Tales from today's commute....

[si_c]

Running a fair bit late this morning as I woke up sometime after my alarm was tasked to do so. Left the house and the headwind was so strong I was struggling to hold 15mph, and with 12 miles to go and only 40 minutes to get there, I opted for the train. First time I've done that in 2 years. I feel no shame though, it started raining and I'm warm.

Edit: just noticed some surface rust on my chain, so clearly the bike is unsafe to ride.

 

[mjr]

My two-pennorth - I think you are both right.

Cycle lanes are great and I, like UKOldSchool, use them all the time. The important detail is that I cycle at about 12mph on a bike made of steel (15mph with a tailwind and a slope!)

If however you are the ultrashaved, streamlined, lycra clad super-cyclist on a machine made of angel's hairs, then you are usually doing around 25mph, if not more. For this elite breed of cyclist, cycle lanes are pointless.

What gets my goat is when someone is toddling along at 7mph next to a perfectly good segregated cycle lane. It's those cyclists who are putting themselves in danger. Of course, there are many utterly rubbish cycle lanes too. I think any councillor approving a cycle lane should be made to cycle it regularly for 2 weeks so they can order the remedial work when they realise how dangerous the things are.

I agree but you get accused of being ableist if you suggest approving councillors should ride it as a rule

Good cycleways aren't pointless for racers, as you can see with pelotons using the decent ones (not all) in BE and NL. If cyclists don't use a cycleway, it's probably not good enough. Even 10mph rollers don't like unnecessary stops to cross the road again and again, or to give way at often-blind side road crossings. They will just stay on the road unless the cycleway design flaws are repaired - and why not? The stats say they're not "putting themselves in danger" - some misinterpretations of stats have been used to suggest cycleways are more dangerous, but that isn't clear either IMO. Why should they have to make things harder for themselves to benefit motorists? Presumably they don't accelerate because they've lower power outputs in some sense, so they're among those least able to cope with the stop-start nature of cycleway obstacle courses. Aren't we meant to be encouraging cycling rather than removing inconveniences to motoring?

Anyway, back to today's commute, or yesterdays: 12.5mph inbound and 9mph return, thanks to the 30mph wind! And I had to really haul on the brakes at a side road crossing to avoid rolling into it blind - a friend told me she underestimated it earlier in the day and had a near-miss there

 

[dhd.evans]

Drookit.

 

[DCBassman]

...electric vehicles, as they should start to combat the "i've got to be at the front" drivers

Slightly off topic, but why do you imagine for an instant that this will change? It'll just be quieter!

 

[mjr]

Slightly off topic, but why do you imagine for an instant that this will change? It'll just be quieter!

As mentioned elsewhere recently, various groups are campaigning for e-cars to have noise generators attached, so that short-sighted transition won't even result in less noise pollution!

 

[ianrauk]

Blimey it was warm this morning. Started off with the Nightvision Evo jacket, mistake, after a couple of miles that came off and went intro the pannier and swapped it for a light windcheater. I thought I would get to work this morning on the dry side and it looked like it for 16 miles of the commute. 2 miles from work the heavens opened and I got soaked.
It's dried up now but the weather report is for more rain later. And oh yes, the wind..it's going to make for a tough old commute home by the looks of things.

So with last nights and this mornings wet commutes, the rain scores are:
46 rainy commutes for 2018
Same time last year 29, with 31 over all in 2017
I can safely say that this year has been a damp one.

 

[mjr]

no, they arent turning left (thats a sports centre..) the cycle path continues on the other side of the road, and is well lit and well paved

Sorry to labour this, but I looked on Streetview https://mapstreetview.com/#uswwc_-6khb_2d.h_-if07 and you can see the bleeding potholes, bad repairs, multiple sets of the ironically-named "tramline" skid tiles, the worn surface which has almost lost its markings and that the markings are partly under the grass where it's been allowed to grow over and narrow what was probably already a substandardly-narrow track.

In short, if you think that's well paved, then... I really don't know... you must be in charge of cycle track repairs for some council?

should cars have to share a road when a council has ploughed money and effort in creating a cycle path?

It depends. If it's a decent cycle track, cyclists would use it and cars won't "share" - not that they ever really do, anyway - they tend to hog the whole width of a lane. The real question is, why should cyclists be blamed when councils pee money and effort up the wall creating rubbish cycle tracks?

If the road were blocked for some reason, would you be happy with cars driving along the cycle path?

I think emergency vehicles should be allowed to drive along cycle tracks if the road is blocked, as we see on some of London's. Not ordinary cars - they're usually what blocks the road, so they should have to deal with it. However, I bet few councils build cycle tracks properly enough to enable that.

 

[nickAKA]

I agree but you get accused of being ableist if you suggest approving councillors should ride it as a rule

Good cycleways aren't pointless for racers, as you can see with pelotons using the decent ones (not all) in BE and NL. If cyclists don't use a cycleway, it's probably not good enough. Even 10mph rollers don't like unnecessary stops to cross the road again and again, or to give way at often-blind side road crossings. They will just stay on the road unless the cycleway design flaws are repaired - and why not? The stats say they're not "putting themselves in danger" - some misinterpretations of stats have been used to suggest cycleways are more dangerous, but that isn't clear either IMO. Why should they have to make things harder for themselves to benefit motorists? Presumably they don't accelerate because they've lower power outputs in some sense, so they're among those least able to cope with the stop-start nature of cycleway obstacle courses. Aren't we meant to be encouraging cycling rather than removing inconveniences to motoring?

I think that's the crux of the issue: if you want cycling to be a genuine alternative method of commuting to reduce vehicles on the road, if you build infrastructure it has to be fit for the purpose. Shared paths aren't the answer, they're fine for a bit of recreational cycling but that's about it. IMHO of course.

 

[DCBassman]

Shared paths aren't the answer, they're fine for a bit of recreational cycling but that's about it. IMHO of course.

Exactly. Although it horrifies me to see commuters cycling the A386 between Plymouth and Yelverton and Tavistock, the Drake's Trail would not be a lot if fun in bad weather at night.

 

[T675Rich]

Did my first commute in rain with decent cross winds....no pleasant especially as the not exactly wide cycle lane was half full of running water. Also had a plumb go to turn right across me as they were running a red light (just as I passed the light it changed to amber so I was half way across the junction when it turned red, the car coming the other way just ran a red light). And I lost my back light

 

[MrGrumpy]

Binned the bike today and ran to the train station and ran at the other end to work, and it will be the reverse later this afternoon.

 

[13 rider]

Nearly took the car this morning . Woke at 0530 to rain absolutely lashing against the window . I'm normally out the door by 0600 for an hour's extended ride in so had time to spare so hung around watching breakfast TV . Finally pushed the bike out the door at 0620 into just heavy drizzle got to work nearly dry not too bad a ride glad I rode . Wind tonight was just awful

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Nearly took the car this morning . Woke at 0530 to rain absolutely lashing against the window . I'm normally out the door by 0600 for an hour's extended ride in so had time to spare so hung around watching breakfast TV . Finally pushed the bike out the door at 0620 into just heavy drizzle got to work nearly dry not too bad a ride glad I rode . Wind tonight was just awful

Take the car? How very dare you How many days are you on now?

 

[13 rider]

Take the car? How very dare you How many days are you on now?

271, one of the reasons the car didn't move

 

[Jenkins]

Oh FFS, what's the chance of this lot clearing in an hour? It's tracking along the coast and I'm under the little red dot in Felixstowe!