This morning's commute and other commuting stories

I have the same habit picked up from dealing with the same breed of arseholes I mean police in Australia.

Y U get catched?

Spend more time than normal bogwanking? Or start smoking? It's what Jesus would do.

I do tend to answer back rather than do the sheepish "Yes, Sir" thing.

I contemplated the former when I got stopped by a police officer who asked what would happen in case I had to perform an emergency stop on my fixed gear bike with only a front brake. Probably a rhetorical question and didn't want to be cheeky so didn't try to argue with him. Didn't get a ticket either, probably correlated.

Its hard to be civil when they're rude and up in your face for little reason

That's where you're all going wrong. Don't stop!

Sorry, missed those useful suggestions; spent 25 minutes distracted on here and now everyone's arrived. Except Jesus, though. I think he's wfh.

I didn't... that was the problem. Not a RLJ on this occasion, but overtook a flat bed lorry on the outside, and as the lorry was driving at around 10mph over a zebra crossing (no peds around and oncoming lane empty) I chose to finish the overtake in the oncoming lane as it was clear.

The police caught up at the next traffic light where I had stopped, and gave me the "What would happen if you were a pedestrian crossing at that time?" which is a ridiculous question as the flat bed would've stopped as would have I - this apparently is not the desired answer.

Pedantically he was correct, I was riding on the wrong side of the road over a ped crossing. But it was just an overtake as the truck was in traffic going slow and I wasn't going to ride on the inside of it.

No ticket, but only because where he'd caught up to me was at traffic lights where I was in the middle of the lane and the lights went green which meant he was now holding up traffic.

I was riding on the wrong side of the road over a ped crossing.

Was there a sign with an arrow pointing down and left?

That is a level of attention to which I was not paying.

I was looking for peds and oncoming traffic and assessing speed, not checking whether the zebra crossing (with island) had little blue arrow signs.

But now I'm curious enough to check this on the way home :)

Google.com does this thing where you can look at a street as if you were stood there, in 360 would you believe it. I think its called roadlook or something

Hah, good call.

Yes... plastic bollards on the island in the zebra crossing, and blue arrows.

I did know he was pedantically right. Still no traffic in oncoming lane or peds near the crossing or on it, and no desire to be caught between the flat bed and the white van behind it.

Meh, I've done it before and will continue to do so when its safer for me. I have to go round a ped island regularly on the corner of sloane street at knightsbridge because coming up to the lights and filtering on the right, the ASL is always full of mopeds and/or a double decker so I end up stuck in the other lane as the traffic moves off.

I bet he's not even out of bed yet.

Whatever you do, do it with a smile. I prefer the maniacal grin variety. The 'I'm not listening to you but I really fancy you' smile with batted eyelids is pretty good too.

I don't think you are allowed to overtake within the zig-zag lines of a ped crossing whichever side of the carriageway you are on, so technically he got you bang to rights anyway.

“Anything you say can....”

“Please officer, stop hitting me”

That is a level of attention to which I was not paying.

Never mind the legalities - ^ I'm sure Mr Plod appreciated the structure of this sentence.

It is definitely illegal. I know scooterists who've been booked for it. I'm always surprised how many motorcyclists obey, but the stakes are higher when points on your license could be at stake.

"
Rule 165

You MUST NOT overtake
...
the nearest vehicle to a pedestrian crossing, especially when it has stopped to let pedestrians cross
"

(The above should probably say "within the area marked by white zigzag lines" a la: http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/answers/what-do-the-zigzag-lines-at-the-crossing-mean )

Ignoring the blue/white keep left arrows is a separate offence.

was cycling on the pavement with my kid on the back along a busy road and got doored by a passenger.
got soaked in the rain that only manifested during my commute - it stopped as soon I got to the nursery.
Not a good start.

overtake

Filtering isn't overtaking is it?

Is he filtering if the traffic is moving?

Filtering isn't overtaking is it?

Filtering is overtaking.

*shrug*

Is it defined anywhere?

Bikeradar etc... >>>>>>>>>>>>

God I hate trains in this country, 3hr delay from Clapham Junction to Reading, 30 minutes delayed from Reading to Oxford, arrive 2hrs late, miss three meetings, wait 10 days to see if they might honour my comp claim.

Did like the women going postal at the guard at Ascot, he was as much surprised at a whole load of people getting of a train as we were having to get off the train. Fair play to the fella when she started making it personal he offered her a coffee and something to eat as she was obviously stressed which she took offence to. So he mentioned to her she might want to seek medical advice and then trotted off to around of applause for the other passengers. Vile women