Tales from today's utility ride

[summerdays]

What is it called when you stop at the shops during the commute?
Utility or commuting?
What if you ride to your pal's after work?

Normal day except I often try to fit it in the middle of the day..... Then I have lunch at her house, and her husband thinks I am a bad influence stopping her from getting on with other important stuff!

 

[classic33]

What is it called when you stop at the shops during the commute?
Utility or commuting?
What if you ride to your pal's after work?

Only if this is the result of your shopping.

 

[mjr]

Aha! Today I managed to capture one on camera! This really does happen a lot around here and the main reason I've not filmed it before is that I've been trying to get to grips with a new camera

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih70HEFE0TY

 

[mjr]

Not today, but my last utility ride was taking a load of stuff to the tip. The guy at the gate said, 'Oh! A bicycle!' as if this was a rare sight; most people do seem to arrive in cars.

Where is it? Norfolk County Council moved our tip from the edge of the town centre to the far end of a mile of HGV-infested industrial estate road outside the bypass - and if you use the cycle track that usually bypasses that road, you spend a mile doing 3½ sides of a square because they haven't opened any access from the cycle track side

I live on the "right" side of town, but going to town via the tip nearly doubles the distance because of all the wiggling about to get in and out. It's an illustration of how Norfolk's Local Transport Policy is just words and not normally implemented even by many of the council's own services.

If it was easy for people to pedal their waste in, people might reduce how much they tip a bit, rather than think they've got to drive anyway, so it doesn't matter how much as long as it's less than a car-full - or that they should generate a car-full to be efficient in some perverse way.

 

[Sara_H]

Not today, but my last utility ride was taking a load of stuff to the tip. The guy at the gate said, 'Oh! A bicycle!' as if this was a rare sight; most people do seem to arrive in cars.

People on bikes have been refused access to the tip here in Sheffield. Elf and Safety, int it Luv?

 

[mjr]

People on bikes have been refused access to the tip here in Sheffield. Elf and Safety, int it Luv?

Do Cycle Sheffield know?

 

[Sara_H]

Do Cycle Sheffield know?

Aye I reckon.

 

[Pale Rider]

My utility ride today was a trip to the doc for a prescription, then Morrisons at Seaburn for shopping, then the C2C path beside the mouth of the Wear to get a pic for the Photo Challenge.

I finished by calling into my local bike shop for the usual coffee and red hot cycle chat, and I ordered a Park Tools Spork - no real need for one, just saw one on here and liked it.

My first pic is the bike fully shopped up outside the supermarket, and on the way back I couldn't resist a snap of the North Sea breaking over the promenade at Seaburn.

 

[mjr]

My utility ride today was a trip to the doc for a prescription, then Morrisons at Seaburn for shopping, then the C2C path beside the mouth of the Wear to get a pic for the Photo Challenge.

My utility ride yesterday was a quick 6-7 mile trip to pick up a prescription. I had a camera on but it was a lovely video of the ground due to the difficulty of aiming it... it's just too damn small!

So given that limitation, here's the bit of ground which made me happiest: they've finally dug the vegetation back to clear off this short single-track+passing-place bottleneck across the River Nar between sections of 2.5m and 3m wide track (you can just see the 3m restart at the top of the image - the A10 is over to the right).

That and other problems (rough roads ejected the memory card into the camera mount a few days ago! Which means it reset the clock to the last time the camera was connected to a computer, as seen on the picture) motivated me to finally fix, test and check the MD80 ready to use next time, so I should capture some of the stunning scenery without having to stop in the freezing cold or risk of bad camera design ejecting the memory card.

 

[Karlt]

Aha! Today I managed to capture one on camera! This really does happen a lot around here and the main reason I've not filmed it before is that I've been trying to get to grips with a new camera

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih70HEFE0TY

Wouldn't be seen dead on that shared path, for that very reason. The terrible thing is the van driver is doing exactly what the road markings direct him to do.

 

[mjr]

Wouldn't be seen dead on that shared path, for that very reason. The terrible thing is the van driver is doing exactly what the road markings direct him to do.

It's a bad junction, I agree, with the wrong priority and a blind corner on one side, but I feel it's still worth using that cycle track (and most of it was built/rebuilt as a cycle track - just not the side I approach that junction from) because it's quite good apart from a mile of slightly-lumpy surface, three short stretches of single-track and four wrong-priority junctions in four miles (two with good visibility) and riding up the A10 is just horrible (and was before the track), with too many motorists exceeding the 40+60 speed limits, riding your back wheel and passing too close... while on the track, I can whoosh along or plod along as the mood takes me as long as I keep an eye out for the occasional wobbling hooded ninja and the bad junction still usually works because many of the people who live along there and drive across it also ride along it

 

[Jayaly]

Dud headphones had to be sent back to amazon so a one mile trip to the nearest collectplus location was in order. Smallest Boy was in 'two bikes or none at all' mode so the balance bike joined the Gazelle for a two mile pootle to the shop in question.

Nice ride along the shared path (I know many here despise them but they are great for small children on bikes) followed by a cautious bit of pavement cycling for the last stretch. Two pedestrians were all smiles as we pootled past leaving plenty of room. Locked both bikes up because he was determined that his should be locked up like a proper bike instead of carried.

A few minutes of "Put that back!" in the shop followed as he made a spirited play for various chocolate bars in toddler height, then we were parcel free and ready for the home run.

Not quite as successful on the way home because he got cold hands and ended up in the baby seat warming his hands up on my back (aargh! coldcoldcold) while the Scoot was slung over the front basket, but nice to see lots snowdrops on the bank going into the subway. Spring soon.

 

[Gert Lush]

Aha! Today I managed to capture one on camera! This really does happen a lot around here and the main reason I've not filmed it before is that I've been trying to get to grips with a new camera

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih70HEFE0TY

I don't see what's wrong? It was very nice of him to reverse back for you.

Edit: Unless there are give way lines further back that we can't see?

 

[mjr]

I don't see what's wrong? It was very nice of him to reverse back for you.

The only thing wrong is that the cycle track doesn't have priority across that side road (it does on most) and yes, it was very nice, but some people don't believe me when I say this behaviour is widespread here, so it's nice to get it videoed for once!

Maybe after a few years, it'll be what happens in London and there won't be so many videos being posted of people being T-boned, left-hooked and right-crossed on the new cycle superhighways

 

[Gert Lush]

The only thing wrong is that the cycle track doesn't have priority across that side road (it does on most) and yes, it was very nice, but some people don't believe me when I say this behaviour is widespread here, so it's nice to get it videoed for once!

Maybe after a few years, it'll be what happens in London and there won't be so many videos being posted of people being T-boned, left-hooked and right-crossed on the new cycle superhighways

Ohhh, that makes sense. Thanks for answering me