This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Today was the morning where everyone wanted to squeeze up the left hand side of me at traffic lights. One lass did it repeatedly so she could trundle through the red light despite me leaving an ever-decreasing gap at each light and one lad thought that belting through a little gap at full speed just as the lights changed and everyone else was just about to set off was a good idea.

Someone (who I assume was on here) told me that there was free police, bike marking at Finsbury Park which was convenient as I'd just been looking to get it done. Sadly though I was late for work so had to pass it up, need to find out when they'll be doing it again and get my arse out of bed earlier.

Someone (who I assume was on here) told me that there was free police, bike marking at Finsbury Park which was convenient as I'd just been looking to get it done. Sadly though I was late for work so had to pass it up, need to find out when they'll be doing it again and get my arse out of bed earlier.

Met the same chap too, he had an LFGSS patch on his cap, said he was a cycle trainer from Hackney. I also only ever see these events in the morning when I'm (inevitably) running late for work, I wonder if they ever do them in the afternoon.

Twice today I was behind vans at junctions who sat across the turn left and straight on lanes at junctions, so I figured, yeah, hang back/right (was going straight on both times) and, lo and behold, they both turned left without indicating. Bonus of the warmer weather meant they had their windows down so could advise that indicating would be a sweet deal for everyone. No response though.

Lazy & Dangerous/10

Just got my reply from TfL after I had an official whinge about getting funnelled into bus stops by segregated lanes.

Basically in both cases I mentioned (Oval, E&C), the distance between the end of the seg lane and the start of the bus stop markings is 'considered sufficient distance for cyclists to merge safely with bus. lane traffic'.

Oh well, that's OK then...

In both cases the distance is (apparently) 30m+, but when you factor in that a bus is 10m long and has to spend at least a bus length getting in line with the markings (i.e. it doesn't slide gracefully into the stop perpendicularly to the curb) it feels like so much less. Not to mention when there's more than one bus present (isn't that always the way...)

Reassuringly, there haven't been any bus-on-cycle accidents reported at Oval in the last 3 years, so the data is on TfL's side.

My suggestion of releasing the cyclists earlier was batted away with a 'But what if they arrive during the green light. Same problem, innit?' (to paraphrase slightly...) and a bypass is a no-go because they've not got the budget.

20-25 mins took one hour. Rode along with a colleague. Was practically walking pace.

Rode back with a different colleague, flew by.

Gonna look for bone conduction earphones for payday on friday.

belting through a little gap at full speed just as the lights changed and everyone else was just about to set off

Had this happen to me a while ago by some chump at Elephant and Castle, squeezed between me and a van, must have been max 50cm of space, plus another rider in front of me. caught up with him and told him it was a little close and he told me to fuck off and that I shouldn't have been wobbling (which I wasn't)

Tosser/10

shouldn't have been wobbling

Just get open backed ones (i.e most earbuds).

They still let external sound in and they don't sound like absolute shit like bone conducting ones do.

Hmm. Not sure I want to compromise on my hearing. Was hoping bone conduction would be the least compromise.

Nice ride in until knocked off by a cunt in a golf in Tooting Bec, he turned right through a line of traffic and into the Bike lane whilst unsighted. Fortunately I was going slow as it’s a major dickhead driver area. Bikes ok, sore ankle scuff on knee. The driver being a knight of the road pissed off without getting out of his car etc. Got registration and witness details so time to contact 5-0

I've got some Trekz Titanium and frankly, while it works, I find that I need to push the level so high in traffic for voices to be intelligible that I do lose some spacial awareness.
It works, but I usually end up not using them as soon as I am get back on the road.
Also, battery life is not great, and (I have a big head apparently) it gets quite uncomfortable after an hour or so.
I still think it still is the best option for listening to stuff on a bike though: BT speakers blasting shit music on shit bikes pisses me off just as much as twats not aware of a fucking thing on their Noise-cancelling cans.

Report it. Last cunt that hit&ran me got £1000+ fine and 6-points.
Plus I'm pretty sure "hit & run" doesn't look great on insurance applications...

Yes, Forms gone to Met, me and Bike seem remarkably unscathed , probably as Tooting is so full of twats it’s dangerous all the time and I plod through it.

Ugh, sorry to read this. I have a fairly long commute from Bec (up to Archway) through all sorts of traffic conditions, but that first and last run through Tooting is always the worst 'tingling-Spidey-senses' part.

The barriers on the cycle lane on Blackfriars bridge have moved...wonder what their reasoning was? Perhaps to deal with the massive tail back it causes?

Yeah, the old position, and pileup at the lights for the turning into Upper Ground, made the perfect clusterfuck in the mornings (northbound).

All the bridge barriers are a fucking nightmare.

Where's the 'don't let the terrorists win' now?

Interesting, they were still there at 8am

Moved, not removed!

Black cab driver beeps at me and then overtakes me before pulling over and cutting me up. I tell him to eff off and carry on. He pulls up to me at the next set of traffic lights to tell me he was just trying to let me know my wallet has fallen out of my bag. Embarrassed/10

ugh. that sucks.

yeah well some cabbies just give them all a bad name. if that cabbie did a better job of persuading his fellow drivers to not drive like aggressive twats then these things wouldn't happen to them, they bring it on themselves

"All cyclists run red lights"

Yeah, I always try and at least see what drivers have to say before I tell them to piss off to avoid something so terminally embarrassing.

I’ve been beeped at for random things before, ie the fact I was wearing a t shirt and the weather was freezing. People just like to chat about random shit sometimes!

Death Stare™... pause to judge them... then smash their face in with explosive verbal diarrhea