This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Beautiful morning. Brockwell Park was very pictureskew.

Felt like getting tube in, walked up to station and found the district line suspended.

Walked back home, hopped on the bike and had a lovely ride in.

Convenience/10

Geared down the paddy wagon (46x18) recently. Much more chilled ride. Especially for my knees.

I recall @Oliver Schick describing some people seeing cycling as being a form of assisted walking rather than using a vehicle, and saw the perfect example of this on the way in this morning: some guy leaving the road to go round corners by using the dropped kerb to mount the pavement then rejoining the road after the corner. He did this three times in a short stretch between Calthorpe Street and Mount Pleasant so I guess he must be really into it. It struck me as being pointless and annoying. A couple of those times I had to hold back from overtaking due to his trajectory being unpredictable due to this on/off approach to using the road and no attempts to look before manoeuvring. It may be some sort of marginal gains thing, but why not just ride a little bit faster and act like you belong on the road?

There's one corner I do that on regularly round the back of Mount Pleasant.
(I doubt it was me tho as if there's anyone behind me I will indicate.)
The reason I do it is because it makes one nasty crossroads quicker and safer for me to navigate.
The pavement is super wide and there's never any peds using it.
And the posties round there drive like maniacs...

But its the law that you ride only on the road

There's a spot near my home where riding across the dropped kerb turns a nasty right hand switchback into a more manageable 90° turn, which is handy when you have very impatient people trying to overtake you on the right as you're slowing down to turn into the switchback.

Plenty of places where similar can be done completely legally as the pavement is designated as shared use.

e.g. Turning left from Grosvenor Road onto Chelsea Bridge Road: https://goo.gl/maps/3EwyeS1fkZr

(Up onto the pavement before the final stop line, then off the pavement onto the road just after the junction. Note that pedestrian bits over the bridge are marked as No Cycling so you have to use the road to be legal.)

Was that on Farringdon Road, Phoenix Place, or Gough Street? The latter's cobbly, but I don't expect that's what you were referring to.

I've been trying to work out how one might go around a corner via the footway three times on either of these streets but it's not obvious to me what you mean.

In general (apart from possible site-specific reasons) people ride on the footway because they imagine it's 'safer', which it isn't. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it specifically to go around a sequence of corners, although I've seen plenty do it for just one corner.

There's plenty of shared use footways near me (although the one I'm talking about isn't)

although the one I'm talking about isn't

See my comment above.

It was turning left from calthorpe street to phoenix place, right from phoenix place to mount pleasant then left from mount pleasant where it intersects with Gough st onto the continuation of mount pleasant
I get that sometimes it is permitted or safer but this sequence just seemed like trying to take the shortest possible route.

Except it isn’t.

Alright pedants. It is illegal to cycle on the pavement when not a shared path.

http://road.cc/content/news/108119-transport-minister-responsible-cyclists-can-ride-pavement

The footway isn't safer for cyclists?

Not saying you should cycle on it, but there are no risky overtakes, lorries... Maybe however my intuition is completely at odds with statistics :)

Ah, I see. I took 'Calthorpe Street to Mount Pleasant' too literally. Yes, that is a daft series of manoeuvres.

Ironically, I just saw someone do this when he jumped the red light at Stamford Hill/Manor Road to turn left into Manor Road. He rode around the corner on the footway, probably because he thought to himself that it's not *really* jumping a light.

It isn't, no. It's one of those things people never understand until they fall of their own accord (usually over a kerb of some kind, with low kerbs with about a 5cm upstand particularly treacherous) or crash into a pedestrian/a shop's outside vegetable stack/an A-board/over a dog leash/café chair/café table/rubbish bag, etc. I've seen all of these things happen and more. Statistically, a lot of cyclist injuries occur without any driver involvement. The aforementioned low kerbs are a source of serious injury especially for elderly people, it seems, as they may fall awkwardly. Many hips have been broken that way.

Strictly speaking, one should be comparing like for like, and it is, I think, self-evident that riding at the same speed along the footway as along the carriageway usually means a higher risk on the footway. However, oddly, riding slowly along the footway isn't necessarily 'safer', mainly because of the low kerb issue. People hit them at odd angles, they are often irregularly-shaped, and with a bit of a low-speed wobble can easily go down.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah kerb hopping can easily go wrong.

In Belfast the main risks (for cyclists, as some twats really annoy and sometimes endanger peds by cycling way too fast / inconsiderately on the footpath) are more closes passes/YPLAC in the cycle lane.

So I was more comparing "nice wide footway with no funny hops taking at a considerate speed" VS "cycling on road having to avoid parked cars/side swipes/people up your rear light" but yes makes sense, you can hurt yourself on footpaths too.

To the possibly on here more likely ELF member on the braklis silver Cinelli Mash on Old Street around 9:15am this morning, I understand your bars are so absurdly wide you can barely reach the grips, but please do make some effort to stay in something remotely resembling a straight line when putting the power down.

Clapham Common Long Road 8.15am going west. Guy with panniers, wearing a USA national champion Rapha top just squeezed passed me at the first set of lights to RLJ then proceeded to do RLJ the next 5 or so, with some pavement riding thrown in. Didn't get far ahead of me of course, even though I looked ridiculous riding my wife's tiny road bike and was trundling along.

Looked like a stupid cunt and rode in equal measure.

Went too fast around a blind corner, slammed straight into a deliveroo cyclist. I went over the bars and skinned my hand and hip, he was fine and very understanding considering the circumstances.

Could have been worse I guess, I could have flipped right into the river.

Lovely ride in on the all weather commuter. Felt a lot more plush and comfy than the road bike, and will be nice to start getting some use out of the only just fitted dynamo lights and rear rack.

Have you tried pushing a pram around London?

None of the pavements are level, the dropped kerbs are missing or blocked by illegal parking, the crossings are blocked by busses, and as a result its a genuinely physically exhausting activity.

On top of which, the parent is dealing with years of sleep deprivation, a badly behaved child, the generally shittiness of being a parent, the stress of being late for everything, a mountain of un-done work and personal admin, and the outright hostility of commuters.

Sometimes, under these circumstances, bad decisions are made. Best to give pram-pushers a wide berth whenever you can. Or at least have the decency to aim for the parent and put them out of their misery.

Always surprised that other people seem to treat pushchairs as if they're invisible - hence why I fitted Galdiator style wheel blades to ours. Did make the concourse at Blackfriars a bit slippery though.

As for sleep deprivation - the effects are subtle and brutal (if that makes sense).