Tales from today's commute....

[markharry66]

Out last weekend had a cabbie tell me should be in the cycle lane and a car tailgate me for a mile telling me I shouldnt be on the road.
Cycled in to work all fine until got to final road before work. Withou going into to much detail first time I have reported anyone to police, so lets see how big you are once they contact you.

 

[captain nemo1701]

On my way into the office today, discovered that the bloke living in a trailer/tent in a strip of woodland beside the Railway Path had probably had enough and torched it...

When I stopped to take this , bloke shot past at some speed, probably 30mph+ on an escooter...going uphill. I hope some daffy minister in Govt doesn't decide to legalise the lasted things. We ban 30 mph mopeds from cyclepaths.

 

[markharry66]

On my way into the office today, discovered that the bloke living in a trailer/tent in a strip of woodland beside the Railway Path had probably had enough and torched it...


View attachment 783195
When I stopped to take this , bloke shot past at some speed, probably 30mph+ on an escooter...going uphill. I hope some daffy minister in Govt doesn't decide to legalise the lasted things. We ban 30 mph mopeds from cyclepaths.

starting to think this country is free for all do what you want, when you want its like whe wildwest out there off to buy a new d-lock today.

 

[ianrauk]

Back on the commute for the first time since my disappointing LEL2025 shenanigans.
Lovely blue skies and very warm. A welcome return to the cycle commute with a bout of fun SCR on the A21.

 

[biking_fox]

Filled a bison with blackberries on the way home, then found a brake failed.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/brake-caliper-spring-failure.304113/

That sounds like a proper annoying weekend job. It's lovely when you do get it back working again.

Fine riding here, not yet too warm but you can feel it building.

 

[wafter]

Out last weekend had a cabbie tell me should be in the cycle lane and a car tailgate me for a mile telling me I shouldnt be on the road.
Cycled in to work all fine until got to final road before work. Withou going into to much detail first time I have reported anyone to police, so lets see how big you are once they contact you.

This is yet another factor that's contributed to my head-in-a-vice anxiety this week... a desire to avoid confrontation with drivers having forced me to reconsider my relationship with cycle lanes; my resultant abysmal experience with the pitiful "infrastructure" in the city having hardened my resolve to avoid them by default having nearly been knocked off once by a left-turning driver amongst other unpleasant experiences.

If I could muster any semblence of productivity I'd start a website to allow photos / complaints about the city's infrastructure to be aired for the public attention of the council - IMO what we have currently is tangibly worse than nothing at all since a lot of it is detrimental to the cyclist (in terms of safety and convenience) while also giving dickhead drivers a convenient, if irrelevant stick to beat us with.

It all smacks of yet another aspect of British society engineered to pit citizens against each other to keep us distracted from questioning the bigger picture..


All that being said I had a nice ride in this morning - groggy after a decent kip for once (only ever happens when I'm completely exhausted) so a bit late leaving, but made it up on the way in thanks to an uncharacteristically fast run. Nice and sunny with (IIRC) no unpleasant interactions with other road users and three marginally-cooked sausages.

 

[fossyant]

This is yet another factor that's contributed to my head-in-a-vice anxiety this week... a desire to avoid confrontation with drivers having forced me to reconsider my relationship with cycle lanes; my resultant abysmal experience with the pitiful "infrastructure" in the city having hardened my resolve to avoid them by default having nearly been knocked off once by a left-turning driver amongst other unpleasant experiences.

If I could muster any semblence of productivity I'd start a website to allow photos / complaints about the city's infrastructure to be aired for the public attention of the council - IMO what we have currently is tangibly worse than nothing at all since a lot of it is detrimental to the cyclist (in terms of safety and convenience) while also giving dickhead drivers a convenient, if irrelevant stick to beat us with.

It all smacks of yet another aspect of British society engineered to pit citizens against each other to keep us distracted from questioning the bigger picture..


All that being said I had a nice ride in this morning - groggy after a decent kip for once (only ever happens when I'm completely exhausted) so a bit late leaving, but made it up on the way in thanks to an uncharacteristically fast run. Nice and sunny with (IIRC) no unpleasant interactions with other road users and three marginally-cooked sausages.

Sausage butty for the win then ! We've some shocking cycle lanes, then certain areas have had millions invested. I think I still prefer the bits of worn paint on the side of roads locally. We have one that is more like a pump track as it crosses lots of driveways, the council didn't think to flatten the lot. You can get 'air' off them. Ridden it once on the road bike and it was exceptionally unpleasant, even at a slow speed ! Had I taken the MTB, that might have been fun.

 

[spen666]

Not actually whilst commuting, but on my commute route yesterday
i was out for a leisure ride. Stopped at some traffic lights in the cycle lane at the Advance Stop Line on cross roads, a police van pulls up in main carriageway behind at normal stop line. I happened to be wearing a cycle top with the words "UK Police Unity Tour" on the back.

Some person on a bike wobble his way along between myself and the police van and goes straight through the red lights, with other traffic on cross roads.
Clearly they had not made any observations or had a total disregard for the law. They failed to realise they had just cycled past a marked police van.

Said Police Van, put on blues and twos and stopped said cyclist 100 yards up the road.

Justice done

 

[wafter]

Sausage butty for the win then ! We've some shocking cycle lanes, then certain areas have had millions invested. I think I still prefer the bits of worn paint on the side of roads locally. We have one that is more like a pump track as it crosses lots of driveways, the council didn't think to flatten the lot. You can get 'air' off them. Ridden it once on the road bike and it was exceptionally unpleasant, even at a slow speed ! Had I taken the MTB, that might have been fun.

Well, the sausage as consumed "straight" currently to satisfy the low-carb mandate but yeah - a welcome breakfast!

Most cycling "provision" is a bloody joke, isn't it? There are a few round here that are as you describe too; I suspect making it all flat would cost far more than any council would want to spend on a box-ticking exercise to appease the frothy-mouthed car self-gratification artists.

We also have those that have a surface akin to that of a '90s Baghdad airfield, simply disappear into nothing, are obstructed by various bits of road furniture / parked cars / peds, put you in direct conflict with other vehicles (such as the chicanes with cut-throughs for cyclists that intersect perfectly with the exit line for other traffic)..

The lastest dose of ridiculousness appears to be the council's initiative to randomly paint bike symbols in the middle of roads - which means what exactly? There are bikes? Bikes have priority? Bikes are allowed here? What does that tell drivers about all the other bits of road without this intriguing, taxpayer-funded graffiti - that bikes shouldn't be using them?

I feel a pointed email to the council coming on..