This morning's commute and other commuting stories

They might catch me up though. I think I was basing my bomber estimate on the people getting out of my (usually full) lift.

I guess I just wanted to check if my daily annoyance with people cycling past or at me was irrational or not, like I said I'm going to keep walking through and try to get less annoyed about it.

Fuck knows.
It has haunted me for a few years.

Is it ok to ride through the Greenwich foot tunnel? I've been trying to decide for months...

As Jurek says:

It is against the law.

Specifically against the bylaws for the tunnel.

I do something similar to him. I usually go through in the early evening and then again late at night. When there's no-one around late at night, I ride through, never at busy times.

If you want cycling to be permitted eventually, get involved in FOGWOFT and make your voice heard:

https://fogwoft.com/

I don't know how active they are at the moment, but the last entry is from this year, so I assume they're continuing.

Bear in mind that bylaws are reviewed very rarely, and it may be a while.

Unicycle ?

Could it be one of those motorised single-wheel contraptions that people ride around, those that look a bit like a miniature Segway without the handle?

Obviously, it could also be some kind of art project. Goldsmith's isn't too far away.

Goldsmith's isn't too far away.

That made oi larf!

An electric unicycle - yes of course.

There was a great art project/sound-light installation for a few weeks one summer about 20 years ago using the the full length and acoustics of the tunnel. It was a strange dreamlike start to the day's early morning commute.
The lift men became involuntary art gallery assistants :)

That sounds awesome! I wonder if any recordings or documentation still exist on the project.

I can't find anything on it.
I think it was a student project.

That was great. Can't believe it was that long ago..scary.

There is a foot tunnel underneath Cannonbridge that pipes out sounds of the the old working docks.

Yes - must have been late 90's - glad someone remembers it !

Where is this foot tunnel underneath Cannonbridge ?
I have searched.

Realised this morning that I ate a lot of cake last week in the lakes.

Anyone think there was less traffic in London this morning? ULEV having any impact? Or was it just a slow post bank-hols start to the week?

There was a lot more traffic than the last 2 weeks.

Last two weeks has been school holidays

Anyone think there was less traffic in London this morning?

Definitely not around the Putney area. Fucking grid lock everywhere.

Yeah my commute was back to being a 10 mile traffic jam!

Finally on my new bike and the weather was delightful though so I still enjoyed it

Also, bus drivers who try to make the front corner of their bus 3 inches away from the opposite rear corner of a bus in a different lane (good old London Bridge bus lane) thus blocking a whole lane for no reason other than to stop bikes/motorbikes filtering can fuck off

Generally the shit show of empty buses from Trafalgar Square up to Tottenham Court Road can fuck off. If they can't get any passengers at peak times there is not much point of them blocking everything.

The guys busking at forest gate station with the ‘£1 if you hate cops’ sign sure know how to get a quid out of me...

so many undertakes tonight. lost count of the amount of times i said fuck sake mate under my breath on the way home

I think on balance cycling should continue to be banned or at least be banned during known busy times. "Considerate Use" could always be too vague (or in the eye of the user) to be much help.

There was some kind of installation with lights and music last year but it only ran for one or two days. They also lit it up for a charity night walk thing.

I like the foot tunnel so I might become a friend of it anyway.

Fuuuuuuuuck me there's traffic on the road. Parkside into Putney High Street all the way to over the bridge was just one solid 5km stretch of cars. I mean there's usually quite a bit of traffic but this was just not moving at all.

On a different note, what happened yesterday after 9pm on Grosvenor / CS8 opposite Battersea? The police had closed the entire road. Not a huge issue to get around, ~5min detour, but I was surprised to see the whole thing closed, including the pavement on both sides.

Fulham Palace Road is just turning into a car park now that Hammersmith bridge it closed as well, I'm going to start finding a different route down I reckon. Even the backroads to get to the Thames Path would be quicker at this rate.

Yep, backed up along the A3 from Roehampton, to the top of Putney Hill and down to Wandsworth Gyratory. Praise the lord for cycle paths and shared use pavements.

What are the chances people just stop driving and get some public transport/jump on a bike in light of this obvious massive inconvenience?

Problem is that the bus you would get on is probably stuck in the same traffic jam. Surprised they can’t reopen Hammersmith bridge for buses only or something, would be an interesting mode-switcher.

It's the buses that fucked it in the first place apparently. TFL were supposed to keep to a one bus at a time limit, but weren't.

That's part of the reason for the fall out over who pays for it. The council blame TFL, cos there are too many buses which are too heavy anyway. TFL says it's the councils responsibility, but as their overall budget has been slashed by central government, they say they can't afford it, so are also asking DfT to chip in some cash too.