This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Nice to arrive at desk after a cold shower and not be still sweating for 20mins. Shorts and t-shirt for at least another month hopefully.

Definitely regretted trousers this am.

Warmer than I thought... Again my cycle lane was blocked it's getting worse lately. Waiting for FOI information on how many tickets actually get issued there between 0800-0930. My guess: Not many.

Post office one: Now opens at 9, not 830. Grrrrr. Post office 2 closed after "consultation" [with their own holes no doubt as it was always busy there]

End up in town...opens at 9 but not today then it opens at 0930.

FAIL! Privatisation eh?

Ah well new PB on the road to work, no headwind helps.

Autumn well and truly upon us; heard my first red deer roar this morning. The park starts to have a kind of electric energy from now through to Novemberish. All the dear, so lazy for much of the year, are suddenly up and about with the noise of the stags increasingly filling the air. It's quite a treat really.

that's nice, deer.

Also way warmer than I thought this morning.
My current commute through high st Ken and Bayswater is an absolute mind boggle. If it's not a van parked in the middle of the road unloading stuff, it's people not using roundabouts properly. Constantly feel like I'm stuck in a death trap.

so much warmer for me at 6.15 this morning, regret the softshell and leg warmers, badger i saw yesterday scuttling away i almost wacked in the dark as it lay there dead in the side of the road - shame.

Entered into friendly discussion with bus driver who pipped horn to tell me I was in the wrong place at St George's Circus. I don't think I was. Please enlighten me:

https://goo.gl/maps/EYJy2jVqXAD2

I was coming north from the Elephant up the London Road bus lane to turn left and then right onto Waterloo Road. I was right where that bus is above.

I stayed in the bus lane and waited at the traffic lights. I did not move to the cycle lane that in my opinion is intended to take you onto Blackfriars Road.

Bus driver thought I should have gone into that cycle lane on the left, and then turned hard left towards waterloo road. That would be quicker. Now, sometimes I do this, if it works with the lights (and would have this morning) but in my opinion it is less safe - I don't like going into that bike lane much anyway for two reasons:

1) buses start indicating left while still on London Road and either turn at the first bus only route onto Lambeth Road or at the second left that is the bus lane contraflow on Westminster Bridge Road that immediately crosses and turns into Waterloo Road. You can't tell which, and I've seen people do silly things and nearly get squashed by buses taking that first left. (this also applies if you're going direct onto Blackfriars)

2) cyclists following don't expect you to slow down and take a 90 degree left, even if you signal clearly etc.

Obviously the bus driver is wrong because I am allowed to be in the bus lane where she didn't want me to be, but do you think at that junction the road planners actually intend me to be there, or do they intend me to go in in the (to my mind) "blackfriars-straight-on" bike lane? Or did they not think about it?

5/10 don't know which lane I will take tomorrow.

You were in the correct place. That cycle lane is intended for people heading North to Blackfriars.

You can use it, but if you have the green light on the cycle path you will catch the second red light anyway so I just stick to how the junction was planned. I've never felt unsafe or been told otherwise.

Of course, you could just do what every other cunt does and run all the reds.

Like stevo said, there's no need to take that lane. The only time I would is when the bus lane was backed all the way up with buses. Don't take that roundabout nearly as much anymore. Personally I think it was fine before.
Instead of 1 set of lights it's normally a double sequence. At least there's a ped crossing now.

Repped by a couple of schoolkids for trackstanding like a baws.

theherothiscityneeds/10

I do this each morning - yes, you were in the correct place. Usually the ped light is green when the cycle one for Blackfriars bridge lane is also green so if you take the cycle lane and turn hard left you'll be cycling through the pedestrian crossing when peds have the green.

Splendid. I thought I was right and was genuinely confused by what she could have thought I'd done wrong. It was an actually friendly conversation though, but I wish I'd replied to her parting shot of "a lot of "you" don't seem to understand this junction". Hey ho. I will do the same tomorrow.

Have some virtual rep too. Hope there was no wobbling or inching forward to the red light then jumping it to avoid falling off.

Took the usual 'shortcut' through Southwark Park, for the fresh air rather than the time saving. Front wheel sliced through a greasy turd, probably - hopefully - a dog's. A substantial quantity of it remained on the sidewall of my tyre, distracting me as I continued my ride in: would it fly off, has some of it already flown off and stuck to me in places unseen? On quiet bits of road I carved out turns in an attempt to rub it off, without success. 3/10.

Had an argument with a bus driver that drove though a red light but was adament it was green even though it was pointing at a green light for my direction.

Also how bad is tottenham court rd station goign to be once its all un fenced and pedistrians will just cross without looking?

I used to commute through St. Georges Circus and never had a problem with it. I've just sent 15 minutes on google maps trying to suss out the new arrangement and I'm still a little mystified. So many disconnects in such a small area. I cannot see how anyone approaching it for the first time could be expected to know where they are going which is surely a major failure in the planning.

And who is this arrow aimed at and what is it asking them to do?

https://goo.gl/maps/USJnNTrFj8t

"Dear cyclist: The fact that you've just bunny-hopped off the cobbled centre section of the roundabout clearly shows that you haven't got a fucking clue where you're going. Might we suggest turning sharply right? It's really nice down there."

...shaping up for a 40mph tailwind tonight...

Not sure these guys have it figured out either...

https://goo.gl/maps/TtqxKigxJY12

First ever commute with cleats today. Fitted them last night and practiced on the street outside my house. Damn, the extra power you can generate is insane, and they really aren't as hard to clip in/out as people generally made out (perhaps cos I'm a complete novice and haven't had any problems with them yet). Made no difference on the time really, cos in london you are limited by the traffic lights not your legs, but enjoyable nonetheless. Definitely going to be good on the longer rides/dashes to the lights before they turn!

It's normally a few rides in when you forget to clip out as you've stopped concentrating. Always entertaining.

I'll look forward to that then :D haha.

It's a big floor in TFL's 'route based' approach to segregation. St Georges is a decent site for a dutchy style roundabout that is obvious enough to use. But they aren't DfT approved so we have a 'my first bike route' result that gets itself in knots.

As for that arrow, fuck knows, shurely a mistake?

the most dangerous bit around there is at the other (E&C) end of London road going South. We have an ASL box in front of the left hand lane, which has a dotted cycle lane entry channel coming into the right hand side of it, i.e. up the right hand side of what has been a bus lane for most of the length of London Road. The left lane is a bus lane until 5-10 metres before the lights, when it changes into a left turn lane. Cars in the middle lane wanting to turn hard left towards borough high street have to cut across the bike lane (who is this, btw? If you want to turn left there you've made a mistake nine times from ten as you should have gone down Borough Road from St George's Circus). You have bikes who want to go counter clockwise around the faraday memorial "roundabout" encouraged to move to the front down that bike lane, and cars trying to cut across it to turn left.

The ASL box should cover all of the lanes and at least have a channel into it one lane over to the right. They want to encourage people to the bizarre segregated bike lane on the inside of the faraday "roundabout" though.

I can't link to google maps because it still seems to be showing the old road layout at that point.