This morning's commute and other commuting stories

I think this about most kerb segregated routes. Give me modal filtering any day.

yup, that's the ideal but clearly impossible on every road, and therefore where you expect large numbers of HGV's, segregation is the only sensible answer.

When you find yourself thinking you'd prefer being on the road with the cars and lorries then something's not right.

Depends on why you're feeling that... And of course it's important to realise that different people could well feel differently.

Sad old man boastpost, but five days door-to-door commutes equals 230 miles for me this week so far (with two days monsoonraindeluge). Clearly nothing on @hippy or @J_a_m_es etc. who do that every Saturday (and Sunday also plus plus plus rides to work.) however this was the plan I set myself up for last September so smugface_get_me
Unfortunately am now undoing all the good work by descending into Col de OvenChipsValley.

Shout out to nick (not on here but hopefully will be following my recommendation) for the much appreciated chat from shepherds Bush to Acton after having two of the worst altercations with drivers I've ever had.

One jumped lights at White city roundabout and cut over two lanes. Looked over to him at the next lights, shook head and mouthed words of warning, to which I received an unprecedented torrent of abuse and anger. Allow it.

Second was a cab, beeping and getting right up behind me, on the outside lane going around shepherds Bush green. Gave him space to overtake and then gave him a stern few words at the next lights.

Friday nights

If you’re getting into it with people, expect frustration from those whose transport choice is frustrating.

I’ve long since stopped trying to ‘correct’ people, ride assertively but try to never fail to acknowledge consideration from others, and I enjoy my journies much more.

True, can't say it's not expected. The first guy was beyond angry though, wouldn't be suprised if he'd just done a dirty line of coke or something. I just can't stand shitty drivers and feel the need to call them out

Be prepared to deliver your own torrent of fury and anger if you're going to interact with cagers or angry peds. #practicemakesperfect #angryhippy

Not looking forward to tomorrow with all the bolloxed trains. Will be playing a fun game of guess the cancellation. Joy.

Told a fellow cyclist that its not all about pushing in front and maybe shoulder check to avoid getting taken out from traffic behind especially as he nearly wobbled into the next lane under a truck to get around me. He tried to tell me he saw the truck and it was fine (it fucking wasn't) so I called him a wanker and cycled off. He didn't want to be the first in line at the next set of lights not sure why.

rain+half term = glorious commuting conditions. The roads were dead!

HUH. Makes my 130 a week seem very meagre indeed. Obviously, mine are London miles, so higher rateable value and absolutely no oven chips > activated chai soy latté with a turmeric'n'wheatgrass enema as a chaser.

(well done, sirrr)

electric bikes: 0
hippy: lots

Re: shitty segregated cycle lanes. This is just round the corner from my house in Leeds. A bus stop in the middle of an already terribly thought out cycle lane. I never use it. There's a million roads leading on to the main road, nobody stops before the cycle lane, they stop in the cycle lane to be able to see into the road. Your options are cycle in the road or stop every 10 metres to wait for a car to get out of the cycle lane or dodge a load of people waiting at the bus stop.

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That's a footpath. I don't care what the sign says, I wouldn't use that shit.

Bit disappointed no-one's slagged off the contraflow at the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge. Adding extra 'fuck' to the current cluster.
Unless that was a Bank Holiday special.

yea that was weird, made it even more confusing!

Technically a footway, but yes.

Yeah it's basically a pavement they've drawn a line on and coloured in a bit.

I never really thought about racing against an ebike before, but if electric bikes are mostly limited to 25 kph/15.5 mph you just have to go faster than that to beat them. Then you're pushing a normal bike and they're pushing 25 kg of bike plus battery and motor.

Shouldn't be too hard actually as long as you don't have any big hills to ride up or a headwind or whatnot.

That's interesting then, seems like for your average club run one wouldn't be able to keep up on an ebike.

if you look at the little blue sign it clearly shows you and meant to ride over the top of the pedestrians on the pavement.

Lol :)

It's over 20 degrees and sunny in Belfast, and it has not rained in 5 days.

So there are more cyclists than usual, but the cycle lanes are still pretty empty. Lots of people out cycling with the kids yesterday.

Is that part of the Leeds-Bradford city link thing?

Lucky I don't care about technicalities.

Footpath.

There's plenty of derestricted bikes and it's not that they just cut out, they're still providing power below all those speeds so in London stop/start they save quite a lot of energy as you don't have to accelerate from every light, every time you weave past slower traffic, etc.
If you saw my power output from this morning's commute compared to a normal one you'd have a good idea of the difference. It was hard work.

The distinction between that and a footpath not adjacent to a carriageway is important, though. Most footpaths can accommodate shared use more easily than most footways.