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NurseHolliday
@jono84
For what it's worth I use the cycle lane between St George's circus up to Farringdon st and have experienced nearly every outcome of using/not using the "optional" bike lanes.
At first i couldn't stand it and went back to using the road which as others have described went down like a shit sandwich. So i went back to the lanes and spent the next few weeks narrowly avoiding peds that haven't figured out how to walk/stop yet. My irritation then moved onto to the Rugby short mafia smashing it on their reflectored bikes endlessly moving into the opposite lane and cutting people up to get to rowing practise as fast as possible.
But recently i have found my zen on the cycle paths and basically go as fast/slow as common sense permits and it's fucking great. Timing my rides i've found a slow section on the lanes rarely changes my commute time as i save some gas for the fast road sections.
I've seen the state of the west london lanes and the infamous Aussie in a gimp jacket yelling at a cyclist for not using the lanes and personally i wouldn't use them either. But for the new areas and i'm sure many would disagree i do feel obliged to make use of them. There's so much shit feeling on the road between all users its seems like a small ask to help quash some of that beef.