Tourists on Boris Bikes

[Chilternrides]

Witnessed something fairly alarming last night:

Walking between Baker St. & Marylebone stations, I spotted a chap on a BB wobbling all over the place on the RIGHT hand side of the road coming towards me.

Better still (for those that know the area) he went to turn right towards the Allsop Arms (this is a three lane one-way, and yes he was going the wrong way!). Luckily for him, the lights were in the process of changing and he came face to face with a large red bus which had stopped at the lights.

I stared at him in disbelief, and he responded with a big smile a wave and the following:

"It's ok, I'm Canadian - not used to this yet."

"Ride on the left, and don't ride against the traffic then!" I replied.

"Sure, thanks."

This is when he executed a wobbly u-turn, through the reds, then promptly turned down the wrong end of a another one-way system, still merrily hugging the kerb to his right.

I wonder how long his holiday will last?

 

[Davidc]

Probably find a few Brits on Velibs in Paris doing a mirror image of it.

Learn fast or never!

 

[Bicycle]

This will happen.

It's the latest chapter in the same story that saw motorcycle couriers in the 80s taking out tourist pedestrians who looked the wrong way on Oxford street before stepping out.

I caught a couple of them back then, but only with my clutch lever, not the whole bike.

Some of the riders in my firm too people down the road a few feet on their front wheels and bars...

It doesn't seem like a big issue to me.

London cyclists will quickly learn (or have already) to give wobbly BBs a bit of extra room.

I love cycling in London and if black cabs and Post Office vans suddenly started using their indicators I think I'd be filled with mournful nostalgia overnight....

I haven't yet been BB-ed by a tourist unfamiliar with out traffic rules... but now you've got me interested.

It's like the new version of a favourite game. Extra hazards on Level 5. Outstanding!

 

[frank9755]

I think it's great! People fumbling around on unfamiliar bikes in normal clothes, not knowing where they are going.

You get loads of them in Hyde Park, on the Boris Bikes but also on these hired cruisers. Sometimes there are about 20 in a convoy and you have to shout to get them to keep left, or bail out onto the grass to get out of their way. Italian students listening to their i-pods and flirting, or groups of dreamy Japanese women...


Another sign that summer is on the way!

 

[Red Light]

I think it's great! People fumbling around on unfamiliar bikes in normal clothes, not knowing where they are going.

You get loads of them in Hyde Park, on the Boris Bikes but also on these hired cruisers. Sometimes there are about 20 in a convoy and you have to shout to get them to keep left, or bail out onto the grass to get out of their way. Italian students listening to their i-pods and flirting, or groups of dreamy Japanese women...

Sounds just like Cambridge when the language school students arrive.

 

[Pisquee]

I've seen a few doing this on Haymarket and Lower Regent Street, and I did think about starting a topic like this a few days ago, but then remembered that I ended up in the fast lane of a dual carriageway on a Copenhagen tourist bike going way too slow ... they are a lot more tolerant of cyclists over there, but I was very much in the wrong place and in the way - basically forgetting the fast/slow lanes are the opposite way round over there!

 

[HelenD123]

Sounds just like Cambridge when the language school students arrive.

Nah, they ride on the pavement!

 

[BentMikey]

Funnily enough AlexWarrior1 whom some of you will know was in London over the weekend, he's Canadian. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been riding on the wrong side of the road though. He has a few London boris bike videos up on his channel now.

I did meet a brace of wrong way bb riders today, and then some James blunt commuters who passed me far too close. Video to come...

 

[abo]

When I was first in the States I made a left turn and instinctively headed into the left hand lane. I didn't do it again; I was driving a Mustang at the time and nearly had a head-on with an Escalade

 

[Black Sheep]

Recently I was in Mallorca driving a fiesta and had some amusing times.

I'd backed into an layby so that the car was across it (a nice deep one intended for people enjoying the view above Soller) and on pulling out of it, looked right and pulled out and stuck to the left of the road - this was day 8 of a 10 day trip.

the other incident was after coming out of the supermarket car park in soller, going to the left of the road to navigate round a parked car I didn't head fully back to the right for the tight corner of the built up streets I was driving in, thankfully the person coming the other way at the corner waited patiently while I reversed back and took a wider line.

other than that, not much went wrong with swapping sides of the road, not bad for the first time in a left hand drive car.

I did also, on mountain roads, have two people pull over to let me pass, guess they thought I was a local!

 

[ufkacbln]

Nah, they ride on the pavement!

From my knowledge of Cambridge there are far too many vehicles on pavements for that!

 

[trj977]

Canadian barman in our local was a keen cyclist and bought himself a bike whilst here. Asked a few of us where would be nice to see on his day off so we recommended Windsor, even advised him on a nice round route of about 50 miles.

He found a much better way on the Internet the night before he set off. Apparently he was not too surprised when the Police stopped him on the hard shoulder of the M4! As various trucks and cars hand shouted and hooted him so thought something was wrong.

Police got him and his bike up the side of a small bridge crossing the M4 helped him lift his bike across the fence and let him go. Which was nice of them but he had no idea where he was and had only written down point to point instructions for his new route.

What we think was a 45 min tops ride back took him 3 hours!

We were crying with laughter when he recounted this tale of woe, little did we know it was the first on many of his "cycling adventures" in the UK.

 

[johnr]

In the '70s I hitched a lift from Kent to London with a US soldier who had about 25 minutes driving experience in the UK when we met. Going straight was fine, but we ended up on the wrong side of the road every time he turned... and the roundabouts, what fun! Being a left hand drive car he'd brought from Germany, I had the added pleasure of a driver's side view of the abuse and disbelief of fellow road users. I bailed out in central london after a close encounter of the wrong-way-down one-way-street kind.

Happy days

 

[Flyingfox]

I work around St James's and saw a Boris bike cyclist the other day going in the opposite direction to the traffic in St James's St., I just looked on in amazement as he took on taxis and white vans!

With all the road works around Pall Mall making it into 2 way road I've regularly seen cyclists coming down the road the wrong way. I don't think they realise it is not yet 2-way.