This morning's commute and other commuting stories

andyp

Whereabouts in Wimbledon are you? When I lived there I used to head up past Wimbledon Park station, cut through to Earlsfield and then pick up Earlsfield Road up to Clapham Junction. Once you're across Clapham Common there was a good quiet way that ran parallel with CS7 almost all the way to Oval.

The quietway actually goes all the way to Richmond Park (as LCN 3). It isn't well signposted but it is quite relaxing.

This map is more or less correct, except it doesn't show the new shortcut near Wandsworth Prison which eliminates the dog-leg and makes the route a lot straighter.

https://www.bikemap.net/en/o/2696/#/z13/51.4504768,-0.1701164/terrain

I got my just desserts this morning.

Going west on Clapham north side there is a set of lights for a bus lane (with cycles allowed) that never goes green unless a bus triggers the sensor thing. It is the only RLJ i do and this morning I was on my merry way through and my mudguard got caught momentarily on my down tube (just enough to through me off balance) and down i went in the middle of the junction. Fortunately the car I was darting in front of didn't run me over.

Maybe wait till the road is clear next time, its not that difficult to do is it?

Yeah, that would have been my guess, glad they didn't waste a decent beer.

Apt username is apt

No one with a delivery box on the back of a scooter can intimidate anything. It's the road equivalent of turning up in ballet shoes and a pink tutu.

Some cunt ped kicked me once when I laughed at him having a go at RLJers, while three of us were stopped at a RL. I probably should've d-locked his teeth out, but I stopped carrying a d-lock when the assault cases started taking up more time than I was prepared to give.

Should've thrown it back. Then stuck it through his neck.

I'm doing a U-turn at a mini RAB, throw my arm out indicating I'm going around to the right and before I've made the full u-turn some dumb cunt decides he'll pass me by driving over the mini RAB underneath me trying to cut the corner. Of course I've continued around doing my u-turn not the simple right turn he thought I was doing so I end up in front of his car shaking my head at his total wankfuck move. Cunts, everywhere. Kill them all.

Spicy moment for me this morning:
Waiting at lights - big truck opposite turning right and some old dude decides it was a great time to cross. Truck starts to swerve until the driver sees he’s then going to hit me, so he slams on the brakes. Old guy 100% oblivious. Me and the driver share a moment of wtfery, I thank him on behalf of old guy and me.

Fact of the day I was once in a pizza restaurant and Omar and a lady friend were sat next to us, our pizzas arrived and me and my mates all sang' There's nothing like this...anywhere else in South East London' we may have consuming large amounts of alcohol before hand. Fair play to Omar he took it in the manner it was intended and was actually quite surprised we knew who he was.

God I love my sit-up-and-beg commuting monster. Adds 5-10 minutes to a 40 minute commute, but I don't care, I arrive so fucking happy and chilled and unsweaty.

Also, guys... preaching to the choir here, but have you seen how many cars there are? They're everywhere...cluttering up the streets and turning probably nice-ish people into dangerous arseholes. Have people not noticed how numerous and unpleasant they are? I noticed recently and now I can't un-notice... I see cars everywhere I look and it's threatening to affect my utility-bike-induced zen.

I did a calculation (out of sheer boredom). Based on the total number of registered cars in London, the area of London I found on Wikipedia, and an estimate of the amount of space a car takes up, cars take up 1% of the total area of the city (not accounting for buildings etc). It feels like so much more than that...

Based on the total number of registered cars in London, the area of London I found on Wikipedia, and an estimate of the amount of space a car takes up, cars take up 1% of the total area of the city

How can it be so much less than @hippy does?

You need to find the total area of all the roads of London and work it out that way.

You need to find the total area of all the roads of London and work it out that way.

Agreed. Anyone got any ideas about how to do that?

I'm pretty sure I've already seen this 'fact' somewhere. Carlton Reid or Rachel Aldred. I seem to recall it was about 3%.

I got a broken ruler.

Umm surely someone has worked it out before though.

Actually if you find the data on total length of roads in London. (within m25 or something) and you estimate the width of find avg width of road you could get an estimate.

To much for my brain though.

https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/length-road-network-borough-and-region
might help?

One of the critical issues in terms of car use, is the amount of space they take up in terms of the actual carriageway. But one of the ways cars really ruin urban environments is through car parking, which spends most of the time vacant but is a necessity to facilitate car ownership.

Car use costs local authorities and TfL an absolute fortune just for maintenance!

Bear in mind car ownership is falling across London. In places like Lambeth only about 1/3 of households actually own a car.

New found comfort on this morning's commute, backpack replaced with handlebar bag, stem raised 10mm to cope, considering wider tyres, is this the beginning of the end?

No, but it might be the end of the beginning.

In that case, apply the same logic that drivers do - might is right.

Therefore, I am right. Get the fuck outta my way fuckers!

#hippyisalwaysright

God I love my sit-up-and-beg commuting monster. Adds 5-10 minutes to a 40 minute commute, but I don't care, I arrive so fucking happy and chilled and unsweaty.

@skidlidsid Yeah mate me too. I swear I've got into less nasty situations on the road since I went upright on my commuter

Next step is no skid lid, Sid.

Actual CSB!

I keep wanting to do this but every time i do I have another crash where I land on my backpack.

After the latest accident I didn't have a scratch on me. Backpack is full of holes. That said it could have been the backpack that punched my clavicle into 4 bits... Hmmmmm..

So your backpack causes crashes?