This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Mega fail on commute back to work, snake bite puncture on Euston road this morning with a loud bang, DIY at lunch today!

Aren't you're suppose to ride sensibly?

"Hell is other people."
Sparky, 2014

Apart from having to throw some daggers (how very restrained of me) towards some bird with shitty music I could hear before we moved off it was a lovely read and I didn't notice anything else.

I do make sure to sleep in first so I'm well rested and avoid the crush around 8am. Get a seat, plenty of room and zone out in book. More pleasant than riding in if every day was the same to be honest, but it's not and that is why riding is better overall.

tube snob? there all made by kenda anyway

Actually wasn't the tube at fault, I think the pressure of the tyre when riding through the bad patch of road made a small cut through the side wall, so explains the second inner tube explosion.

Aren't you're suppose to ride sensibly?

I wasn't event do anything silly but rid in a straight line and hit a crack on the road and my inner and side wall of my tyre had a massive fail on my behalf.

Last night just going round the corner onto London Bridge from Gracechurch street I'm on the inside nearest the kerb, noticed bloke on my right busting a gut a on MTB. Gets a little in front of me and puts his arm straight out left as to indicate he was turn left, think that's a bit strange . Turns out It was his way of warning me I was to close to him WTF. How can I be to close when he is on my outside? Same thing this morning going down Kennington Park, ride near the kerb, move over slight to avoid a pot hole, Women on a MTB tries going through the small gap I've opened which meant I had to pull out more always most smashing onto the bloke overtaking me. Although said bloke did have a word with her. Strange bred them MTB riders.

The gutter is for rain water not cyclists.

Same thing in the eyes of drivers, no?

Urgh, two flats inside a week and both at exactly the same spot, going west on Bayswater Road by the junction with Leinster Terrace. Anyone else?

P.s. Am I better off just changing my route and avoiding these turds?

I'd say continue to civilise the route by your presence instead. Use whichever route you like, but don't change because of poor behaviour by other users unless you really can't stand it any more.

It's always difficult to have a word with people who ride badly, but you can show them by example. They learn sometimes. :)

I'd say continue to civilise the route by your presence instead. Use whichever route you like, but don't change because of poor behaviour by other users unless you really can't stand it any more.

It's always difficult to have a word with people who ride badly, but you can show them by example. They learn sometimes. :)

The Zen master has spoken....

Your right though, I'm getting riled up on my second week! Better take it handy and see if I can distil some sense in to the bandits.

Apart from having to throw some daggers (how very restrained of me) towards some bird with shitty music I could hear before we moved off it was a lovely read and I didn't notice anything else.

I do make sure to sleep in first so I'm well rested and avoid the crush around 8am. Get a seat, plenty of room and zone out in book. More pleasant than riding in if every day was the same to be honest, but it's not and that is why riding is better overall.

I'm trying to ride three days a week and train two at the moment, sometimes vice versa. A change is as good as a rest. A rest it also good.

But today is a bike day and I'm about to log off. Laters, motherlickers.

4 punctures in 2 days; 2 front, 2 rear.

Michelin Lithions might be cheap and grippy, but they are shit for punctures after a couple of thousand miles.

I love when some nozzles run a red to beat then and are then forced to stop at the next light because of coppers or whatever and your cruising momentum just lets you roll straight on by. Fuck yeah, suckers. I roll faster than you nod.

Full fucking house of commuting cuntery this morning.

Slack jawed, gum smacking teenager in a cheap, entry level sports car cutting sharply in front of two cyclists from the left hand lane on brixton road just to be exactly where she woulda been at the traffic lights had she waited.

Overweight, middle aged, diminutive cockney faux-hardman in a giant 4x4 texting all the way from kennington road to waterloo bridge, most of it with a plod car RIGHT BEHIND HIM.

Fuckity chops undertaking on waterloo bridge to squeeze through a gap between a double decker bus and some fencing, forcing me to drop anchors to avoid clattering his bumble-to-work scheme cervello he was riding with flats.

And of course the entirely predictable parade of people driving cars whilst on the phone in some shape way or form. About 15 before i couldn't be arsed counting anymore. And not a single RLJ'er.

kill everyone.

Nearly taken out by a fast, black and very expensive-looking sedan who decided to turn left from the right hand lane on the southbound entry to Westminster Bridge. Turned directly across me, I dropped anchors and yelled; thankfully my right pedal was up and took all the contact, leaving me still on the bike and him with a 5 foot scratch in his paintwork. Gave him a massive bollocking, but might as well have been speaking Chinese. Properly shaking: rarely get so upset by this sort of thing, but yeah, that was horrible.

kill everyone.

this

shitty stuff

Sounds like we have a similar route but I though today was fine. Must have got a good "rolling group" Can be a lot of cocks up Kennington Road though.

4 punctures in 2 days; 2 front, 2 rear.

Michelin Lithions might be cheap and grippy, but they are shit for punctures after a couple of thousand miles.

Flat tyre when I got down to the garage this morning, despite not even riding over the weekend. Fuck's sake.

I've gone back to Gatorskins. They might ride like shit, but at least I'm not fixing flats every fucking day

I had an interesting encounter with a ped this morning, at the junction of Horsell and Ronald Rd behind Holloway rd. I was walking with my girlfriend to H&I station, and pushing my bike so that when she got on a train I'd cycle off to work, and a flustered woman stopped me and asked me, as a cyclist, to explain who has right of way at the junction.

Pic of the junction here: http://imgur.com/XQHaEpQ

She was saying that she was walking from C to B to A, and cyclists travelling D to E and vice versa weren't giving her right of way. I realised I wasn't actually sure; since the cyclists are crossing an end-of-a-road line, they're supposed to give way to cars going along either of the roads, sure, but what about peds crossing? And complicating it, should cyclists take into account the safety of stopping suddenly for a ped when there's often a lot of bike and car traffic coming fast behind them?

If ped is in road first then Ped has right of way if cyclist is at the junction before the lines marking the edge of jct. If ped is on pavement and cyclist is pulling out/gets to road before ped steps out then cyclist has right of way. Either way this looks like one dodgy as fook jct and I would definately employ the eyes in the back of me head for this one. One thing is for sure that this is complex jct and no one should be approaching it at speed, especially not on a bike.

I think that grandfather rights means that pedestrians crossing any street should have priority (apart from motorways where they are banned), in as much as wheeled traffic should do its utmost to avoid hitting them. Over time though, as speeds and the amount of traffic has increased, the convention is for peds to be expected to use official crossing points and cross anywhere else at their own risk. Rule 170 of the Highway Code does give peds explicit priority at side streets though, but as you say it doesn't apply here because of the give way signs on the cycle 'path'.

However those very give way signs I think do imply that peds already crossing would have priority over bikes, as they are just as entitled to use the full width of the carriageway as any other road user. So if they are on the 'main' road here and already crossing, bikes should give way. I may be wrong.

This is poorly worded because I am tired and wandery, but an interesting conundrum to to get one's head around on a Monday morning!

Hmm the cycle lane give way signs are there to give way to road users, not peds - obviously everyone should give way to peds crossing the road sensibly. It's not an official pedestrian crossing, as a pedestrian, it's similar to when you're walking along a pavement and there's a side road. You have to cross it so you wait until there's no traffic to cross it, you don't just walk out in front of an approaching car, or a car that's indicating to turn into the side road.

The problem I guess is that it's a very quiet street with great line of sight so cyclists don't have to slow down to give way to other road users already on the road so I assume there was a situation of a steady stream of cyclists. No road users is legally required to give way to a ped there, unless they have already begun crossing the road.

You'd hope at least one cyclist would be courteous enough to give way to a pedestrian without them having to step out on to the road, but in that situation, it looks like that's what they would have to do.

it's similar to when you're walking along a pavement and there's a side road. You have to cross it so you wait until there's no traffic to cross it, you don't just walk out in front of an approaching car, or a car that's indicating to turn into the side road.

"3. Road junctions (170 to 183)
170
Take extra care at junctions. You should

watch out for cyclists, motorcyclists, powered wheelchairs/mobility scooters and pedestrians as they are not always easy to see. Be aware that they may not have seen or heard you if you are approaching from behind
watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning.** If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way.**"

Sorry but this is a source of much frustration for me when I'm a ped. You, as a rider or a driver, are entering a new road, of which is in use by a ped. Yes, obviously look to see if cars are flagrantly breaking this rule and are likely to run you down - no one wants that -, but the rule still states, to paraphrase, if you have started to cross you have priority. What if the indicating car is behind you as you look left and right and cross? or perhaps it is behind a bus/line of cars coming the other way? What if it isnt indicating (very likely)? are you just supposed to wait around in the case of a car perhaps turning up? No, this rule exists so you can, after checking both ways, cross the road in safety and approaching road users (who, of course, have slowed down as they are approaching a junction) will give way for you.

Unless there's a steady stream of peds crossing the road, they should be able to just shuffle across slowly and have the bikes go around them.

I had an interesting encounter with a ped this morning, at the junction of Horsell and Ronald Rd behind Holloway rd. I was walking with my girlfriend to H&I station, and pushing my bike so that when she got on a train I'd cycle off to work, and a flustered woman stopped me and asked me, as a cyclist, to explain who has right of way at the junction.

Pic of the junction here: http://imgur.com/XQHaEpQ

She was saying that she was walking from C to B to A, and cyclists travelling D to E and vice versa weren't giving her right of way. I realised I wasn't actually sure; since the cyclists are crossing an end-of-a-road line, they're supposed to give way to cars going along either of the roads, sure, but what about peds crossing? And complicating it, should cyclists take into account the safety of stopping suddenly for a ped when there's often a lot of bike and car traffic coming fast behind them?

mistertea is correct. We are very lucky that British law in this respect dates back to the days when the main conflict between road users was between drivers of carriages and people on foot. Sensibly, people on foot have to be considered first and foremost when they're in the carriageway.

http://i.imgur.com/XQHaEpQ.jpg

The modal filter shown is fairly old and a bit of a halfway house. We'd generally recommend the 'Culford filter' now, as seen at the junction of Culford Road and Northchurch Terrace/Road.

Hmm the cycle lane give way signs are there to give way to road users, not peds

Apologies for the pedantic point, but pedestrians are road users. The road or street is comprised of the footway and the carriageway. It's actually a very important distinction to keep in mind, especially if you're campaigning for cycling and walking.

When someone shouts 'get off the road'--you can't, not unless you have a convenient private house, public building or park to dodge into. The road or street is for everybody.

Well put.