This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Why do folk who are doing a U-turn end up using 4 lanes of road, and NEVER look!?

Twice in a week nearly been creamed by cars doing random U turns (from opposite side) and despite trying to slow/speed up to avoid the front of their vehicle just about end up between them and the kerb.

Turning right into the maelstrom of Old St/Shoreditch High St commuter panic, I merged with a black cab driving rather quickly. I had lights, but from the side was pretty ninja so slowed down to let him through and we had a little game of "no, you go first, no you go, you go first" etc and given it was my right of way, I went.

He caught up with my and wound down his window - I braced myself for the abuse. "Hi mate, you ok? Didn't want to startle you, so thought I'd give you some room. Have a good day". I don't think he was being sarcastic.

bus strike commute fucking glorious

Cheers dude. Yeah I got her deets, luckily there's no damage to the bike. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a pretty big antidotes shaped dent in the side of her door though.

@NoFuckingChance cheers mate, will do.

Anyway, this morning was epically fun because of the strike 10/10

Name change to Antidoors is in order.

Glad you're OK.

Bit of a free for all this morning on the CS7, a lot of cars/vans deciding that the bus lane was for them so suddenly pulling across once they hit traffic. At one point I thought I was in the Rapha shop so many Rapha jackets on display today. Loved the mini downpour. 8/10

Got to work relatively dry, having missed the rain. Collected towel from towel cupboard but did a little bit of work before having a shower. Checked that shower was free. Headed into shower with backpack containing change of clothes. Came out of shower, realised towel was still on desk.

Dried self with paper towels and bib shorts. Kit now wetter than on arrival at work.

Name change to Antidoors is in order.

#wouldrep

Cheers mate.

ditto, would ride again

I never get hot in my cape, but when it's windy it does act as a bit of a sail...

Gave the finger to a Audi/beamer driver for punishment passing me for moving out into the road to overtake another cyclist. It was coming round a corner so he shouldn't have been passing me anyway, and in a 20 zone. Was secretly quite pleased that I didn't flinch when I realised how close he was, and got the finger right in his window, about 10 inches from his passenger's face.

I probably should learn to act calmer though.

I hate getting wet.

fuck passengers!

Made my commute loads more fun by fitting risers and 25c tyres to my Condor.

Like a skinny fixed gear BMX.

Might keep it in this setup until Spring.

Richmond Park clearly is a popular commute route.

Gates to gates queue.

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At least they are sticking to the speed limit for once

I only recently have a speedometer on my bike and was surprised at how fast drivers overtake you when you're at the limit.

Hardly. Perfectly marshalled paceline.

Looks like at least one commercial vehicle in that queue. (They're banned from the park without a permit or when not visiting one of the properties in the park for a valid reason.)

Tut.

critical mass car protest ride?

Maybe he was delivering deer feed?

Saw my new favourite thing today ...

At a cross roads with simultaneous green for pedestrians at all four points, a guy jumped the red, swerved into the pedestrian crossing and swung his right leg of the bike as if he was getting off, only to swerve back into the road and swing the leg back on.

Does only having one leg on the bike preclude it from counting as a RLJ? FFS, if you are going to jump it, man up and jump it properly - this was just half assed and smug.

Does only having one leg on the bike preclude it from counting as a RLJ?

Simply put, no.

The only way it'd be decided properly was if if it ended up in front of a judge. They would then consider the intention and outcome of the actions rather than just the legality of the individual actions themselves.

[EDIT] Ah, it was specifically called out in Crank vs Brooks:-

"In my judgment a person who is walking across a pedestrian crossing pushing a bicycle, having started on the pavement on one side on her feet and not on the bicycle, and going across pushing the bicycle with both feet on the ground so to speak is clearly a 'foot passenger'. If for example she had been using it as a scooter by having one foot on the pedal and pushing herself along, she would not have been a 'foot passenger'. But the fact that she had the bicycle in her hand and was walking does not create any difference from a case where she is walking without a bicycle in her hand. I regard it as unarguable the finding that she was not a foot passenger "

(DPP v Selby [1994] RTR 157, 162; Crank v Brooks [1980] RTR 441, 442-3)

Not my commute - I was in the car unfortunately - but saw what was nearly an horrendous crash at the top of Kennington Park Road last night at approx 6:40pm.

Some dick in an old Vauxhall saloon heading north towards the junction decided to use the bus lane (fair enough, it's only off limits in the morning) and tore up the inside of the queue of traffic aiming to barrel through the pedestrian-crossing lights. Meanwhile in the massive crowd of cyclists waiting at the lights out of Churchyard Row, one guy is watching the lights, and as they are red, starts rolling out.

Twat in Vauxhall blitzes through and must have passed the guy's front wheel at 40mph with cms to spare.

Was certain they would collide. Not sure how they didn't. From the looks of it neither was the rider. Car carried on without pause. And after a while so did cyclist. If that were me I'd have been damn shaken up.

Don't look at the traffic controls, look at the traffic - some people don't have enough intelligence to spare on other people.