This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Heading out of Regents this morning watched a fella in full length orange hi vis with the legend 'Think Safety' printed on the back in very large letters, try and go straight on by swerving round the left hand side of a left turning (and indicating) scooter.

and the orange MTB lady filtered through the traffic, overshot the white line, sat there for a few minutes, then just rode through another red light

I find this kind of RLJ'ing behaviour weird. I've seen a few people now wobble through the white line and come to a stop in the junction itself, wait a few minutes, and then set off again

RLJ thread is over there >>>>>>>>

Cycled over to bikeworks and then they guy who was going to see me was away. Got totally soaked and my camera got wet and now won't turn on but hopefully left to dry overnight can revive it.

wet/10

Left my gear hanging up in the drying room all day. Returned to it to find it exactly as piss wet as when I took it off. Wtf?! Anyway, rode home in wet kit. Not fun, but not as awful as expected either.

Windy af this AM! First time in a long time riding clipless. Disconcerting/10

we've had a 3 day hurricane on the south coast, it can fuck off now, I'm bored of it

Watched the weather forecast on BbC news this morning. They said the word cold about a million times. Put a shell on. Drowned in my own sweat.

Probably because they've been sent to Salford now (except for the ones who threw hissy-fits/moved to ITV). It's always cold 'oop-north'...

Fulham road is becoming ever more perma-clusterfucked the more I ride it. There was a traffic jam pretty much from Fulham Broadway to SKen today.

I rode past an accident, but hopefully it wasn't too bad. Motorcyclist had been taken out at a crossroads (his priority; I imagine he filtered as someone else flashed a waiting car to cross the road). Didn't look like it could have been too high speed but the car involved looked pretty totalled. It did make me reflect that this exact situation has nearly happened to me at that spot a number of times - so many drivers volunteer priority trying to be nice but forget to check their mirrors. No idea who is at fault in the situation, but one to think about.

Next to 'stupidity' and 'impatience', I think kindness is probably a root cause of many accidents, no matter how well-intentioned.

I've definitely had people be impatient when letting me out (this is driving, not riding) or in some way volunteering priority, as if it's an insult to them that i'd wait and check that it really is clear rather than just taking their word for it.

The driver flashing lights has no duty of care (this has been tested in court) so they're aren't liable in the legal sense. Personally I'd only give them any amount of blame if they did it maliciously. You've no idea whether a flash of the lights means "Please go, it's all safe" or "I'll wait for you to go out but please make sure you look for other people first."

It's up to the driver pulling across to check for oncoming traffic rather than blindly trusting the invitation of someone else.

It's also up the rider to be careful filtering past junctions where this kind of thing will happen.

Both are partially to blame, without any further details it's impossible to say whether it was 50:50 or more towards one party than the other.

Had a chuckle with friendly van driver in Brixton when I alley-catted into the space between him and the bus in the right lane and found a distinct lack of room. How we laughed as I bumped along the bus when it pulled forward.

Yep to all this.

Was riding down Chelsea Embankment this morning, Tipper style Transit van ahead and to the right. He decides to flash another transit coming the other way turning right into Cheyne Walk across us both. The turning Transit absolutely lept across the road, no checking at all. I was far enough back that it wasn't that close, but anyone could have been lurking further up in the lee of the Tipper van. Gave me a cold chill thinking about if i'd been a couple of seconds further up the road...

Had the great You Should Pay Road Tax chucklefest with a guy doing the knowledge on Borough High St this am. Turned pretty chummy by the end. He seemed slightly receptive to my assertion that air quality us a public health emergency, maybe he'll take that on board when he gets his wheels.

hoping/10

They told me commuting in a lower gear would be more fun. I didn't realise how much fun. The drop from 46/16 to 42/16 was incredible- that was some brutal acceleration.

10/10 Would consider the motion of the pedals over the size of the gear again.

1+ you spend more time starting and stopping in London than you do riding.

Absolutely. I suspect it helped that I've spent 18 months grinding out the same route in a higher gear - my legs thought Christmas had come early.

New commute from Camberwell to near the Tate (short ride, I know) but today was my second shot and I'm yet to get E&C right.

It used to be a simple roundabout and now it's a mess.

i really don't see what the fuss is all about. there's a nifty set of clearly marked backroads in that get you from E&C kennington to southwark bridge with a minimum amount of bother. The Cycle lanes that cut through E&C are also pretty well laid out and minimise your contact with potential danger relatively well. Or is this a VC issue in which case i'm out.

Still enjoying the lack of taffic on the way into work. Getting alo9t of PB's on strava where im usually held up. Pretty keen to try and crack the 21min mark from Mile end to Soho but could be a challenge.

On a side note I watched a guy RLJ all the way from Bethnal Green to Tottenham court road yet I was only just behind him the whole way. Just goes to show it doesn't actually help with getting to work quicker.

Oh it's half term. Hardly a car to speak of in Kentish town this morning.

I agree, except the cycle box on London Road to Elephant and Castle next to the old tube station where drivers always tried to turn into cyclists going straight ahead.

And the cycle lane end right before the bus stop, cue people getting stucked/almost squashed by buses coming into the stop as they exit the cycle lane (on Borough High Street and Southbound Newington Butt).

Even with that, it's still an improvement.