Tube strike, London

I saw some pretty shocking RLJ'ing from motorists yesterday so fair enough that a few cyclists had a crack.

I too get the impression that RLJers are often people who have got it in their head that 'it's what you do as a cyclist', and that belief is strong with newer cyclists. Most experienced cyclists don't actually bother RLJing would be my (highly subjective) impression.

the proportion of cyclists RLJing has reduced

yes with mass cycling come changes...

The proportion of helmet wearers is up
The proportion of right filtering cyclists is up
The proportion of fixie skidderz is down
The proportion of universal/apollo mtbs is down
The proportion of day glo wears is up
and general cycle skills have improved
#notscientific

I'm struggling to work out which of these are benefits...Is it a trick question?

2 & 6 are benefits

I'm glad it's not just me feeling that way.

I think the next big hurdle for cycling numbers is getting bikes back onto trains as a normal sight so those who live further away won't see it as drive door-door or train+tube but train+ride. That or decent bike parking with cctv/security at the more major stations.

Hope the next tube strike is on a day with good weather, more likely to convert people.

Getting bikes back onto trains is going to be challenging, when most of the train operators in London forbid you from taking unfolded ones on trains during rush hour.

Had a conversation with a colleague yesterday who was late into work owing to tube/train problems. He lives in Earlsfield, and the office is in Green Park - 6 miles away. A perfect cycle commuting distance. He doesn't see the point in biking though as:
'It's too dangerous'
'It's usually quicker by train/tube'
'I'd have to spend £800 on a Brompton, as I couldn't fit a full sized bike in my flat'
'I go out at the weekends in London, so I might as well just get a travelcard'
'I also have to work out of our City office, which is 9 miles from home'
'There's a big hill that I'd have to ride up'

All reasonably valid points for someone who's not used to cycling.....

I used to live in Earlsfield, as its annexed by Clapham its full of cunts.

I think we're a long way from getting bikes onto trains, we're still a way from getting all the people on the trains in rush hour. There are too many limitations in terms of platform length on a lot of the commuter routes to enable an extra carriage and the timetables are too tight to allow any solution that takes time to load/unload bikes.

Decent bike parking is more likely, but easier would be more people riding crap bikes that aren't worth stealing (although I understand why people don't want to do this).

what sort of selfish arsehole expects to take their bike onto a packed rush hour train?

'It's too dangerous' - You will die younger through lack of exercise
'It's usually quicker by train/tube' - Cycle quicker
'I'd have to spend £800 on a Brompton, as I couldn't fit a full sized bike in my flat' - Dahon uno folder is £300.
'I go out at the weekends in London, so I might as well just get a travelcard' - Cycle instead.
'I also have to work out of our City office, which is 9 miles from home' - Cycle a bit and tube the last bit.
'There's a big hill that I'd have to ride up' - You can go around the hill at Earlsfield. Head down Garret Lane to Wandsworth, then head east via a route of your choosing. The river via Battersea Park is lovely. Not much further than the direct route over the hill.

I find at the moment cycling is seen as very all or nothing by the majority of people. A fair number of the statements you just posted seem to agree once you bike to one place you must then bike to all the places so they can't bike to that 6 mile away office and then take public transport the other days. Get them to fair weather cycle in the spring and you can break them.

I think our central trains being in meltdown is another sign of our roads being full of cars. Buses aren't able to move people as efficiently as needed so people are using trains more even for shorter journeys where a buses should make sense. Trains from further away are fucked for other reasons, the platform length comments(on the clapham junction-balham-croydon-brighton route I live on) tend to ignore that the timetables are dictated around the use of shared tracks at clapham junction, they could run 3 times as many trains to/from stations before that without the conflict but insist on running end to end on every train line. From what train working friends have told me we have bits like that dotted about London that basically disrupt service for 100miles. The way the operators are negotiated also leaves no room for improvement and it's worthwhile for them to keep the to the same and just bump ticket price 5% a year.