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I was out of the house at 04:30 this morning and the roads were deserted. I had a lovely peaceful ride in watching the city wake up as I rode next to the river. It was a real treat, right up until the only car I saw on the whole journey overtook me at a pinch point going up a hill. There’s a traffic island and the lane is quite narrow. The driver laid on the horn and squeezed passed hardly slowing down, clipped the island and missed me by a few cm. What a cunt! They then started to pull into the side of the road in front of me. What an even bigger cunt!. I went down the side road behind them and along a few back streets to avoid them. A nice commute spoilt by a Vauxhall driving tool. And relax.
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I think, like Amsterdam, Copenhagen used to be car dominated too. All old cities were "built for humans" and could get there again with different mindset (planners and public).
It depends on what you mean. København and Amsterdam are today far more car-dominated than ever before, just not in the centre. The motor traffic that upset people so much in the 1970s was actually small in volume compared to what there is today, but was new to the small, tight centres, and obviously, as everywhere in Europe, caused a lot of road traffic casualties. Campaigners managed to avert the wholesale destruction of traditional parts of the city (which was done in London for the Westway, for instance), but the upshot was that through motor traffic has now merely been moved to the motorways on the outskirts, as there has been a lot of road-building, creating huge additional capacity, and it's not as noticeable in the centre. Both cities have developed a lot in the last couple of decades, and along with that have added ring roads, a lot of residential car parking, and the need to travel has increased massively.
Both the Netherlands and Denmark have changed their economies on the model of surrounding larger countries, i.e. much more centred on the larger agglomerations, destroying the traditional model of, for instance, small farming operations, which are today replaced by large agribusiness. Perishable produce needs to get to the borders quickly, and all those lorries have to be driven somewhere. As in most parts of Europe, people can increasingly not work locally, as employers and work are not available there any more (and this was a trend that existed even before computing became so prevalent), meaning many have to commute huge distances. Modal share of motor traffic has increased a lot in both countries and is seen as a symptom of affluence, as both countries used to be quite poor (read: with more even wealth and income distribution) well into the 1960s.
It's really much the same story everywhere. Good work has been done by Jan Gehl and co. in the centre of København, e.g. reducing available car parking there by 1% each year, but overall the picture has become as dire in both countries as anywhere else. The cities retain modal shares of cycling of around 20% (don't believe the inflated figures of 40-50%, they're either for selected central areas or don't count walking), which is good, but it's largely due to the absence of public transport. There won't be an underground railway network in Amsterdam because of soil conditions, but Københaven has been building one (https://intl.m.dk/) and it's already eaten into the modal share of other modes, as obviously it's designed to do.
People tend to over-emphasise the small positives and don't look enough at the big picture. I don't want to be a party spoiler, and obviously I'm happy that @ltc had a nice time there, but it's important to avoid becoming distracted from the continuing march of motorisation by such positives.
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I didn't realise you had come quite that far, I thought my 12 miles to get there was one of the more ambitious distances, though pretty much on my normal route at least.
A long way but in reality, only added 3.5 mile to the total commute! Will have to try and make it a more regular thing.
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Yeah there are a couple of bits like this. I was way out into the lane and it was obvious what I was doing. TBH I thought they were going to go the wrong side of the island as they didn’t let off at all to start with. I now wonder if they were A; on the the phone, B; watching the telly or 3; asleep.
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I think it's really increased in public, whether from cars or not.
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Nothing like the dark, the wind, the rain and the cold combined to jog the memory of what the next four months of teeth-gritting commute joy is going to like :(
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When it's pitch black, cold, windy and pissing down there is nothing quite like the bleakness of the trans Richmond park section of my commute. Just a few minutes after the carnage that is Putney bridge at rush hour you're all alone feeling like you're in the middle of nowhere and slightly crazy to be there at all.
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Oh, and snow…
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same.
i hate commute driving though, it's so boring.
my other alternative is a treacherous 20 minute wobble/slide to the nearest bus stop on ungritted icy pavements, and then a 40min wait for the 'every 15 mins' unreliable bus to turn up, by which time i'd be at my desk already.
every time i do it i wish i'd cycled. -
Unbelievably grim this morning! Even with my lobster gloves on, my Raynauds stricken hands were blocks of ice after an hour's ride to work. They were unbelievably painful as they were thawing out and 4 hours later they're still a bit fucked. One of the very rare occasions that I wish I'd got public transport in. It doesn't look quite as bad for the ride home but we'll see.
I'm quite glad to be working from home for the next couple of days!
KevH
ltc
hoefla
Chaley
Oliver Schick
bigshape
spinnnout
Jameo
eskay
crossedthread
Scrabble
Tonts
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This morning's commute and other commuting stories
Posted by
@RikiBanger
I didn't realise you had come quite that far, I thought my 12 miles to get there was one of the more ambitious distances, though pretty much on my normal route at least.