transport! i said.

i never learn. twat.

i never learn. twat.

Did you really not notice Black Friday?

Got an Uber home from Finsbury Park to #un4l on Saturday night/Sunday morning around 1am. An hour and a half. Had a nice kip though, if a bit pricey.

A.B.C

Always
Be
Cycling!

Just moved house;
Which is great but my daily 24mile round trip commute which i was comfortable with and love has now become a 34 mile slog.
Is this to far or will i get used to it?
Im riding with gears and drinking water, hints or tips welcome.

Find a café at mile seven to ten and get an espresso. Preferably somewhere with a nice view.

Splits the journey in two, with things to look forward to.

Generally breaking rides down into the next target works.

I had the closest of mear misses last night. Clocked a car approaching from the left along a side road, but it's my right of way, I've got a good front light and they're slowing so everything's cool except ohshittheyarestillgoingFUCK! They just sailed on out into the road. If my pannier had been on the other side of the rack I'm pretty sure there would have been contact and I'd have been T-boned. I have no idea how I managed to avoid them, but how the fuck they didn't see me I don't know. I checked straight after and my front light was still switched on - obviously it was, I only charged the batteries earlier that day.

Got the adrenaline going and the swear words flowing.

This morning was much more pleasant, saw 3 little egrets and 2 big dogs.

Fuckers.

(I had similar a few weeks ago, light on, car goes for it anyway. I suspect it's hard to estimate distance / speed of cyclists for motorist with just a bright dot identifying the cyclist but it's really no excuse to not slow down/be extra careful)

You'll get used to it, it takes about 3 days for your legs to not hurt all the time, but prepare to be really tired for a couple of weeks.

I reckon cyclist's front lights can be lost in the glare of car headlights behind. I notice that cyclists are particularly tricky to spot if they have their front light on steady for some reason. Not an excuse though as JWestland said.

Almost got taken out by a lady in her massive 4x4 as I tried to exit a roundabout going right. Half way round when I notice her, thought she would stop, nope she sped up a little and blast her way through, good job I stopped and didn't try and make the turn else she would have hit me. Nice that she smiled at me as she went past while on here phone.

Also had to laugh rolling slowly towards the superhighway bit from Brixton Rd seem to get caught up in some racing between two hi-viz warriors who were determine to race to the lights.

Will pootle again

Aw, seeing all the little kids on their parent's bikes waving and greeting each other as they were cycled to school was beautiful in the grey drizzle in Stokey. Then, while waiting at some lights, I had a nice chat with a dog sitting in the passenger seat of a van with the window down - it's owner translated for us. We bonded - it was beautiful too.

Ride home will probably be terrible, just to balance it all out.

I reckon cyclist's front lights can be lost in the glare of car headlights behind. I notice that cyclists are particularly tricky to spot if they have their front light on steady for some reason. Not an excuse though as JWestland said.

I don't drive often, especially when dark, but needed to last night and it was horrible. I could barely see a thing due to being so blinded by car headlights, especially newer cars with halogen bulbs - It was ridiculous. I bet it's no more dangerous if everyone instead drove with their parking lights on.

Maybe I just need to clean my windscreen...?

Don't take this the wrong way - and I agree that modern headlights are ridiculously overpowered - but have you had a recent eye test?

I'd thought my vision was absolutely fine but had an eye test through work, which showed a slight amount of shortsightedness, the result of which was that my eyes were trying to focus on the glare of headlights on a wet windscreen instead of further afield. One pair of weak spectacles, which I just use for driving, later and driving in the dark and rain is a lot less stressful and tiring.

But yes it could also just be your filthy car ;)

Then, while waiting at some lights, I had a nice chat with a dog sitting in the passenger seat of a van with the window down - its owner translated for us. We bonded - it was beautiful too.

Wonderful.

I find driving at night harder (and yes, my eyes were tested) as you see dots of contrast (lights) and that's where your brain focuses, it's harder to estimate depth/speed.

It's OK on a well lit road/lights pointing down, but a blinder of a car light/captain dashboard right in your eyes can really put you off slightly. Of course the solution is to be very careful.

Which then leads to a honk for not jumping out of a side road and checking again. Can't win ;)

Lots of drivers think it is easier to drive at night, they can see less, so what they can see is easier to process (superficially), so they drive faster. Logically, they will believe that anything that needs to be avoided has great big lights on it (great big lights that will spill and reflect off houses, trees, the road and other cars - this even allows them to see round corners). The high contrast diminishes the amount of information that can be easily gleaned from the position and movement of other vehicles to whether they are basically there or not, unlit objects become too much effort to worry about so in their perception there is less to consider and these drivers' decision processes become much quicker. Less information - worse decisions - more quickly made. It's a particular problem on country roads and in bad weather and vulnerable road users get the worst of it. Driving in poorer visibility should be harder work but then some people reach cognitive overload turning a steering wheel unexpectedly.

I was absolutely creamed once by a driver accelerating to make the gap between the two vehicles whose headlights he could see coming down the hill towards him. Not a lot you can do when someone is effectively aiming at you. I now recognise following a car at a safe distance with another car holding back to follow me as being high risk and try to shield myself more with the first car.

Lots of drivers think it is easier to drive at night, they can see less, so what they can see is easier to process (superficially), so they drive faster.

Isn't that mostly due to less people/police driving vehicles allowing them to break the law?

Yes, lack of enforcement and social anonymity play a huge role in speeding and the cognitive issues I mentioned only modify the degree to which drivers speed.
An illustration of what I'm talking about would be a driver encountering a sharpish bend on a country road, during daylight hours they might consider 35mph as reasonable as they can't see round the corner. At night they can 'see' that there is no oncoming traffic and take the bend faster. Or emerging from a side road in town a driver uses the glare of headlights through the windows of a parked car to locate the nearest oncoming vehicle and decides to go. Over all the driver would be using poor observation in worse conditions to reach a potentially wrong decision sooner. I think that's a factor in why people in London drive more homicidally in bad weather.

I Clipped a Black cabs wing mirror with either jacket or bag (as didn't feel it) when filtering towards red light at Holborn around 11pm. Driver had a bit of a go for me not waving a hand in apology whilst waiting at next set of reds in Angel; I apologised and had a little chat, he asked me what my comfortable cruising speed was, then he towed me from Angel to Finsbury Park. Loads of fun and faith in motorists restored!

Double puncture shittery.