This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Witness two crashes along the CS7 last night both caused by cyclist doing there own thing. First crash caused by super spiny lady on a Boris Bike who just after over taken would immediately pull left across the path of the person she had just over taken. She had already been called out twice in the space of 30 seconds she did it again this time not seeing someone coming up fast on the left of the person she was over taking who couldn't stop in time so slammed into the side of her, think the BB bike was fine not sure about the other cyclist, looked like a buckled wheel and a bit of damage to there gear. Second one not 2 minutes later on the superhighway most people joined at the start, but this one guy went along the road at speed and joined it halfway along, there is a dip for vehicles coming out of the park. This cause the women in front to move over to the left where she hit a foot of the barrier that was sticking out into the cycle lane, a few of us stopped she seemed shaken more then injured, could she any damage to her bike.

In other news how loud are the Halo Clicksters first outing on it this morning, kept looking round to see who was behind me. Much fun

More than anything @PQR I'm enjoying how much you fucking hate the vauxhall cyleway. It like warms my soul to experience your seething rage.

Ha, it is a good idea just poorly executed and (IMO) wasted a lot of time and money with the likelihood of more accidents as it is such a confusing mess when heading south.

Little details like at the end of the cycle path on the north side just before the bridge they decided to finish the path with the equivalent to bathroom tiles so when it is wet and you are coming off it gives maximum slippiness

Segregated cycle tracks

/do not want jpg

Seconded.

I am genuinely ashamed that a scheme aimed at cyclists has caused all of this disruption for other road users, to give us this omnishambles of segregation.

What a load of shite.

I find segregated cycles lanes more relaxing TBH. No need to shouldercheck to see if Mr Taxi driver is off to do something funny, no worries about left hooks, no need to assertively take lane when there's a traffic island/roundabout etc.

But it has to be done PROPERLY.

If it's segregated/road/back on segregated/cutting ped paths it just turns into a confusing cluster that's more stressful (and possible dangerous too) than being on the road.

No need to shouldercheck to see if Mr Taxi driver is off to do something funny, no worries about left hooks, no need to assertively take lane when there's a traffic island/roundabout etc.

Never come across another rider then?

+1
Many hundreds of thousands of people happily use segregated cycle lanes every day, it's just that most of them live in countries that think these things through and don't accept horrible compromises.

I'd also add that I don't give the slightest fuck about inconveniencing other road users (apart from maybe bus passengers). Traffic jams at their most fundamental level are not caused by roadworks, they're caused by too many cars. The exact same cars that are being driven by the people stuck in the jams.

^ nailed it.

Yep, writing off infrastructure because it's implemented badly doesn't mean that the concept of infrastructure is shit, it means that that infrastructure is shit.

Whilst it gets built piecemeal and with a view to maintaining traffic flow though then it's likely that that's what will be delivered.

need to have a longer look at that, but if they just made it easier to use the bus terminus roadway, and gave you easier entrance and exits, from it, you'd cut out a shit load of the hassle around Vaushall...
Seems like they are just whittling around the problem with what they have proposed

almost forgot about this as I've been under it at work.
Was following a guy (red hoodie, geared road bike) away from lights along the upper richmond road west turns into sheen road, there's a pedestrian crossing next to a school. Lights are red, pedestrians (parents and small kids) start to cross, geezer in front of me, seems to see the pedestrians cross late, or thought he had time to jump the lights before they started crossing, pulls a long skid, comes to a halt as pedestrians look at him, then slides between two groups of them, and carries on up the road, leaving them staring daggers at him as he rides away.

I wait for the lights to change, chase him down, and then let him know that if he's going to jump the lights he can at least wait until the pedestrians have crossed, rather than going all courier through the middle. Just makes him look like a dick. Turns out he's no more than 17/18, and I immediately feel like an old man huffing about how you shouldn't do that.

tl:dr young geezer jumps lights through group of pedestrians, I tell him off, feel like an old man as I ride away...

Apart from that my commute was lovely, even managed to wake up early enough to do me yoga before setting out...

Belfast cycle lanes /roads are quiet enough so it's rare to have to shoulder check for another cyclist that insists on doing something bellendry on a dumb place.

Of course I always check before moving cos I'm perfect (cough cough)

Bigger cyclist issues here are 1 - No lights 2 - Kerb cycling in a rather aggressive manner with motorists usually being OK but they're poor at estimating cycling speeds so you have to watch left hooks/cheeky moves.

Someone tried to RLJ Gordon Street/Euston Road junction of death this morning and managed to drop his chain whilst trying to shift gears at about 5mph resulting in the saddest rollout to the traffic island in the middle to seek shelter from 4 lanes of angry motorists.

Was wondering why the cyclist in front of me was wobbling all over the place this morning, it was cold and he had gloves. However his gloves were not on his hands, instead they were placed on top of his handlebars and he was also clutching his e-cigarette against the bars as he struggle to pedal in far to high a gear while unable to actually grip.

On a positive note I saw a bike paramedic riding through Kingston, when I say riding he was behind me in a queue of traffic and when the lights turned green I set off, a couple of seconds later he flew past and then came to an immaculate track stand at the next lights before racing off again. Great skills, speed and handling, especially as those bikes are quite heavily laden.

Really aggressive HGV driver on Southwark Bridge Road this morning, looking to pass when there really wasn't room. No point, of course, the traffic was backed up over the bridge as usual.

Made sure to give him a wave as I breezed past.

Cycling home last night about 9 I saw an old boy on a recumbent as we were rolling towards a red.

I was gonna be like: "Yo dawg I herd u liek cycling a foot off the ground pmsl" but he jumped the red and then I was like: "smh old ppl got no respetc".

Wait, a person on a recumbent was a bit of a dick? Shocker.

re: Infrastructure

Roads and other tracks in countries with good infra (who also have presumed liability thingy) for cycles are planned that way, throughout, not nodally but linear. They don't increase percieved friction between cyles and everybody else in the way London's travks seem to.

The best infra for cycles in this city are modal filters. End of.

I so rarely see them. I bet I've not seen 10 recumbents in 6 years of cycling in Surrey's famous London.

there was a bloke that popped to OG souths many many whiles back who rode one. he enjoyed ale and taught geography. obvs.

When lived in Edinburgh there was a guy who rode his recumbent from place to place doing street magic and drinking ale. Obvs.

modal filters

I only get all sorts of maths/it stuff coming up...what's that then?

Cyclists get green first, then everyone else?

traffic filtered by mode. i.e. closing off rat-runs/side roads so cars can't get through but bikes can. try filtered permeability.

Apart from the 'Yellow Cab' (are these new?) indicating left then swing right just I was filtering passed, the sheep mentality was out in full force. Noticed a lady and some kids at a zebra crossing, slowed to a stop to let them cross only for at least 12 other cyclist to go straight through wasn't like they were so close behind me, just one after the other. Felt bad for the people try cross. Seems I put them in more danger then I'd expected.