This morning's commute and other commuting stories

So sorry to hear that dude. I know how crashing can really take a knock on riding confidence (with or without an engine). That guy sounds like an utter utter cunt.

I saw a chaingang of 3 cyclists on Loampit vale going uphill jumping all lights, the leader had a titanium Serotta so he might be 'on here' if not I hope he reads this: You are a cunt and I hope @Brave kidney punches you some day.

Sorry to hear that mayn, that truly sucks...im going to see plenty of people do this for no extra benefit they're still fcuking slow

"my apple watch is fucked".

guilty lol, soz.

I had a proper ding dong with some twat from Gruppo Sportivo Greenwich last weekend. Jumping every set of lights he could resplendent in his naff kit. He was 'stuck' at one set of lights and I asked him why he had to jump them all (bad name for us all, you're in club kit, it's the law etc. etc.). He just said it was safer.... er, ok..

I called him a prick and considered administering kidney punch..

He just said it was safer....

I have direct evidence to contradict this.

Fucking selfish cunts. I only take a bit of the Blackfriars road segregated bike path but easily come across at least 3 per day on average.

Imagine how horrible drivers/fathers/lovers/sons/daughters/mothers they are!

I really hope you can bounce back from this, i don't know you but i'm sure others that do on here can help you get back out there. I know accountability is a hot topic on here but at some point i hope we get past coming on here to call people cunts and these people are "encouraged" to change their ways to not keep fucking over good folk.

In other news i rode home with a fairly long fork steerer poking out the top of my bag yesterday and NO ONE came near me, even when track standing at lights every other cyclist sat behind me, just saying...

Sorry to hear that. People these days seem to have no conception that their actions have consequences. Selfish cockwombles.

Christ Soul. That's just such a bad outcome from one idiots decision to make a 'safe' transgression (in his head) into a major arse ache. And knee. And wallet. To those total knob heads who red light jump hear this. I don't want you deciding what's safe for me, my ageing mother, my kids, my wife and all those other people out there who cross roads at crossings. If you're the kind of person who jumps red lights you're not fit to think for yourself let alone others. We decided a long time ago that for everyone's safety red means stop and green means go...when its safe to do so. If you're in a hurry to get to work get your arse out of bed earlier. If you're in a hurry to get home phone home and tell them you'll be late but will definitely be there in 1 piece. If your Strava/Garmin/fitbit tech says go.... ignore it. I have a friend who didn't. He now sucks baby food through a straw. Has done for 4 years. And he doesn't do much else.

Fuck

Hope you recover soon and it doesn't affect you long term.

This should be a sticky on the RLJ thread (well said, BTW).

Indeed and likewise. Having been subject of a quite deliberate hit and run last year in my own street I know it isn't always easy to bounce back from this sort of thing. Hoping you do.

Very sorry to hear this, Tim. Hope you recover well and can put it behind you. It sounds like something that could become a crash pattern there, although I hope I'm wrong.

Thanks all. Let's see what happens but i'm certain that i'll have to go to court with this.

@Oliver Schick - the site manager for the building site mentioned that this was the 3rd or 4th "accident" at that spot in the last couple of months. All involving cyclists skipping the lights (allegedly anyway). The most recent was a lady who skipped the same light and broke both her arms in a collision with a car.

I suspected something like that--the crossing distance looks deceptively short. Obviously, as you flag up, it's always worth getting more than an anecdotal report like this, but it seems very likely. A double arm fracture is bad. :(

Sorry to hear about the crash. I've had incidents with other cyclists where I've come off worse and then they've just fucked off :(

Not that it absolves anyone, but it's a shit bit of infrastructure with designed in conflict.

As i was stuck there for over three hours yesterday, so I did a few basic calculations (obviously not scientifically but still..).

Cyclist light (southbound):
Amber for 5.5-6 seconds before turning red
Red for 2.5-3 seconds before amber shows on my traffic light

Distance cyclist traveled from red to collision ~7m (1.5 seconds @ 12mph)

Northbound lights (mine):
Amber for 1 second before turning green (I pulled away whilst both amber and green was showing)

Distance i traveled from white line ~12m (~2 seconds though hard to calculate as i was accelerating up to 20mph)

This means that at the very minimum, i hit him 4.5 seconds after the light went red and so he went through it roughly 3 seconds after it went red and 8.5 seconds after it first went amber.

That's a massive amount of time given the cycle lane is arrow straight and there are both standard traffic lights (dedicated to the cyclist) and little lights (at eye level) which show bikes on.

Regardless of the road design, it's hard to argue he didn't make a very conscious decision to skip the light well after it turned red.

Came back to my bike after work yesterday to find two slow punctures from two minutes of CX on the way to work. Thankfully I had a pump & it was only five miles home!

Hope you heal fast, dude. And get compensated for the damage.

Oh, I have no doubt that it's the cyclist's transgression in this case, not only based on your description, but also because it's a very familiar crash pattern and expected with this sort of design. @Grand-Wizard-Goma-Sauce will know more, but I think the traffic light phasing may also change slightly depending on the time of day. I don't know how they've done those, though.

Talking of phasing - needs sorting coming onto smellypants & castle from Newington Causeway. Traffic from the London Road is consistently still coming round the bend when the cycle lights go green. Seen a few near misses (not to mention the bloke hit by a scaffolding truck a little while back).

Of course, I'm assuming its phasing. Could just be tossers jumping red lights. If so bus drivers are doing it with alarming (or wearying) regularity.

Caused a comical multi bike pile up on the cycle path stretch between Southwark station and Blackfriars bridge for having the audacity to stop for a ped on the crossing. Guy behind that shunted into me was nice enough to apologise but the guy in Vigorelli who went over his handlebars and the others that clambered over him all had plenty of nice things to say to me. I'm pretty sure that at about 12mph a 15 metre stopping distance is enough when i have my hand out in the stop position and i've already looked over my shoulder to check rider behind distances and shout stop! at them or am i asking to be called a cunt? PS if you're going to ride a Vigorelli setup as a singlespeed like a pushy twat maybe put a back brake on.

Amwell Street smells like someone has been extravagantly sick into a generous pile of horse shit this morning.

0/nostrils

Grim this morning, Northbound via oval then westminster bridge into soho.

Can't wipe front or back bottom after jumping a red light? Harsh karma