This morning's commute and other commuting stories

That'll be a Road.cc article in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

I'm always faintly ashamed that my car has a 'Cyclists Stay Awesome' sticker because if you look carefully it has roadcc at the bottom.

Anyway didn't we invent that?!

I'd say that was a matter of taste.

Oh shit, I'm turning into @Oliver Schick

Er? That misplaced comma doesn't make the follow-up make sense. :)

I like Moultons, too, although I've never ridden one.

What's the tweet link?

I ride exactly like you except not on that cycle path in the first part of the videos.

Are a few dozen as people hit like on videos then that gets retweeted and liked and stuff. Have a look down my thing are a few.

https://twitter.com/ClockwiseCyclin

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, there are indeed cunts, cunts everywhere. Some of them in police uniform. And sounding like a Poundshop Ray Winstone.

Watching videos of cycling in london makes me realise how sweet we have it out here in the pastoral idyll of Bristol. The police all drive John Deers, which are pretty easy to out-pace.

That's pretty severe policing.
We've got a nasty sheriff, who rides around on horseback, pontificating a fair bit but mostly concerned with continuing his corrupt rule.
Him and his gang are mostly concerned with some nut in a hood with a bow and arrow, so you pretty much don't have to worry much about police involvement in cycling around Nottingham.

@Skülly I had one of those on the back of my Vespa until a colleague said that he saw me out and about and assumed that it was a "cyclists stay back" sticker. Now have one on the inside of my glove box instead, where it can never be seen, for some reason.

I try to always be nice to cyclists when out riding it: I dish out free motor-pacing sessions to anyone who jumps on the back (sorry about all the 2T fumes...)

I cut mine off the bottom before I stuck mine.

@Sparky when Edmundro had to drive a truck for his job (very good driver), he used to wear a Cinelli cap if any cyclists had beef. Often he's call people out for the undertaking at the lights.

@Clockwise did you indicate when you pulled out? I'm guessing you did a shoulder check.

I reckon I'm seeing a near miss of varying severity between a cyclist and an HGV almost every day on my commute from SE1 to SW10. So many pinch points on Chelsea Embankment. Nasty little one on south side of Lambeth Bridge too. Really innocuous piece of road where a lorry turning left can suddenly eat up all the space up to the kerb.

Its really starting to freak me out. I don't want to see somebody go under the wheels of a lorry.

did you indicate when you pulled out? I'm guessing you did a shoulder check.

Bit amusing as he is a cycling instructor!

In @Clockwise's defense, that particular section where the police driver close up upon him can be tricky as it have a bit of a pinch point and no road marking, the road doesn't curve gradually into Kennington Road like most junctions in long (traffic smoothing bullshit), but at a direct angle. which can result in drivers trying to shoehorn their way through.

Too many close calls the last couple of days, one of which almost resulted in very serious injury. I don't often feel like a vulnerable road user when I'm on my bike but maybe I need to reassess that.

Stopped to let ex Liberal/Lib Dem leader Lord Steel cross the road at the zebra crossing outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday evening. He said thanks. Decent chap. Had it been Nick Clegg, I wouldn't have bothered stopping.....

http://road.cc/content/news/187001-police-pull-cyclist-over-not-using-cycle-superhighway

I'm curious: what does the law say about crossing the solid white line between the superhighway and the rest of the road?

IIRC the continuous white line is an instruction to drivers only, a mandatory cycle lane means drivers can't use it, not that cyclists must.

I'm curious: what does the law say about crossing the solid white line between the superhighway and the rest of the road?

Only prevents motor vehicles from crossing the white line to enter the lane. Says nothing about stopping cycles from exiting the lane.

HWC Rule 140:-
"
Cycle lanes. These are shown by road markings and signs. You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation.
"

I maintain that Clockwise probably should have not told the old bill to calm down and none of that would have happened. It's really easy to see why cyclists filtering all over the place pisses drivers off. There's no clue whether there was a signal or shoulder check and Clockwise has declined to comment.

@squabs just because he's a cycling instructor doesn't mean he rode in an exemplary fashion. Racing the police car across the junction was a bit lame. In fact I'd say it's a sorry little episode and he looks like a pratt for posting this 'film' on youtube. 'can I ride on the highway? Can I ride on the highway' while he's already fucked offback to his car ... sad.

It's really easy to see why cyclists filtering all over the place pisses drivers off.

the only sort of drivers this behavior will piss off are ones unfamiliar with how to drive around vulnerable road users.

The copper didn't handle it well and sought refuge in that lame folder-producing bit of posturing theater.

Yeah, got myself in that situation this morning. Seen it happy many a time before, but in this case the lorry (not an artic) was sitting there on the corner with a gap ahead of it, apparently waiting for the stream of cyclists moving up the inside of it to pass. Normally I'd wait, but today thought I'd sneak through. I guess that was the moment the driver decided to look up from his newspaper or phone or something and moved forward. I still had enough room to get through, but should've held back really. It's a big high kerb there as well.

Similar bit of road at the North end of Lambeth Bridge too onto the roundabout, with the addition of the pedestrian crossing there, so you can end up stuck next to something big that wants to turn left without a great deal of warning. I tend to always hang back there until it's clear but I see a lot of people go up the left of buses, lorries etc there.

Cyclists signal not indicate, I was signalling right for lots of the time until I stopped pulling out and then again to changing lane.

Crazy number of shoulder checks.

Somehow I was distracted I'll admit I didn't signal left when I pulled over...

Yeah, guessed so, most people on here know the score. Blind copper is blind. I thought you were going to ask for his badge number and shift hours, they love it when you do that.