This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Went through at 8:10, from Walworth over to London Rd. Wasn't too bad by then, it's certainly been worse in recent months. Heavy but slow moving traffic from about Albany/Burgess Park upwards.

I wasn't expecting the traffic lights just after where the old entrance to the North r'about used to be.

Just been through. Everything is moving ok, not even a queue down St George's. Bit slow getting on to E&C from Walworth Rd but that's because the light phase is short.

Yup, if anything the E&C roundabout was moving better than normal this morning. Traffic in other parts of SE1 was worse than normal. Tower Bridge Road was a car park.

It will be interesting this evening when everyone who wants to go from Borough High St to Walworth/Kennington automatically turn left and find themselves on New Kent Road.

Ahahaha that was excellent. Nobody had a fucking notion what was going on.

10/10 Would embrace chaos again.

Yeah, coming from E&C and going towards Clapham. I reckon they've done OK merging cyclists back into the bus lane - certainly much better than the northbound bit, in my opinion.

Obligatory it took me longer to get to work because E&C isn't a roundabout any more post.

Thanks TFL.

Took forumgers's advice, and geared down. I've been building up a path frame for a while, and have gone with 50x18, on 700c wheels (so smaller than my 27" x 1 1/4 ones).

Felt good. Felt very good. (But that might also be due to the fact that the whole rig weighs 2kg less than my previous bike, has a shorter wheelbase, and a higher bottom bracket height, giving me a more commanding view of the road)

9/10 would gear down again.

E&C was an eye opener this morning eh!! To be fair you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.. But boy, that was a lot of omelette for a Monday morning.

Fair dues though, they did have a lot of Police and 'traffic advisers' coaxing the traffic around the new layout..

The lazy fockers weren't there when I came through

if you need people to stand on the pavement to direct people in cars, you've failed.

Haha yes I was aware of a lot of stressed out people pacing around in hi-viz.

I did have a good laugh with a few motorcyclists at their expense and also at trying to locate St. George's Rd

Anyway, I haven't spotted you in ages :'(

I went through E&C this morning for the first time in ages, it was fine- blew straight through the whole junction with zero stress.

OKR was chocka back to the McDonalds drive thru but getting to London Road was much better than it was before.

Forgot - had an amusing road rage incident this morning. Cycling over Bolan bridge in Barnes, a gaggle of us cyclists had ended up 2 abreast, which makes sense owing to the fact that it's not possible to safely overtake on that road anyway. A car and van really didn't take kindly to this, and were hooting at us all to move into the gutter. Cue much thumbs up and waving at said van (my stock response to anyone hooting at me in this manner.) As the van finally went past, some obscenities were shouted about how we 'shouldn't be in the middle of the road', with much revving of engines.

As usual, 30 yards down the road there was a junction, and queue of cars. As we sailed past the van, which was of course stuck in said queue, the guy in front of me told the driver that 'that was worth it, wasn't it!'. I got the standard miserable 'fuck off' reply as I went past.

Delightful! Put a spring in my step this morning!

Nothing much to report bar sun ( :) ) despite a forecase of spitting rain and... A seal!

Very close to the waterfront next to the ped/cyclist shared path to work. Was just sitting there watching, of course you wouldn't see him/her unless you were on the lookout.

I had a nice chat with a cycle PoPo who kindly lead me across three lanes of traffic into the right lane.

It was like being a wide eyed kid of wonder. 2 decades I've been riding that route and that roundabout so it was a quite a shock to see it re-routed like that over night.

Much change. So traffic. Such lanes.

Wow.

As noted above, the new E&C roundabout is actually ok, sort of. The entire A2 from New Cross to E&C was a massive steaming turd though. Woke up late, decided to take the short route in, forgot it was happening. Filtered the entire way to work.

Had a bellend in a minicab/minibus type people-carrier thing indicate left coming North on Vauxhall bridge, make the turn at the junction at the end then immediately pull left in front of me across the solid line to stop in the cycle lane about 3ft around the corner to pick someone up. Called him a fucking prick and got a 'shaaaddaaaap' in response. Nice driving, dickhead.

Rushing to the jobcenter this morning, not pleasant. Had timed to be ten minutes early to cool down, arrived 5 minutes late.

I'd snapped the crank arm off the BB at the spindle on the Mayfair folding bike. Road goes under railway, uphill, traffic lights. Two cars ahead, so minor track stand, then push down to go up as light goes green, suddenly on the ground with bloody knee and hand. Car behind beeps me, jog out of the road with the whole NDS crank in-hand.

Had to beg bus driver to give me a lift back, didn't have the feels for walking.

Must work out if it's worth fixing the bike - cottered cranks, vintage and non-standard. Fun bike but hardly worth throwing more money at.

You fall off your bike and the car beeps you. Cheers. Forget the cranks. Good luck finding work.

A reminder that everyone commuting is lucky to have a job.

@Brave

such lanes

made me chuckle. I'm thinking of going for a ride down to E&C just to check out the madness. Maybe I'll go the long way to town tomorrow to see the results of what I always extoll: the returning of gyratories to Two Way. Does that mean the road going toward Lambeth Bridge is now two way as well? I bet not...

I think that road be slashed in half and there's a big fuck off cycle lane going towards Imp War museum now.

Yep I've actually used that lane already a week or two ago, trying to cut around E& C riding from Blckfriars rd south towards Walworth. Dunno why I bothered.

I want all traffic to go both ways (ooher) not just cycles.

Got some running legging things and put them under some shorts so was really warm and worked really well.

csb

Just found out that they Hi-Vis peeps at E&C are called "Travel Ambassadors"