Traffic - It's Back

[HLaB]

The only thing moving on Thorpe Road this morning were bicycles, I scalped the other two on the climb up to the rbt

 

[subaqua]

the close pass nutters are back out in force. A BMW ( what else could it be really) obviously didn't understand the reason i was in the middle of the lane behind the bus was to stop plums like him pushing me into the kerb. not that he could have got anywhere as there was a large feckin red bus in front of us both.

 

[SquareDaff]

What are you doing coming to Donny on the train? Surely if you live in Leeds, you could bike it all the way?

I like my sleep. Cycle back regularly though. 29 miles door to door.

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

Not the woman across the road. She takes 'little' Connor to school in a morning, returning 5 mins later. The she fetches him home for dinner, takes him back, and then picks him up at 3.30. Mind you, she also drives to the local shop.....and when I say local, I mean it's about 150 yards away. Then she comes back, and carries a bottle of milk into the house!

Someone like that lives across the road from me too. She must go out in the car at least eight or nine times every day, before coming back only five or ten minutes later, having picked up various kids or her husband from the shop, or even taking him 500 metres down to the pub. She chain-smokes as well, always has a fag on, so overall very healthy.

 

[davefb]

Someone like that lives across the road from me too. She must go out in the car at least eight or nine times every day, before coming back only five or ten minutes later, having picked up various kids or her husband from the shop, or even taking him 500 metres down to the pub. She chain-smokes as well, always has a fag on, so overall very healthy.

and she wonders why she gets 20mpg and the car keeps breaking down?

 

[fossyant]

Traffic really bad this morning - shame ! No chance of any strava bombing runs !

 

[alecstilleyedye]

first commute of the week for me having been off with a 'tummy bug' and using the car. i have to say that using a mtb is working a treat as i can use some off-road short-cuts, and using cycle paths, can keep about 1/3 of the commute car free.

once in altrincham though, queues miles longer than last week, even though the amount of school kids on foot was quite impressive…

 

[col.kurtz]

Yep, after a summer of utter serenity on the roads I realise I've been spoilt, I've had a near miss in a 20mph zone of all places from some fat bird on the school run who wanted to overtake but didn't want to break the speed limit (I was doing bang on 20) so decided to inch by at 20.5 mph right where the road narrows and into the path of oncoming traffic and a bit of verbal abuse for seemingly breathing the same air as monkey boy in a black Astra. I don't get it, are these all parents rushing about? If so, am I correct in thinking only incompetent border line sociopaths have children these days? You should need a licence and an IQ test to own one I tell you!

 

[Hip Priest]

Someone like that lives across the road from me too. She must go out in the car at least eight or nine times every day, before coming back only five or ten minutes later, having picked up various kids or her husband from the shop, or even taking him 500 metres down to the pub. She chain-smokes as well, always has a fag on, so overall very healthy.

I work with a couple of women who smoke. The only thing that stops them from taking their all-important ciggie breaks is when the lift is out of order. They literally will not walk up and down the two flights of stairs.

 

[Christopher]

Lots traffic here too, although some good driving around - driver of an articulated tipper slowed to let me nip across the M6 J29 slip road - as the thing was taking up the entire width of the roundabout no-one could nip around the truck and hit me. Thank you!
I also pass a small private prep school where they have a ridiculous little one-way system - taxis drive onto the schoolyard and release the little trejjurs at the front door - as having them dropped kerbside and walk 20 yards is obviously much too dangerous.. The taxis have to use a narrow gate and then manouvere like oil tankers to do this while a line of other taxis wait their turn. Always makes me smile...

 

[AndyRM]

I also pass a small private prep school where they have a ridiculous little one-way system - taxis drive onto the schoolyard and release the little trejjurs at the front door - as having them dropped kerbside and walk 20 yards is obviously much too dangerous.. The taxis have to use a narrow gate and then manouvere like oil tankers to do this while a line of other taxis wait their turn. Always makes me smile...

Sh!t like that makes me despair for humanity.

 

[Amanda P]

It's the other way round for me. Part of my route to work is a route to the coast. All through the summer holidays, it's a caravan procession. You can guarantee it'll be stationary or crawling on Friday and Sunday afternoons.

Cycling along it isn't too much of a problem - it's joining it that is. You get inland-bound traffic (on a Sunday) going at maybe 20mph, all perhaps 2m apart, in one lane, and coast-bound traffic bombing through the junction at 60 in the other. The crawling drivers helpfully wait to let you cross when there's not the faintest chance of safely joining the other lane, or blithely ignore you when a gap arrives when you could cross and join. You can't win. (Some drivers get quite uppity when I don't take up their invitation to cross in front of them and throw myself in front of the oncoming traffic in the other lane!)

And then when you're in the moving lane, it's narrowed by the crawling or stationary oncoming traffic and close passes are the order of the day. There've been some near head-ons, too, from drivers using part of the other lane to overtake me, but failing to spot a motorcyclist filtering past the stationary traffic.

The last of the holiday traffic seems to be dissipating at last, though, so we're nearly back to normal.

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

and she wonders why she gets 20mpg and the car keeps breaking down?

She's been in the house about a year and yes, she's already had it in for various repairs a number of times. She's actually starting to wear the road away quite a bit she goes backwards and forwards so much. I sound incredibly nosy but since nothing much else happens in my street it's hard not to notice.

 

[subaqua]

I tried a new route into the city today, just to see what it would be like if the towpath became too dangerous to ride with ice. I used CS2 from Bow ( yes i rode the killer RAB) but have decidded that the towpath iced solid would be a safer route. at 06.30 am it was like the local asylum had put all of its patients into cars or buses. one driver of a bus had a classic must get past attitude and pulled in as soon as he had overtaken me. there was queues from aldgate back to whitechapel. Oh and Boris,( or anybody else fronm TfL) if you read this , a bit of blue paint on top of shonky potholed tarmac is not A "SUPERHIGHWAY" it is in fact a "crapway" .

lets see the olympic cycling legacy do something positive for us utility cyclists , not just the weekend warrior roadies

topwpath is much safer

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

Yep, the paint doesn't do a lot considering how much it cost (wasn't it about £1 million a mile or something like that?).