Let's Stand In The Road!

This is the standing in the road thread, you want the Peds thread.

Although I do have a standing in the road story from this evening.

Was coming up the one way bit of endel st and a cyclist had stopped to give way when this pedestrian went to cross but ended up stopping right in front of the cyclist, he then proceeded to do some texting. He almost had his legs either side of the cyclist's front wheel. When traffic cleared he took a while to realise, then he stared at me as the cyclist calmly said excuse me, which made the guy jump out of his skin.

"whinge thread no. 2576" lol

This is the lets stand in the road thread, you want the lets whinge about whinge threads

Please guys, can I ask that you keep this on the very serious topic that is standing on the road.

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/93524/93524,1183663119,1/stock-photo-traffic-police-officer-waits-standing-in-the-road-looking-for-on-coming-vehicles-3677110.jpg

I did see a good stand-in-the-road ce soir - a girl on a dutch bike approaching a pedestrian crossing where she had a green light who stopped for no reason in the middle of the road and then stood there fiddling with her iPod while taking up the entire lane. She only moved when she noticed there was a double decker bus behind her that couldn't get past.

This was at the lights just before the south approach to Elephant and Castle too, so it wasn't even like it was a quiet little back road.

Where does lying in the road fit in?

The other day I saw a woman lying astride her horizontal bike on Kensington High St. She wasn't struggling - just lying there, fiddling with her ankle.

Turns out she'd caught her jeans in the chain and her solution was to stop, lie down in the road, then try to extract her trousers. Fascinating.

I saw some wonderful road standing last night. Heading home on Brook Drive, near E&C, I saw 4 teenagers with their hoodies up and backs turned to me. They were in a line across the carriageway, just standing there in the road. My first thought was is this a rehearsal for Britain Lacks Talent (TM) by South London's newest boy-band, SE17 if you like, preparing their break-through hit, lyrics by BMMF. My second thought was am I going to get stabbed?

With this in mind, I kept quiet as I closed with them and got myself ready to sprint. They still had not turned and remained in their pose, heads bowed and hands in front. Just before I passed between them, rang the bell. Cue one rather high pitched shriek and the other three gutting themselves and calling the first stuff I didn't quite follow (I'm not down with kids), but gather was disparaging to his manliness.

Cheered me right up. Although it was sad to disrupt such virtuoso road-standing. They must have practised.

lollipop ladies do it standing in the road...

bump
anyone seen anyone standing in the road recently

pics or it didn't happen don't forget

Yeah - I saw someone once.

Forgot to take a picture tho.

Renting a Boris bike allows a person to legally stand in the road by the kerb to check their phone and send text messages etc.

Woman, just the other day, last night maybe, I don't know. Staring at me, I'm riding towards her, I'm staring at her, etc.

It was lovely.

Except the fuckwit was in the middle of the road of course.

I gave her some useful directions and what I'd like to think was an interesting snippit or 'factoid' about what constitutes a road versus a footpath.

Shakespeare couldn't write of a more beautiful scene.

Which of these dya think is worse for standers and strollers?;

Atlantic Road (Brixton)
Wardour Street (Soho)
Long Acre (Covent Garden)

All three have pretty specific points. For example the Endell Street end of Long Acre is the real beauty.
Why is there no GoPro footage in this thread. It's actually one of my favourite things about riding in town. The pure unpredictability of it all - like life itself.

/philosophy

I find Dean Street (and surrounding streets) to be particularly good for road standers. Thursday evenings ride home a highlight of the week.

Camden high street. Most of the peds round there just assume the road is an extension of the pavement, especially once the cars have slowed.

Hotel doormen in the middle of the road, trying to flag down a cab that is miles away?

Points for enthusiasm.

spotted near farringdon

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^ to be fair, it might be a bit much to ask someone who can't work out how to use a belt to distinguish between pavement and road...

http://youtu.be/36dZig4ibiE

A classic of the genre

Ha!

Bump.