This morning's commute and other commuting stories

I think only cunts have gone back to work. People are driving like idiots.

I thought that but, fuck me, way worse today!

Honestly driving seemed pretty normal today, the usual fucknuggets in vans overtaking way too closely. One thing I noticed yesterday on a Box Hill run: some drivers seem to have entirely forgotten how to indicate. As in, they'll just sit somewhere, not indicating, and somehow expect people to telepathically figure out what their plan is. That's like a whole step up from the 'turn left without indicating' thing.

im not aware that indicating has ever been practiced so regularly as to be forgotten

Well usually I see people doing it when they're trying to join the main road at least, but yesterday... not even that.

i really fucking hate non-indicators... i don't understand how it's possible to be so lazy to not move your fingers a couple of cm's.
the trend for those shitty adaptive cornering lights only make the issue worse as far as i can tell

Headed back to Tooting just now and assorted beeves on the roads:
1: lots of LFB appliances headed north at Stockwell. London’s burning/fetch the engine amirite.
2: bizarre taped off bits all over Clapham South and various Police cars/bikes parked at crazy angles - what looked like a businessman’s suit, brogues and briefcase on the ground being examined. Occupant vanished.
3: a guy threatening a stuck van driver with a baseball bat on Glenburnie Rd (who carries a shrinkwrapped baseball bat in their boot ffs?).

shrinkwrapped baseball bat

Oooh, clever. It's like Bateman in American Psycho laying out the plastic sheets first, you can just remove the plastic and there are no traces of blood left.

Van man half in my lane trying to overtake even though I was the same speed as the van in front. Literally nowhere to go and a pinch point coming up which I'm well aware of.
I waved him back which would ordinarily cause instant rage but he did indeed move back behind me.
After the pinch point he drove past and gave me a little sorry/thank you wave.
Pretty poor driving but at least he was cool about it.

businessman’s suit, brogues and briefcase on the ground being examined. Occupant vanished.

The rapture? Maybe he was the only one worthy out of the whole sorry lot of us.

Got assaulted by a scooter on the way home - hit and run. He tore across me at the junction of Fentiman Road and ? (meadow road?), passing on the outside of cars, I exclaimed “what the hell you doing??” (Didn’t swear for once, surprisingly) in surprise as he tore a half metre across my path. Looked to me left where he went and saw him stop up the road, then he turned around came back looking for me and whipped past at 30 mph hollered something and shoved me off. Pretty mashed up.

Shit. You ok now?

Well, I’m home, thanks. Feeling the bones grinding a bit, but didn’t bleed too heavily. Will make a police report in the morning as someone witnessed the whole thing.

Tube tomorrow, I think

Utter wankers. Glad you're reasonably ok

Yeah, cheers. I’m determined to not let him win by ruining my evening as well.

Dunno what sort of person chooses to act like that, but the way he was riding about it’s only a matter of time till he wipes out in a pile up.

Luckily, I’d bought a massive load of warhammer boxes and had them on my back, so I landed mostly on them and my nerd hobby took the brunt.

That junction is a mess. I was in the back of a cab that almost ran over a cyclist crossing with priority on Meadow road. So many people assume Fentiman has priority there and fail to give way or look.

Yeah, I had a close call there about five years ago when a car pulled out. This scooter was ripping up the outside of the cars at high speed, so if I’d been five seconds faster he’d have ploughed into me.

I think the worst bit was knowing he was coming back, but not knowing what to expect - my stopping would have meant a fight? Who knows.

If I’d coated him off, I might have expected a nasty reaction but i barely said a thing and had already passed on when I glimpsed him turning around. I slowed down a bit and headed towards the kerb to anticipate it.

Been in London barely an hour, been outside of the tube barely half an hour. On a bus pretty much 20 minutes. Already I wanna put my head in my hands and cry. I never thought I’d advocate segregated cycleways, but these people need protecting from each other. So much clusterfuck, from the trucks and buses jumping reds to hooking cyclists on flimsy painted cycleways, who themselves are too engrossed in their Boris Bike Experience to realise no matter how late it indicated, that shit is turning left and you are alongside it.

Absolute nonsense. Kinda miss it.

A not-very-interesting (at all) but positive story: I climb a reasonable hill each morning (#boastpost) and today everyone overtaking was very patient and wide, lovely stuff.
Personal experiences on a bike and reading some of the stuff on here can really get me down, so I think it's important to celebrate the good stuff/improvements, while of course acknowledging that there is still a way to go until transport utopia is reached.

In deepest darkest Swindon I get a lot of bad eggs, but yesterday riding on the road wasn’t awful, I got a few thumbs up from grateful drivers for giving way to them and generally got passed safely the rest of the time. Shame that it (positive safe shared road use) is intermittent.

I just wish it was practical to force everyone to cycle on the same roads they drive in order to pass their test. I think 75% of dick drivers just don’t realise how terrifying and dangerous they’re being.

I gave a cyclist an awesome pass in my car today. Probably the best pass they’d ever had. But then I cycle, so what do you expect?

So much clusterfuck

We're in the peak "resolutionist" moment right now. While I applaud anyone who gets on their bike to commute and sticks at it, the standard of road craft on display has dropped significantly since last Friday.

A good cold/wet snap will see most of them off, but for now, I'll continue to take primary, hang back at junctions and wait for the carnage ahead to unfold.

1st commute in today after 3 weeks off. Literally the first car that passed me did so with inches to spare. Wanker.

Where's that image of how cyclists pass other cyclists in their cars?

Got cameras? Took me maybe 20min but I got a nice sense of satisfaction reporting close passes from the last two days. Now I've got the free video editing thingie installed and kinda know how to trim vids it should be quicker. Wish I could automate the Roadsafe form filling.