Call for London Headcam footage!

Hi,
I'm an architecture student, and cyclist, writing a thesis about Cycling in London to do with the sense of meaning attached to 'place' gained through cycling, and the idea of ownership one feels towards the city when in complete control of one's mobility...
This involves not only doing a series of rides in London myself, but ideally, looking at other people's routes through the city to gain an knowledge of how cyclists exist and understand the city, through tactics, behavior, hierarchies on the road etc.

I am also hoping to critique the cycling experience in London in terms of infrastructure and of cyclists' treatment on the road - public opinion, and spatial and political agency exerted by cyclists to try to change their environment. Contrasting my findings with experiences I have had cycling in other locations - mainly Cambridge, Sheffield, Berlin and Italy.

I was hoping to accrue some real footage of cycling in London, as this is the most accurate way of recording it, but I live in Sheffield, so it is hard to get down south with my bike a lot, and th deadline is becoming terrifyingly near! THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN:
If you send me any footage you have of cycling in London (ideally with a bit of information about where it is; start point, end point, points of interest etc.) It would be hugely helpful as I can use it to create a map of sorts, picking out journeys across London as well as the 'feel' of the ride (augmented with any extra details you can give me).
This isn't just a case of you doing my work for me however, as a picture gained through many different eyes (so to speak) can be more comprehensive than just through my own.

Any help with this, be it thoughts about riding in the city and the sense of ownership gained through this practice, or any footage of riding in London, would be immensely helpful, and you will of course be referenced fully in the document (if you wish).

Any files, questions, comments, or thoughts can be emailed to me at angusjhsmith@gmail.com.

Cheers,
Angus Smith

Ha! Shame you're leaving it to the last minute, if you'd have given me a load of gopro batteries a month or so ago I could have filmed any sections you wanted of the entire Underground tube network that I've been doing, see here:
https://www.lfgss.com/thread120840.html

When is your deadline? I've still got the Piccadilly and Northern lines to go. I have a gopro but the battery is a bit knackered so does'nt last very long, maybe 30 mins tops. I don't have a headcam but mount it on the handlebars, but if you want me to record any sections of the above lines I can do. I'm off to Wales next week for a week but may try the Northern line before then, and will do the Piccadilly line on my return.

Anyway good luck, I'm sure there's tons of footage out there so you may well get flooded, but I'll try and help if you still need footage.

Ah man that's awesome! your rides are totally in the vein of what I'm looking at, which I would probably summarise as 'Understanding London through the eyes of the cyclist' - or something along those lines.
I GPS mapped the couple of rides I did which were more of a aimless ride with no destination in mind, or 'derive' as the situationists would say... would you mind if I used your map data to compile a series of cross sections across London? and maybe quote some of your experiences in your written bits?
My deadline in 2 months, right at the end of April, so there quite a bit of time, but I have to start writing soon which is going to start taking precedence over the information gathering stage.
That said, I'm coming to London on the 15th march to do some rides; the plan was to interview people about their daily ride (to work etc.) and find out which bits have meaning to them (which could be something like, that pothole you make sure to avoid on road X, to looking out for the same bloke sweeping his shop front every morning, to a particular junction at which more focus is needed... etc.), and then retrace their route given what I will know about it, to see what meaning or understanding I can glean from the city.
I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah, any footage you do have would be great, do you cycle to work? Do you reckon it might be possible to do that journey in the time it take your gopro to run out of battery?

Thanks

Hello Angus. Yeah sure feel free to use any of that thread you want, routes or text.

I know I've got raw video clips of cycling around in the countryside but don't recall any clips of cycling around London, but I'm sure I've got some, I'll have a look in an old hard drive over the weekend. How do you want the clips sending to you? They can be big files.

I'm not working at the moment so don't have a commute, and partly explains having the time for riding the underground. I've just had a cursory look for the camera and could'nt find it, but I'm messy git so I'm sure its here somewhere. I'll let you know what the searches reveal over the next few days when I have more time.

I have some commutes I haven't deleted yet. Newbury Park - Ilford - Stratford - bow - aldgate - tower Bridge - Waterloo if you're interested. Files are big though, about a gig per 25 Mins.

Cheers guys! that'd be great if you could send them to me, the big file size shouldn't be a problem if you've got google drive (my dropbox can only hold 2.5GB so wouldn't be big enough).
Here is a google drive folder I've made, hopefully that works.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3SK2aENXimnWE5aak55ZzdLYUU&usp=sharing
Alternatively, you could send them over using this https://www.wetransfer.com/ although it can only do 2GB at a time...

Why did you pick London if you're based in Sheffield? Could you not do the same thing in Sheffield?

To many hillz, and a small city, perhaps means not that many on the road recording journeys?

All of the above, plus there are lots of other psychogeographical analyses of London which I can refer to, more of a wealth of previous research to go into.
And also I wanted the project to look at how the city appeared to someone who has (had) never cycled in London before, and I wanted to get to know it better because I think it's a city which has ridiculous amounts of history and culture which affect it.
And we've done Sheffield to death over the last three years!

Sorry, this link should allow you to edit/upload stuff to the google drive folder hopefully, just changed the preferences...
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3SK2aENXimnWE5aak55ZzdLYUU&usp=sharing

I have been away from the bike and cam for a few days but ill upload some stuff later when I get home. is there a limit to how much footage you would like from one person? my cam cuts the videos into 25 minute segments too...

I've got a few bits on Youtube

Critical Mass
Sunday cruising
Checkpoint race

Let me know if it could be useful and i'll send you the links

Hi guys,
Matteroftaste - no limit on how much footage whatsoever! I can just go through it and decide which bits I can use. 25 min segments are fine also, probably means they'll be easier to upload... If you could put them on that Drive folder, or link me to a dropbox (if you have it) that'd e awesome, cheers.

Bundo- Yeah those clips would be really useful, kinda interested in critical mass in particular as a political/transgressional act on the roads. What's your youtube username? I'll look them up...

Critical Mass Video link below

London Critical Mass Feb 2013 - YouTube

Other uploads are on my profile