-
Possible stupid question.
What percentage of the space in the back of typical white van man's white van is actually used, and how much is a toolbox and a couple of spare parts rattling around?
Is there scope for converting some of this trade motor traffic into cargo bikes?
-
I'm sure they're often pretty full, but also often quite empty, depending on the job.
There certainly is immense scope for more cargo bike use.
I can't remember the name of the firm that uses cargo bikes almost exclusively and I don't know if they still exist, but I talked to some of them occasionally when I bumped into them, and they seemed to be doing well.
-
Ah, of course, Green Workforce:
https://www.greenworkforce.co.uk
Not even just cargo bikes, but ordinary bikes with custom-built panniers/toolboxes. One of them explained to me once how they were made.
-
It's impossible to build a cargo bike filled with hatred.
-
a couple of people I know will do the first 2 days or so on a job in a van to get the kit in and then cycle afterwards. For every "typical" foaming gammon doing 55mph between speed bumps in an empty van I see there's someone next to me in the ASL wearing work boots and hiviz on a rusty hybrid....
-
I'd be incentivising this sort of thing. Love seeing cargo bikes out and about.
Saw a dad with his kids in a bakfiets thing this morning going through Brixton. Warmed my heart.
-
I know - my point was that if they were converted to cargo bikes they'd be less hateful by definition.
Sorry - that wasn't clear.
-
Interesting, thanks.
I suppose it seems to me that it would be more efficient to increase transport costs through direct pricing for the services used (ie congestion charge expansion, multi zones, peak and off peak etc) rather than by artificially reducing capacity at junctions.
I suppose the former is too overt (thus politically impossible), whilst the latter can be effected more subtly?
-
I'd guess (not knowing that spot very well) that your answer may be implicit in this--the bus queues on the approach to the next junction probably get too long (quite a few bus routes use that stretch), quite possibly because they only get a green phase every two phases compared to the York Road/Lambeth Palace Road alignment (if that's the case).
The queue is two lanes of all kinds of traffic, not just buses. There's no bus lane at that point.
All other kinds of vehicles, except buses*, stop downstream of the crossing until they can get all the way across it, leaving it clear for use by pedestrians.
I don't know why that spot is so bad. I've not really noticed buses obstructing crossings regularly in other parts of London.
It's nothing to do with the roadworks - they've always behaved like that. Now the crossing is wider and the railings have been removed it's slightly harder for bus drivers to completely block the crossing, but they do try.
They could solve the problem by buying buses with doors on both sides.
*And a few white vans, but not that many.
-
Love seeing cargo bikes out and aboutI'm trying to find an even slightly valid excuse to get a cargo bike. They look friggin awesome and the thought of being able to carry >2 crates of beer on a bike is bloody awesome haha.
There are loads of cargo bikes around kennington and oval.
I can only assume that's because if you spend £1m on a house with a garden big enough to store a cargo bike you've got no money left for a car!
It's ace, though, sometimes Vauxhall Walk down to The Oval looks like a post-car cycling utopia with nothing moving except bikes.
-
The queue is two lanes of all kinds of traffic, not just buses. There's no bus lane at that point.
Ah, as I said, I don't know that spot very well. I actually rode through there a couple of times recently while roadworks were going on, so couldn't get a good feeling for what was going on. The September 2017 StreetView images still show the bus lane, and I erroneously assumed it was still there. I'd therefore assume that it was removed in the course of the recent footway widening.
All other kinds of vehicles, except buses (and a few white vans, but not that many), stop downstream of the crossing until they can get all the way across it, leaving it clear for use by pedestrians.
I don't know why that spot is so bad. I've not really noticed buses obstructing crossings regularly in other parts of London.
It's nothing to do with the roadworks - they've always behaved like that. Now the crossing is wider and the railings have been removed it's slightly harder for bus drivers to completely block the crossing, but they do try.
It's interesting, there must be another explanation, then. I'll have a look the next time I go past there. In the meantime, it's quite possible that bus drivers are just caught out more often when creeping forward with the queue while the next lights are green. The space under the bridge is really quite peculiar in some of the ways it's laid out.
They could solve the problem by buying buses with doors on both sides.
Very good. I think we should campaign for TfL not to require people to buy tickets for the passage through the bus, though. :)
-
Having a lovely ride this morning through the kent lanes, most drivers being really considerate and giving loads of room while over taking, except one driver who thought he could overtake us and nip back into the correct lane before the oncoming BMW was near, overtaking driver manage this just, but enraged the BMW driver so much that BMW driver did a U-turn just to drive alongside us to give us a mouthful saying it was all our thought and we shouldn't be on the road.
Wasn't even worth engaging with he was sold that it was our fault. People are strange.
-
Also out in Kent this morning, having an excellent ride in the sun with friends, until within a couple minute of each other, two separate cars gave us shit (beeps and shouting) for being on our side of the road whilst they ping it around a corner over the centre line (passing within inches of me). I can't imagine what flavour of righteous indignation was bubbling in their festering turd brains.
-
So here in Paris this morning I almost came off my bike.
Throughout the gay village area of the Marais, right in the center through which I commute each morning there's apparently been the bright idea, seemingly signed off with the local gov, to paint big fucking rainbows bordering all the zebra crossings.
They look great until you try to cycle across them because this morning the roads are damp and they are slippy as fuck. Glossy fucking paint, I've no idea if it's a road-specific paint or not but doesnt seem to matter, 1 meter bands fore and aft of the crossing with zero traction.
So I lost my back wheel going in a straight line across with the the power down, on the way back from school luckily with no child on the rear, and thankfully saved the fall.
Contacted the council already, I mean who's stupid idea was that.
MCamb
skidlidsid
Hamham
Oliver Schick
clipon
NickCJ
dirac
inappropriate_bike
CanonAxe
monkdagola
Tychom
JWestland
amey
TTM-
Post a reply
About
This morning's commute and other commuting stories
Posted by
@RikiBanger
Yes, what aggi said and also, the main thing motor traffic causes, quite generally and wherever you go, is unnecessary travel. This even applies to tradesmen. The old formula, which applied for decades, was that the transport cost of having premises on the outskirts was cheaper than the extra rent they'd have to pay in Central London--also, because prices they could charge were obviously depressed for the same reason. I have no doubt that this will change. People aren't stupid, and if something they have been doing no longer works, they'll change it, e.g. I'm sure we would see firms servicing buildings locating their bases closer to, or in Central London given the current building boom (which has been seeing more and more trade vehicles being driven into Central London for years, but there will come a point where firms will aim to benefit more directly from the volume of work available in Central London). With less motor traffic capacity, they'd also be able to charge more.
All those extra motorised miles mean that businesses become less local to where people live, but it is a desirable aim to get them to locate closer to the customer again. I'm obviously aware of the competition from the Internet, and I very much hope this can be defeated, especially from companies like Amazon. One way of doing that is simply by causing transport costs to be increased so people have to handle these things with actual efficiency.