Beat Yah !!

[Lazy-Commuter]

The woman that works at the Leisure Centre where I have a shower, that is. She has a distinctive car - an Alfa Romeo, I think - made even more distinctive by personalised plates.

This morning, as I came through an estate just under a mile (by my route) from the Centre, I noticed this particular car had come out of a side road a couple of hundred yards ahead of me. I caught her up along that road - lots of speed bumps - but then had to turn off to take my short cut through.

She, however, had to go round the long way round via a bit of bypass, over the motorway, blah blah blah. Probably 3 miles or more.

Anyway, I'd got to the Centre, locked the bike, detached all the bits that have to be detached (lights, computer, etc) and was just going into the building as she drove into the car park.

Had she been a bit quicker I'd have suggested she get a bike - or even walk - but I couldn't be bothered to wait for her.

 

[HelenD123]

I love it when that happens! I regular race one of my car driving colleagues into the office. It's very satisfying sailing past him sat in a queue of traffic.

 

[Bollo]

My favourite car-beater is when me and Bolletta ride down from her school to the local leisure centre for her swimming lessons. When the traffic's bad, she can be waiting by the poolside when the SRMs pull into the carpark.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

What an SRM ??

 

[Landslide]

School Run Mum?

I think you may need to change your moniker Lazy Commuter!

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Aha, thanks. Nah, still lazy .. it's just easy to do less than a mile on the bike quicker than a cager can do 3+ in traffic.

Actually, from the glimpses I got of various of the bigger roads today the traffic didn't look too bad .. on a bad day, it would definitely take longer to drive round than walk through.

I thought the guy in my office who lives near the Office but still drives* was the laziest person around. Maybe not ..

* 2 miles to drive, <1 mile to walk the direct route, just over a mile to go the "pretty" way.

 

[Bollo]

SRM - sorry, should have put it in the glossary.

For lazy, there's a chap near us who drives his kid to and from school every day - 250 yards each way! And no, he doesn't go straight on to work afterwards in either direction, because I often follow him on my way to and from the station. And he drives like an @rse. And he drives into the school car park, despite repeated requests not to. And no, his kid is not disabled (although I suspect some childhood obesity setting in).

I've got video of him, but as its not about my ride directly and there are a lot of nippers around, I've never put it up.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

No worries, Bollo.

And I concede: your chap eclipses both the woman at the Leisure Centre, and the guy in my team. I do wonder about some people .. there's another car I see at the Centre most mornings - not sure if it's staff or customer - which I noticed outside a house approx 400 yards from teh Centre on the way past the other morning.

But with them I'm not sure if it's a stop off for a swim / go in the gym on the way to work so can't be sure.

I did once see my colleague outside the Tesco close to our office, which is VERY close to his house. We'd cycled over with the kids to do a lap of a lake in a country park near where I work (approx 13 mile round trip - basically the same as my trip to work) and he was emerging from the store while I waited outside with the bikes and Littlest-LC while Little-LC and Mrs-LC went on an ice-cream run. He tottered off and I was astounded a few minutes later to see him drive past .. he must have been parked near the back of the car park which would be 300 yards from his house using a walkway through.

 

[purplepolly]

I drive my local Sainburys (5 minutes walk) a couple of times a year to get heavy things, always on the way back from somewhere else, so like me he's not necessarily made a special trip. On the other hand, my neighbour does drive there, despite only having one person to shop for and there being a co-op even closer.

Her predecessor used to drive to the local railway station, I used to walk and if we got the same train home I always got back first.

 

[Iainj837]

In a village I used to live a woman (SRM) drops of her daughter @ school then turns round and goes home A walk that would take less then 5 mins

 

[threefingerjoe]

I'm not as fast as some of you, but I get a kick out of leaving from work, and riding my bike past all of the people in the carpark scraping ice from their windscreens! ;-)

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

I drive my local Sainburys (5 minutes walk) a couple of times a year to get heavy things, always on the way back from somewhere else, so like me he's not necessarily made a special trip. On the other hand, my neighbour does drive there, despite only having one person to shop for and there being a co-op even closer.

Her predecessor used to drive to the local railway station, I used to walk and if we got the same train home I always got back first.

A good point, and I'm not being critical of people using the car for short journeys where there's a reason. However, you have to know this guy to understand .. anyways, on this particular occassion he just had a big bag of Doritos.

 

[PBancroft]

When I do drive to work, I park out of town and walk in - the walk is just over a mile, and its usually quite pleasant even if raining.

And yet people who live on the same route I walk drive into work, pay for the pleasure of the park and ride service, and then bus up to the front door of the office.

Just don't get it.

 

[downfader]

This all sounds VERY familiar. If anyone has seen my thread on Fatties in 4x4s on bikerader you'll be right at home, lol!

When I used to commute the long way around home I used to ride past a school and would follow behind some of the cars that would pull out of the school car park, squeeze through the traffic and stop a couple of hundred meters down the road, pull on to a drive and get out.

What was wrong with walking?!

Southampton is terrible for lazy people in cars. You can speak to anyone here and its the same story. "Its raining.. its too hot... I might get run over... its ok for you, you're young... its ok for you, you're fit/do it everyday..."

Now I hear them complain about their health problems now. High blood pressure, diabetes, docs are telling them to lose weight... the list goes on

 

[PBancroft]

Southampton is terrible for lazy people in cars. You can speak to anyone here and its the same story. "Its raining.. its too hot... I might get run over... its ok for you, you're young... its ok for you, you're fit/do it everyday..."

Don't I know it?

I'm a Romsey boy. I tell people I cycle to Winchester and they just gawp at me... heck, I tell people I cycle into Romsey town centre from the outskirts and I get the same reaction.

Anybody would think that before cars people just sat at home dreaming of combustion engines that would take them somewhere.