Tales from today's commute....
- Thread starter martint235
- Start date
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Drizzle and general murk here too; although the temperature's not horrendous and there's been no need for waterproofs.
Wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that traffic's been queued solid from my front door all the way to the city centre today
Wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that traffic's been queued solid from my front door all the way to the city centre today
biking_fox
Legendary Member
- Location
- Manchester
Dark clouds, but no wind and mild/cool. Perfect cycling weather, enjoyed the ride in filtering through traffic.
Do you wear a cap/ casquette? Makes a huge difference to me.
I wear a peaked cap I got from Decathlon.
It usually helps, but today it was that fine mist stuff where the water hangs in the air.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Glad I was wearing longs for the first part of my commute, this evening, standing at the station. It was cold enough in longs. I managed to get a space for my bike at the stop down the line (there's actually two stations before it, the next train stops at it and every station out of London and will be rammed).
Edit: On to the 2nd part of my commute tonight, I had to resist the urge to confront an Audi tw@t. They saw a gap in the traffic and they saw me in it but still went for it anyway assuming I wouldnt be a couple of metres further forward a few seconds later and accelerated at speed right from New Road to London Road south. Its an almost impossible junction to get out, especially when try to turn right (its not banned but the central island makes it extra awkward) so she went for it.
Of course she had to slam on her brakes just round the bend for the typical queues at the lights. Unfortunately the lights were going green, so to avoid aggro from other drivers I hung back and had to brake too.
After the steep hill over the ECML I caught her again at the next set of lights, this time at least I didn't have to brake hard.
Of course after the lights she pulled into the first (shared) driveway and for a moment I was tempted to follow her in.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sccGyceP6WDeR97d8
Thank goodness Karma balanced out. At the exit to the roundabout south of this it narrows from two lanes to one with a foot high kerb in the middle. Its impossible to take both lanes but if you don't take the middle of the single lane section you could get an extremely close pass. I've never had a problem but the following driver made sure I wouldn't have a problem tonight. They held back about 2 or 3 car lengths with some other idiot a few inches from their bumper.
Of course at the roundabout just round the bend the polite car is held up by couple of other cars and they knew not to rush to that. The following impatient driver at first tried to overtake them in the right turn lane but there was a driver blocking that too and they weren't turning right in a hurry. The patient car moved forward first, at which point the impatient driver decided to try and get back into the correct lane and ended up at a funny angle. I give that roundabout a big swerve myself it gives way to a dual carriageway and you could be ages and use the newly built shared path down through the new estate instead which was resurfaced bizarrely. The picture doesn't do it justice but its quite long straight without interruption, and when it is interrupted its only by small cull-de-sacs with decent dropped kerbs either side.
Edit: On to the 2nd part of my commute tonight, I had to resist the urge to confront an Audi tw@t. They saw a gap in the traffic and they saw me in it but still went for it anyway assuming I wouldnt be a couple of metres further forward a few seconds later and accelerated at speed right from New Road to London Road south. Its an almost impossible junction to get out, especially when try to turn right (its not banned but the central island makes it extra awkward) so she went for it.
Of course she had to slam on her brakes just round the bend for the typical queues at the lights. Unfortunately the lights were going green, so to avoid aggro from other drivers I hung back and had to brake too.
After the steep hill over the ECML I caught her again at the next set of lights, this time at least I didn't have to brake hard.
Of course after the lights she pulled into the first (shared) driveway and for a moment I was tempted to follow her in.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sccGyceP6WDeR97d8
Thank goodness Karma balanced out. At the exit to the roundabout south of this it narrows from two lanes to one with a foot high kerb in the middle. Its impossible to take both lanes but if you don't take the middle of the single lane section you could get an extremely close pass. I've never had a problem but the following driver made sure I wouldn't have a problem tonight. They held back about 2 or 3 car lengths with some other idiot a few inches from their bumper.
Of course at the roundabout just round the bend the polite car is held up by couple of other cars and they knew not to rush to that. The following impatient driver at first tried to overtake them in the right turn lane but there was a driver blocking that too and they weren't turning right in a hurry. The patient car moved forward first, at which point the impatient driver decided to try and get back into the correct lane and ended up at a funny angle. I give that roundabout a big swerve myself it gives way to a dual carriageway and you could be ages and use the newly built shared path down through the new estate instead which was resurfaced bizarrely. The picture doesn't do it justice but its quite long straight without interruption, and when it is interrupted its only by small cull-de-sacs with decent dropped kerbs either side.
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Those of us - meaning me - who never commute on a bike and only ever ride for pleasure, are amazed at the crap you have to put up with riding to work. It ain't right.
There's way far more good days then bad.
yeah I couldnt work out if it was mist, drizzle or just very very light rain, I just knew I was getting a bit damp. and the roads were greasy too this morning, which maybe was the moment to try and race a car from a set of traffic lights
theyd overtaken close, when the lights were already red, and then deliberately blocked the cycle lane, so I just went full sprint mode when the lights went amber again. childish I know but it gave them something to think about Id hope.I dont know about that myself, there are plenty more days I do seriously question why I do it than days I dont.
I'm genuinely sorry you feel that way.
I've been commuting the mean streets of SE London for the past 20 years and yes have had many poor interactions with motorists, even a couple of bad collisions, one of which has had ongoing problems 13 years later. But even including those in the amount of daily cycling commutes, it equates to very little.
But, as they say, everyone is different. One person's close pass may not necessarily be one of mine.
Best wishes.
TBH I love my commute, just good to vent about the knobheads occasionally.
50 types of rain #2:- at first seems similar to 1, it's overcast and humid, your headlamp picks out occasional raindrops, there's evidence of rain on your glasses but your shorts are dry when you get to work. Maybe you picked out a faster-drying pair of shorts or something? this is currently unknown so this must have it's own category.
