This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Saw a guy decide to run across a junction (on red) onto Wigmore Street then fail spectacularly at his attempted cyclocross re-mount. Made all the sweeter by the light turning green halfway through his jogging!

Man I didn't think it was that bad today with the tube strike, how wrong was I?

It wasn't so bad until I got into the inner city where load of pedestrians were queuing for buses, so much so that they were queuing on the main road.

But worst of all were the amount of cyclist on the road, especially around Blackfriars and embankment where there was just numerous cyclist just RJL and ignoring basic common sense on the road.

Meh! Going to have a good long coffee and pretend this day never happened and hopes the week gets better.

2/10

I <3 tube strikes

it is madness

Seriously RLJing is OK on strike days.

Mad to see how many masochists decided to drive in - still nose to tail by the time I got out to Stratford. Interesting to see where they'll all park. And what happens when they all leave central at more or less the same time.

And pavements. They're, like, legit.

Utter garbage today.

packed bus did an emergency stop, one passenger with a busted arm, another with a smashed nose. walked to south bank from brixton. quite pleasant despite the earlier claret.

Anyone else come across the UberU move?

Without signal or noise Toyota Prius in long term stationary traffic performs the first step of a 3 point turn in the hopeless hope that somehow a gap will appear enabling completion of steps 2 and 3. So Mr Uber. How's the view from the opposite lane? See any cyclists?

It definitely felt like drive to work day today. My commute wasn't much worse than normal, but some extreme filtering did take place and it was annoying because as soon as there was a bit of open road, drivers would drive like maniacs because they'd been waiting at junctions for so long.

Was proper chaos through the city at 07:45.

Quite enjoyed it. Only shouted twice in 20k.

WorkingonZen/10

Usually the strikelists appear on rusty chained shed fillers, seemed to me that the weapons of choice today were implausibly clean with box-fresh rubber. I'm guessing santa did a lot of shopping at Halfords this year.

First ride in for months upon months following a bad back and general laziness.

Fine from a fitness point of view because I rarely made 50 yards without having to stop, mentally draining though. It was bloody warm though, tights were definitely a mistake.

Nice to see a variety of old red and green routemasters with conductors who looked like they were enjoying themselves, not so much fun with the nose to tail queues in the bus lanes as they all filled up with passengers. It was pretty much a ride of filtering followed by finding the occasional clear stretch of bus lane.

Even the quiet stretch that I normally nip down was nose to tail (including somehow managing to get a lairy BMW in front and behind me).

Interesting to see how few cyclists opted to filter down the right hand side of traffic, squeezing in between two traffic lanes seemed the favourite.

On the upside, it forced me to get back on the bike and I'll probably keep that going now.

Witnessed some terrifying manoeuvres from cyclists today.

Several times I was waiting patiently behind two massive vehicles, watching an already tiny gap dwindle to nothing, only for some bellend in football shorts to undertake me and dive through it, like that scene from Independence Day when they're escaping the alien mothership.

Ah well, hopefully they'll survive long enough to cycle more and gain some common sense.

it's incredible, so many people pulling out from being stuck in another lane, not just without signalling but without even looking themselves if there was oncoming traffic! insane

The traffic on Mackenzie Road was chocka block from 7 to 11, then it disappeared... With the rain and the dark the commute home should be fun for those participating.

@Olly398 yep. Srsly. Ride wherever the fuck you like. Not being a twat. If that means on footways that are wide and empty, whilst roads are narrow and clogged with parked motors choking themselves to death, I'm all for it.

Maybe you thought I was being ironic about RLJ? Nope. I've totally come out the other side on this. Do whatever makes things better and safer (whilst not being a cunt obvs), which to me means traffic signals are advisory.

I hasten to add I'm 'working from home' today. I have no idea of the general fuckwittery going on out there today.

Hmm. The 'not being a twat' bit is a fine line though. The circumstances you mention as acceptable rarely seem to occur on my route (mainly CS7, CS3, yes I know). Seeing daily occurrences of pavement abuse to get to the front of the bike pack.

And it's carnage today!!!!! Fuckwittery both general and fairly niche are rampant.

Fair enough.

OKR often has moments where I just feel like I have a perfect right to use the footways. There's no one walking there, the traffic's fucking horrendous, there's no cycle provision (AT ALL) and I just want to be there.

Spent about 3 minutes on a nose-to-tail Hackney Road and decided to plump for the considerably longer quiet route. Discovered Columbia Rd has been pleasantly resurfaced in a cycle-friendly way and that the one-way I always used to bike-salmon now has an official cyclist contraflow lane. Hardly had to deal with any cars in the end. 5/7 would quietway again.

Now I really want to go out and ride! Can someone give me a hint on the current Bike Tag?

Discovered Columbia Rd has been pleasantly resurfaced in a cycle-friendly way and that the one-way I always used to bike-salmon now has an official cyclist contraflow lane.

Cycling in that part of the world is so good. SE London is in the fucking dark ages by comparison.