This morning's commute and other commuting stories

It's possible that drivers are rat running, but there are a lot of restaurants in that area and Exeter St/ Tavistock St is one of the few ways to enter the South part of Covent Garden for deliveries.

Obviously that doesn't excuse shit driving.

Until there is a system for co-ordinating all the commercial, daily deliveries to that area it will always be shit for pedestrians and cyclists during the morning rush period.

I've moved out of my flat in Tooting, am now in Surbiton/Tolworth - anyone got some tips on the best way of riding in to Holborn/Chancery Lane?

I am thinking of using this new 'Cut' greenway to get from New Malden > Motspur Park and from there getting into the City - not sure what is best, along the Kingston road to either rejoin my previous commute on CS7 at Colliers Wood or cut across Clapham Common and then Vauxhall/Westminster Bridge over the river.

Previously when riding that way from work I'd go along the river to Richmond Park then through Kingston. That looks to be a tad longer but might ultimately be more pleasant.

I'm trying to get a good balance of avoiding horrific roads/traffic and not adding too much extra time to my now longer commute... any input those in the know welcome!

Managed to get to work in 10m 12s today, thanks to a decent tailwind & a well honed route. Still ran into a few red lights, so I could definitely get it under ten minutes if I was in luck.

Not bad for three & a half miles. Definitely shouldn't have done that the day after a sick day when I'm not fully recovered yet though.

The traffic management in the area is a typical traditional Westminster one-way maze, which not only means that drivers drive along streets faster because they don't expect other drivers to come their way, but also feel they need to make up time lost by the detours, and because it's not filtered, there are still ways through to everywhere for drivers. It's traffic management very firmly stuck in the Stone Age, but it won't change in the foreseeable future, because there are many businesses in the area that would be up in arms if their wealthy customers could no longer reach their premises by car.

@pastry_bot puts his finger on one of the crucial issues, which is arrangements for deliveries. I've long thought that rather than building more underground railways for people, underground railways for deliveries would actually be useful. You bring a shaft to the surface somewhere in one of those well-defined business districts that Central London has, e.g. Covent Garden, and have the goods ferried on to their final destinations by a fleet of cargo bike riders or foot messengers, and you immediately cut out a huge proportion of the car traffic in that sort of area. The areas concerned, like Covent Garden, are actually very small, and the 'last half-mile' deliveries would be quick and easy.

I go along Kingston Road - CS7 - Waterloo - Holborn. Other ways I've tried are generally slower and not that much nicer tbh. Vauxhall / Westminster is worse (IMHO).

Was greeted by this site this morning (unfortunately I have to leave my bike locked up outside) Sram double tap shifters, bars stem, cables all gone) . Gutted

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That sucks

Have you drilled your top tube?

That's shit. Commis.

No that's the holes for the cable guides, they ripped them out with the cables. They were custom cnc ones I'd imported from vintagecannondale.com.

Damn, where was it?

This exact same thing happened to me when I left my bike for about 2 hrs in the middle of the day just by Trafalgar Sq.

Had only just put on some brand new DuraAce shifters - clearly the thieves know what they're looking for...

Gutted for you, they definitely know what to look for. Mine was in Bath outside the train station. My chainset got taken a few months back, that's the trouble when everything can be removed with an Allen key. I filled in the bolt head of my replacement cranks with a glue gun, but probably should have got more security bolts for the rest of the bike. Looks like going back to a beater bike is the sensible option

First commute today for about six weeks after I broke my right hand. God it was so good to get back in the saddle after several weeks of public transport. The headwind home was a bit of a bugger and I’m knackered now, 26 miles after doing sod all might have been a bit optimistic. My hand is quite sore from the concussion thanks to our lovely bumpy roads, but frankly anything is better than having to struggle from CR7 to N16 and back each day.

I thought as much! Thanks for the input, will try a few variants of this theme and see where we get to

Passed an arrest in process on Abingdon street, bikes scattered everywhere - hope all involved in whatever happened are ok. Added a perplexing element to an otherwise very pleasant commute.

Saw something similar weird yesterday on the south side of London Bridge - lots of kids waiting around on bikes, bus parked across the road, police there. Didn't seem like anyone had been injured though.

On a different note, why does it always smell faintly of death on the Q1 between Millwall FC and South Bermondsey station?

why does it always smell faintly of death

Millwall FC

Saw an ambulance attending a poor cyclist lying on the pavement on Kennington Road, on north bound side just after the first junction past the post office. He sitting up but looked like he had broken part of his leg.

While there is a segregated cycle slip lane (and a big high speed car one), i suspect the worried van driver with his hazard lights looking on, had left hooked the guy on the ground. The hi-viz vest he was wearing didnt seem to enable magic car repelling powers.

Not sure but I can smell something nasty burning quite often.

The big chimneys on the other side of the train tracks is a waste incinerator.

Should people be RLJing while wearing club jerseys? I suppose clubs may or may not have stated rules about conduct while in club kit but I can’t see it as a good advertisement for a club regardless. Last couple of days I’ve seen a woman in an Islington CC jersey who has jumped every red that I’ve seen her approach.

Also drivers RLJing: last night at the top of Endymion Road a car was stopped at the ped crossing, got beeped by the car behind who wanted to turn left into Finsbury Park. Instead of moving forward a bit to let them do this, the driver just went through the red. So red does not mean red if someone beeps you. I see.

I'd be interesting in knowing what you come up with.
For years I've been doing Surbiton > Richmond Park > Putney bridge and follow the Thames to Farringdon.

Curious if you can easily link in the new greenway and or CS7. Need to mix it up a bit and find alternatives that avoid Putney bridge when the schools go back.

edit: plotted it out, saves <0.5 mile and the strava estimated ride time is basically the same. My memory of CS7 is pretty grim compared with RP + Embankment (?).

Travis Perkins driver of a large truck attempting to turn onto Borough High Street earlier this morning, but a large group of cyclists decided not to wait and carried on squeezing past. In the end his colleagues had to step into the road to help him out and even then a bloke on a Santander bike didn't think to reverse though he could clearly see the truck was moving towards him and needed the whole road to make the turn safely.

One of the very rare occasions I felt sorry for a driver.

Obviously people shouldn't be RLJing, especially in club jerseys. ICC takes it very seriously. I know that it's made very clear when joining ICC (you have to do compulsory training in order to be a member) that if you don't follow the rules of the road you'll be thrown out of the club. Simple as.

Do you have any other identifiers of this person?

If you see them again take a photo and send it to the club secretary so the individual can be identified and told they are damaging the club’s reputation. It might be someone with a lapsed membership still using the jersey though and who doesn’t really care.