This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Last night's commute home was 32degC and sunny. This morning's was 10degC in the pissing rain. Couldn't find my gloves or overshoes. Forgot spare pants and socks. Now commando and sockless and the air con is confused by the outside temperature and making my office fucking cold.

Watched a 4x4 driver video-calling someone on a windscreen-mounted phone all the way from Streatham to Oval this morning.

I imagine the defence of that is that "Oh well it's hands free", but it still makes me really really uncomfortable...

Am I being prissy or is that really dangerous?

it's the same as watching a video so major no-no.

It's a major no no.

I once watched a driver having a video call with his girlfriend, all along the Wapping high road.

I assume it was his girlfriend as she was taking off all her clothes and dancing for him....

Your account of cabbies stopping in the infra then being pissy when you leave it to pass them is depressing. Most of the new infrastructure is worth avoiding imo.

I agree. I also don’t like the proximity they often put you to pedestrians, especially near bus stops on very narrow cycle paths - ie westminster bridge. If you’re traveling at more than 10mph I think it’s unsafe to use them.

I saw similar last week.

Last year, I saw two video callers, and one music video watcher...

Theyre obviously more skilled than the average driver and are so at one with their machine.
ahem

bloody cyclists, should be paying attention to the road and not what drivers are doing within the confines of their own vehicle.

Knowing which arseholes are not paying attention to the road around you is part of paying attention to the road around you.

Was bike packing in Scotland last year & riding back into Glasgow, after riding around the Outer Hebrides, rode through Yoker. Heh, good stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YfRbNipdOg

I once watched a driver having a video call with his girlfriend, all along the Wapping high road.

I assume it was his girlfriend as she was taking off all her clothes and dancing for him....

Fapping High Road?

I saw one driver last week with an app that was map/directions in the top half, bottom half was showing a movie (definitely a movie, not just a video advert).

Probably a simple stab on the top half of the screen will pause the movie and show the map full screen.

I was unable to remove the wingmirror of the car in question.

Yes, yes, but didn't you find the main protagonists depth of character lacking against the backdrop of such a powerful hero-maker narrative?

fapping hard road?

Got overtaken doing 40kmph yesterday by a dude on a mountain bike with a glacial cadence.
Bit of a WTF moment as I don't usually get overtaken and took me a while to work out it was an ebike. Got a good tow from him.
Must have been some home juiced thing. Impressive speed!

Nope, that was just me. I gear down for winter. 62-14T

Did you go past Les Porter's?

A couple of days ago a guy hopped off a kerb in front of me, not pedalling, and I was about to jam on the brakes when I suddenly realised he was rapidly pulling away from me, finally clocked it was a juiced ebike when he overtook a car easily doing 30mph, still not pedalling.

Dat you bro?

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im going to assume this bike is for going very fast down a snowy mountain?

It would have to be a rock free snowy mountain.

I miss #rep

fapping hard chode

Lovely sedate ride in this morning until I reached borough then had two seriously close misses narrowly avoiding being ran over by large vehicles whilst going straight through junctions.

First I was riding straight through a junction in southwark sandwiched between two buses front and back, there was a large truck coming the opposite way and I knew he was turning right when he didn't come straight past me so knew he was waiting to turn across my path and was being cautious as I knew he wouldn't see me until late because the bus blocked his view but then the fucking idiot driving the bus behind who was turning right as well just flashed him through while i'm right in his path, essentially giving him the all clear to turn behind the bus right through the space I was riding in without checking for other traffic. as soon as i saw the lights reflect off the bus in front I veer sharply to the left as the truck pulls around the back of the bus just missing my back wheel, so could have easily just gone straight under his wheel if i hadn't moved.

then riding through the junction at the end of cheapside by st pauls a transit dragging a massive generator isn't paying attention and drives straight through the junction from a stop when the transit next to him pulls away in the left turn only phase (because my direction still had the green for the next 10 seconds or so going across the junction) I'm in the middle of the junction and he just drives at me, I swerve left again and he swerves into the path of the other transit to take the left turn instead missing me by a couple of feet. luckily the other transit driver was actually paying attention and had stopped to allow him space to get past or he probably would have hit me or the van or both. of course the van driver in the wrong sat on his horn for 50m along cheapside in anger for some unknown reason. to highlight how badly he got it wrong there was a bus 30yds behind me who also made it through the junction on the same phase.

oh and sitting at some lights by kennington I saw a man fall asleep at the wheel in a hatchback van and bounce his head off his steering wheel.

on the upside it feels like monday as I had yesterday off to recover from superbowl sunday so this week should fly by hopefully.