This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Flight back to London from Geneva cancelled this morning. No alternative flights until Wednesday. Looks like I'm getting a couple of extra bonus days with @Cycliste.

How much did the garden bridge cost again?

Rode in against the wind but in glorious sunshine this morning, had a shower, got to my desk, pulled the laptop out of my bag and.. fuck. Rode home in glorious sunshine with a glorious tailwind. Took the laptop out from under the coffee table and worked from home with the rain lashing down against the windows. Think I judged it right.

Boris spunked £60m on The Dangleway, it carries 4000 passengers a day.

Seville spent €32m on cycle routes that serve 72,000 trips per day.

Most of those 4000 passengers are tourists too. In terms of providing a legit infrastructural purpose (i.e. idiots like me who are solely using it as a means of getting from a to b and not for the fun / instagram opportunity) I expect the numbers are vanishingly and laughably small.

I don't know why but I quite liked riding home through that biblical shit earlier.

Was kind of fun to begin with but was getting genuinely quite worried about hypothermia by the end.

Dunno about now but 5 years ago there were none
https://853.london/2014/12/16/emirates-air-line-cable-car-now-has-no-regular-commuters/

Can you use a travel card on the emirate sponsored car?

Dunno about a travel card, but you can certainly use your lobster card. And if you have a bike, you generally get a gondola to yourself. So you can fart as much as you like.

Where’s the fun of farting in an empty gondola?

The reverb?

no, it's not integrated into the main TFL fare system. you can use an oyster card or a contactless card. A single fare is £3.50 with an oyster and higher if you pay by contactless or cash. You can get a 10 trip card for £17, so £1.70 per journey, which is what I have (being one of the very few regular commuters on the fucking stupid thing). It's a dumb piece of paper that someone has to stamp every time you go through, but that works in your favour as all the staff are pretty friendly so if you're not a prick to them then you get the occasional free journey.

if there's two people with a bike there at the rare times they are busy, they get you to share a gondola, which can often prompt a bit of a friendly chat between fellow cyclists. Except the one time they made me share with some pompous prick with a pristine colnago. I tried to point out that his bike would probably fare better if it was leant on top of my ratty surly tank rather than vice versa but he wasn't for listening and gave it strong with the 'I must get in first'. Spent the whole ride in silence alternately hoping that my bike would and wouldn't scratch the fuck out of his.

Yeah last night was not fun at all.

Dry torso but soaking wet underwear and feet... Had fun though. (PSN Windproof Jersey turned out to be real nice, but 10 quid overshoes weren't cut out for it) Shoes spent the whole night on a heated towel rack.

Pretty much exactly the same! The headwind gusts causing me to slow to about 2-3mph with horizontal driving rain/hail... what fun

It was a fun ride back yesterday until it started to get a bit scary with cars not slowing down when overtaking a lot of the time.

I think last night was in my top 3 hellish commutes in terms of conditions, but as I was generally wearing suitable attire, there was a certain type two fun to it all.

The "worst" moment was coming through the middle of Richmond Park. Must have been a 30 plus mph headwind, and as the rain really kicked in the pings coming from my top tube confirmed it was turning to hail. I was thankful for the peak of my cap, but could only advance with my eyes open whilst looking straight down at the floor, with a glance up every few seconds to check my alignment.

I was still going ok, chuckling to myself at the absurdity of cycling though a pitch black park that felt more like an exposed Scottish mountainside while my face enjoyed an an ice-blast exfoliation, when some nutter flew past me the other way, pushed on by his tailwind - but with No Lights!?! Madness.

Faded movie stars pay thousands to get their face blasted with ice balls, probably.

There was a rider on the deck about 8:00 this morning on Blackfriars Rd opposite the PWH pub. They were well attended so I didn't stop. Anyone have any idea what happened?

My new Northwave winter SPDs equate to very smug feet.... and very un-smug knees at present.

Used to be good money for me. In the end though the toll on my balls was too much and I had to stop offering that service.

This whole stretch of Camden Road in Islington has just been resurfaced - success!
Super smooth this morning.

Tavistock west bound cycle track, right near the Woburn Pl junction, there was a commercial waste truck parked in it with its hazard lights on. Guy was collecting euro bins. Nearly an accident as the abundant amount of cyclists had to swerve around it in the running lane going the opposite direction.

Another cyclist was really having a proper go at the driver. A few more people joined in. Lots of swearing, a Lufguss looking geezer rode past and said some nasty things. Apparently hazard lights void all road rules. Seemed fisticuffs were imminent whenI cycled off.