This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Motorcyclist using cycle lane to get to ASL...well, meh, nobody was in the lane, still not good.

Followed by a cyclist who has right of way nearly getting hit by a motorist...I have the number plate and asked on Facebook, may ring the PSNI (it was in Belfast) about this, I was in the car and cyclist went on before I could stop and shout if they wanted me to be a witness.

first morning commute in months and #bellendapocalypse

Harleyford road closed by police around the back of the Oval. No clue what happened. Anyone know?

Schools off and places shut from 1ish yesterday due to some wind. Tail wind and very little traffic made the cycle in super easy...not looking forward to the commute home if its a head wind

this morning i forgot a change of underwear. i am sporting some tri shorts under my suit

it should save minutes off my T2 back to cycling gear later - would definitely do it again

I also wondered this, was carnage round there this morning.

EDIT: Looked on twitter.

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Nearly taken out by a moped who parked up in the Toulouse Lautrec ASL and then sliced across me to get round a truck when the lights went. Will report. Unrelated to earlier unconfirmed sharting incident.

News were reporting someone on a roof.

lambeth walk has been closed for two days now.

saw a lady cycling along to the closed bit today, she realised it was blocked off by police tape and tried to do a u-turn too quickly and fell off her bike

Was in Amsterdam for first time this weekend.

Loved the city, hated riding around it.

It's like the most obnoxious clueless idiots on bikes from my cs7 commutes have been given the keys to the city. Everyone just acts like massive twats and then get pissed off if they're held up for even a brief second. Every interaction between cyclists i saw was one born of aggression, mostly from some idiot riding with their phone in their hand while texting.

then there's the cycle lanes, is it one way/two way? who knows! should you be riding through this junction right now? we're not telling, maybe you go with the pedestrian light, maybe there's a cycle light as well, oh there's nothing, should cars give way to you? probably, but there's no way of telling because it's 50/50 they'll still try to drive around you as you are moving forwards through the junction.

as for turning left. might as well make up your own mind how you want to do it because every fucking junction is different.

You know what would be a really good idea to mix in with all the slow cyclists? that's right! mopeds doing 25mph in the cycle lane, but not only that let's have them act even more entitled to make progress than the cyclists so they constantly tailgate, rev and beep their horns at everyone.

Think I'd rather stick to acting like proper traffic than a pedestrian thanks.

I had a similar experience in Leiden. And when I bailed on the cycle lanes and rose on the road I was told I was breaking the law.

Please don't ever let London be like that. Although I suppose if it were to triple cyclist numbers I would opt for it.

haha I was in amdam as well in the weekend. (were you marathoning or just bad timing like myself?)

I've never looked left and right so many times while trying to cross the road in my life! I asked my friend that lives there how its works and he laughed and said they are supposed to stop but they don't.

Worst problem was when a car would stop and you go to cross and everyone else doesn't and you have to run for your life. haha

Re: turning left - last time I was in Copenhagen I came up on a junction and out of habit just slowed waiting for a gap to turn across it. Everyone went fucking mental and I was told you're supposed to do a hook turn and wait in front of the traffic to your right and go with that. I swear I've seen signs advising that on some junctions in Amsterdam too. Seems way more dangerous to me in that you'll potentially get flattened by traffic turning right.

Even at my weight I'd rather take my chances with a bike than a car.

#hippyisfat

had a spot in the half but ended up cheering instead.

Running is waaay to much effort for me.

Have been locking up my new bike in the garage at work - but the tyres are too fat to fit in the racks provided. Instead, I've been locking the bike to a railing next to the rack, still in our company's area of the garage and well out of the way of anything else going on down there.

One of our facilities guys told me today that the bikes need to be in the racks, and that I need to try racking it properly and let him know the outcome (I told a little white lie and said I'm not sure it fits...).

I've got a horrible feeling that once it's established that the bike doesn't fit, I'll be told I can't use the cycle parking facilities... what can I do (if anything) if that happens?

Sidenote: isn't the design of those racks really naff? You can't lock the frame to the rack - the vast majority of locks don't reach - so you have to lock the back wheel to the rack, and then stick another lock around the back wheel and the frame if you actually want to secure the bike. It's within a garage accessed by employees only, but still...

There's a crossroads in southampton which your supposed to do that on. I've only been through it once, I got off and walked.

You can't lock the frame to the rack - the vast majority of locks don't reach - so you have to lock the back wheel to the rack, and then stick another lock around the back wheel and the frame if you actually want to secure the bike. It's within a garage accessed by employees only, but still...

We have about 50:50 of Sheffield stands and similarly shit racks that only fit tyres up to 35mm or so. Unsurprisingly the Sheffield stands tend to fill up first.

I leave a d-lock and kryptoflex cable at work so if I have to use the shit racks I lock the frame/rear-wheel with the d-lock and with the kryptoflex cable through the front wheel and round the rack (and into the d-lock). Not ideal but the best I can do in that case.

Despite being in a cage partly down the loading bay of the building there are still theft attempts. They recently took an angle grinder to the door of the cage and got 3/4 of the way through it before being chased off by security.

Happened to me in Berlin. Pootling along on a hire bike and a bloke coming from my right went ballistic and started yelling at me in Berlin talk. Afterwards I racked my brain what I'd done wrong, I think I was supposed to yield to the right or something. He was furious.

We've got exclusively shit racks...

And when I bailed on the cycle lanes and rose on the road I was told I was breaking the law.

Yes, you can't rise on the road, you need a runway for that. :)

They were right, though. That cycling is banned in the carriageway where there is a cycle path is one of the less well-publicised facts about the Netherlands. Now, in theory, the path should be reasonably close to the road, go in the direction you want to go in, etc., but I've heard plenty of stories from people who were forced off the carriageway even where they were then put at inconvenience.

Also, "leiden" is the German word for 'to suffer'. It's pronounced differently than the Dutch place name, though.

You may have been in a situation where the rule is 'right before left'. In many areas, little give-way lines have been painted, but as far as I can work out, these are effectively only designed to show where a junction is if the side street is badly visible to approaching traffic. When I was growing up there were no road markings at junctions of minor streets that indicated priority at all, the only rule being that you had to give way to traffic from the right. That rule is still in force. Priority is only indicated by signage and markings at junctions of minor streets with more major streets, e.g. the 'give way' triangle that's painted in the carriageway in Britain is usually a sign in Germany. (They are taking over more of the British stuff, though, most annoyingly roundabouts. Every bloody village now seems to want one.)

It's an utterly nonsensical system, yes.

then there's the cycle lanes, is it one way/two way? who knows!

Had this happen in Rotterdam, riding along a 2-way path that at some point became a 1-way. Realised suddenly everyone was riding towards me and I was getting dirty looks so had to bail across the road. R'dam was the nicest city centre to ride through though, lots of space and modern infrastructure and less bike traffic. Utrecht was way busier and worse laid out but generally civil and orderly. Amsterdam looked like a clusterfuck but I didn't ride much in the centre, left my bike on the outskirts and spent the day on foot/tram.