Commuting in London - total commitment

Anonymouslemming

Hi all,

I'm a couple of weeks away from starting to cycle to and from work. I'd be doing it already if not for the delay in sourcing my bike through the Ride2Work scheme, and my horrible level of fitness.

What has struck me most about the past few weeks of getting back on my old GT monster and riding about is how badly London is setup for cycling.

My round trip commute will be 18 miles (8.6 in, 9.4 out, due to some one-ways and stuff) and this is more than I can do right now, and still show up fit for work.

My initial plan was to use public transport for some of my journey, and cycle the rest of the way. I ideally wanted to cycle to somewhere around Tower gateway (from Beckton) and then find public transport up into Islington (near angel tube) because the traffic around here scares me a lot. This is when I started to find out that London doesn't _really_ want people biking as much as they say they do - they only want people who can commit to their entire journey to do it.

In Ottawa, most of the buses I used have bike racks on the front. So I can cycle 2 miles to a stop on the route I want, hook my bike up to the front, ride the bus for miles, then cycle a few miles on the other side.

This lets you build up and get your confidence slowly - it's more likely to encourage people to start cycling rather than scaring people off entirely.

Ok methinks, so lets try a foldup. Nope, can't take those on the DLR unless they are enclosed in a bag. They're just too overcrowded to survive a bike on. But what about teh time I come into work (05:50)? There's LOADS of space. Can I take a regular bike then? No. Not allowed.

Next compromise ... Cycle in on day 1, leave the bike overnight, cycle home on day 2. Alternate on this basis until I can start cycling full time. But then where do you store your bike overnight safely? Can't find many solutions around my workplace for that.

I really would have thought that people were more aware of the benefits of cycling these days and trying to promote it, but it seems that we are still desparately short of infrastructure... Safe parking, cleaning facilities, compromise setups so that we can start small and get big - this is all missing.

Just my 2p on this as a new cyclist in London. Maybe I should just stick to the woods

il_principe

Basically Livingston is all mouth when it comes to cycling. As far as I can see he's done f@ck all to make it easier/safer for people. Why can't London take the same approach as Ottowa/Amsterdam/Hamburg etc?

redddraggon

TBH, I'm committed to commuting by cycling, but I'm not sure If I'd continue to do so if I lived in London.

I like my roads empty(ish), which even at rush hour they largely are around me (if I avoid the main roads), I don't think I'd be brave to do all that filtering stuff like you guys do in London.

I get loads of hills, you get loads of traffic - I know what I'd rather.

cupofteacp

Anon

I commute 30 miles (15 each way) into London everyday.

It will be daunting when you start as anything is when you start, however over time you’ll become more comfortable, read cyclecraft this will help, stay out of the gutter, get some lights, get some more, make sure you can be seen.

As far as “working” up to the distance, I was lucky enough to have a filing room where I can store my bike, so I started off riding in and then getting the tube home. Then the next day cycle home and so on.

After only a few weeks, I cycle in and out in the same day, 3 times a week

This soon became everyday, you’ll be surprised how quickly you manage the distance.

What will stop you is if you try and race everyone, as you’ll end up knackered. Wait until you’re riding 5 days a week and then start pushing the speed, and only when your comfortable with the traffic.

Oh and good luck and have fun, it''s better than the tube

cee

redddraggon wrote:

TBH, I'm committed to commuting by cycling, but I'm not sure If I'd continue to do so if I lived in London.

I like my roads empty(ish), which even at rush hour they largely are around me (if I avoid the main roads), I don't think I'd be brave to do all that filtering stuff like you guys do in London.

I get loads of hills, you get loads of traffic - I know what I'd rather.

Move to Edinburgh matey... hills + traffic + filtering =

Gussio

It looks like Ottawa really is light years ahead of London in terms of support for the cyling community:

http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/onthemov ... _8_en.html

I like the bus bike racks described by the OP and pictured in the link above, but would still prefer to cycle the whole way

What a refreshing approach to taking bikes on trains being displayed by the O-train. A designated carriage area for bikes, rather than a disgruntled guard telling you that it isn't possible for you board the train because a) you haven't booked your bike on; b) there are already 2 bikes on the train; c) it is rush hour; d) it is more than my job's worth.

hamboman

London can never be a truly modern city until it sorts out its ailing transport system.

dirk_van_gently

jashburnham

Basically Livingston is all mouth when it comes to cycling

aren't most politicians, I'm surprised most of them don't just float away, they are so full of Hot Air.
I'm very lucky in that my commutes are on quiet country roads, forest fireroads, and cycletracks. I did some motorcycle courier work some years ago, and know that any big city can be "challenging", counts double for London, but like cupofteacp wrote

it''s better than the tube.

And it can be fun.

snakehips

When I started commuting into/out of London {a very long time ago} I went straight for the full five days a week , 25 mile round trip. The trick is to take it easy on a couple of days a week until you have built up your fitness.
It's surprising how little effort you need if you cycle slightly slower than normal , and it doesn't add that much to the overall journey time.

Good luck

Snake

Anonymouslemming

Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to build up and cycle in, mainly because a jail term for manslaughter would interfere with my career, and if I have to keep riding the tube, I WILL be spending some time as a guest of Her Majesty's wardens - I can't stand seeing brutes trample polite people much longer.

I'm just generally commenting on what I found to be a monsterous disparity between all the press you see about how wonderful cycling is for London and why we should all be doing it, and the reality I found when I tried.

My wife would like nothing better than to cycle to work, but she has seen the way drivers use the cycle lane and the cycle stop area by the traffic lights, and on that basis she just refuses.

I'm not saying that I'd like to see caning for people who cross into cycle lanes, but I can't understand why a police officer won't pull someone over for doing so.

What's worse is in the few places where they've created a cycle lane just by painting a green lane into an existing lane, but since doing so, some cars actually can't fit in the remainder of the lane. Doh! In those places, I'll straddle the other car lane, but most people just drift into the cycle lane.

Scary stuff! I know that in my initial list of purchases there will be a helmet cam... at least there'll be evidence for the coroner

hamboman

I absolutely LOVE cycling in London, it's just so much fun. Love the bustle and knowledge that you are THE quickest thing moving the whole city. I'm seriously tempted to give up my journalism job and become a cycle courier. It's even better in the summer.

What I'm saying is, it'll become fun if you give it a chance.

el_presidente

when you start I think you will be pleasantly surprised how much you enjoy it.

For every lunatic trying to kill you there is a good experience such as riding an empty Regent's Park Outer Circle with the beautiful dawn sky coming up behind the telecom tower.

On this forum you tend to see the worst of things as we like to share our war stories. But the majority of our commutes are incident free as indeed are those of the majority of commuters who do not post here.

At the very least you can view the traffic as a challenge. You will quickly learn effective and safe ways of dealing with the vast majority of situations. What seems scary now will soon become "standard procedure" and you will sail past without a moments thought. You should make this point to your wife too.

il_principe

The thing is, it might look scary but it isn't. Yes it can be quite daunting, especially for the first few weeks but the rewards far outweigh the negatives. Nothing would get me back on the tube theses days. When I move jobs I will only move to somewhere that is within cycling distance and has facilities. I've rejected 2 good jobs (and more money) on this basis, it means that much to me.

The best thing to do is ride the route at weekends a couple of times, just to get used to the route, then maybe cycle commute twice a week, once you get used to the route, traffic, added exercise etc you can ramp things up. Whatever you do, please give it a try. At worst you just won't like it, but it may well change your life; it certainly did for me.

t4tomo

does the DLR really not allow folders unless bagged? I've taken my folded Brompton on the tube a couple of times without any questions asked.

Bagging them doesn't make them any smaller either.

ipo

t4tomo wrote:

does the DLR really not allow folders unless bagged? I've taken my folded Brompton on the tube a couple of times without any questions asked.

Bagging them doesn't make them any smaller either.

"Docklands Light Railway only takes folding bicycles that are completely enclosed in a container."

So sayeth the TFL website. You can take a cycle on the surface lines outside peak times, but none of the deep lines (which is sensible). By container they probably mean a large bit of Tupperware or somesuch.

I personally only cycle into central London once or twice a week as I work mostly from home, but I look forward to it. I wouldn't mind if I did it every day. It is daunting at first, but you learn your own routes, and if you don't like traffic you can usually find a less busy back street that only adds a few minutes to a journey time. With a 12ish mile each way commute, time-wise getting from home to my central London HQ is on a par with public transport (10 minutes home to station, 20 minutes train, 20 minutes bus - assuming no delays) and I don't get to sit seats used as someone else's muddy foot rest, breathe kebab/armpit fumes, or listen to tinny rap blasting out of teenagers' mobile phones. Avoiding all this makes the climb up and over Crystal Palace worth it.

Public transport would probably be great if they kept the public out.

Anonymouslemming

jashburnham wrote:

The thing is, it might look scary but it isn't. Yes it can be quite daunting, especially for the first few weeks but the rewards far outweigh the negatives. Nothing would get me back on the tube theses days. When I move jobs I will only move to somewhere that is within cycling distance and has facilities. I've rejected 2 good jobs (and more money) on this basis, it means that much to me.

The best thing to do is ride the route at weekends a couple of times, just to get used to the route, then maybe cycle commute twice a week, once you get used to the route, traffic, added exercise etc you can ramp things up. Whatever you do, please give it a try. At worst you just won't like it, but it may well change your life; it certainly did for me.

I used to ride a motorcycle, and that scared the crap out of me. I did the extra advanced training and everything else I could, but it never got any less scary. I was confident in my own abilities, and I spent a lot of my life both on the bike and in the car looking out for other people and working out what they would do next. But on the motorcycle, I just found that it was almost like people TRIED to race you and TRIED to knock you down.

I've never had quite the same experience on a bicycle even in the city.

I'll see how it goes and keep you all posted. In all honesty, my main challenges are going to be planning and storing my gear / getting cleaned up for work.

The one BIG advantage that I have is that for about the next 6 months, I'm on shifts. I'm either doing 7-3 or 11-7, so I will miss most of the rush on both ends.

xcracer

What do you want? A bike flyover to your office?

If you enjoy cycling then do it. If don't enjoy cycling then don't do it. It's as simple as that.

jefferee

xcracer wrote:

What do you want? A bike flyover to your office?

If you enjoy cycling then do it. If don't enjoy cycling then don't do it. It's as simple as that.

Public transit in many parts of Canada is increasingly accommodating 'intermodal' journeys, with bike racks on buses and the like, to allow part of a long-ish commute to be done by bike and the rest by transit. For example, in my home city (urban area of about 450 000), every single city bus sports a front-mounted bike rack capable of carrying 2 bikes. As I find I can generally match, or exceed, the average speed of local city buses on my MTB, I have not made use of this capability. However, it's nice to have for a bail-out, for example, in the event of mechanical failure or a crash of some sort.

From what I gather by reading this forum, this does not seem to be a regular feature of public transit in the UK, hence the frustration of the OP.

Jokull

I lived in London 2006-2007 - I commuted daily from Leytonstone to Imperial College, and enjoyed it. True, mixed mode commuting would be a difficult in London, but once you're used to it, very few journey in London are that long. One of the advantages of Imperial though was that it had a very secure swipe card access bike cage, so I had no qualms about leaving my bike overnight if I went out drinking in the evening.

I moved to Vancouver 6 months ago - they have those buses with the bike racks on them here as well. They look useful, but I've never used them - the area of Vancouver that forms my normal 'turf' is smaller than London: downtown, my home and the University of British Columbia (my workplace) are all only around 10 km from each other.

Anonymouslemming

jefferee wrote:

Public transit in many parts of Canada is increasingly accommodating 'intermodal' journeys, with bike racks on buses and the like, to allow part of a long-ish commute to be done by bike and the rest by transit. For example, in my home city (urban area of about 450 000), every single city bus sports a front-mounted bike rack capable of carrying 2 bikes. As I find I can generally match, or exceed, the average speed of local city buses on my MTB, I have not made use of this capability. However, it's nice to have for a bail-out, for example, in the event of mechanical failure or a crash of some sort.

From what I gather by reading this forum, this does not seem to be a regular feature of public transit in the UK, hence the frustration of the OP.

That would be _exactly_ my frustration here, yes!

artaxerxes

Anonymouslemming
I cycle into Angel and my commute length is about the same as yours too. I usually go up St Johns Street and get off at the traffic lights and walk with my bike from there, you are right the traffic there is scary.

donnie murdo

The best way to commute using cycling and public transport is to use overground trains where possible and where permited. London also has a wealth of canal towpaths that can be used provided you have the right bike and lights. You may have to add an extra bit to your journey but it will get you to see parts of London few people see. It does surprise me the amount of people who cycle the same route as a car would take. Use Google Earth or a OS map to plot your different route. I used to cycle to Bishops Stortford and back again from Tottenham without leaving the side of the canal it felt like I was far away from the civilisation over the hedgerow.

artaxerxes

Yes I forgot the Regents canal that takes you from Docklands in East London all the way to Angel (and onwards), but I don't use it because it is so crowded with other cyclists, pedetrians and local kids up to no good :evil:

Gussio

linoue wrote:

Yes I forgot the Regents canal that takes you from Docklands in East London all the way to Angel (and onwards), but I don't use it because it is so crowded with other cyclists, pedetrians and local kids up to no good :evil:

Someone I know was cycling on the tow path by Regent's basin, near Angel. Two young guys pushed her off and stole both paniers, one of which contained her wedding ring. Bad enough so far, but what happened next beggers belief. As they were walking away, with her paniers, one of them turned and stamped on her knee (she was still lying on the floor, terrified). This caused long term ligament damage. Took place about 3yrs ago in broad daylight. Police did not catch either of the thugs.

Brains

Mr lemming:

1st issue is your route:

You need to get hold of one of Ken's free tfl cycle maps, there are available at almost any local bike shop or off the tfl website. They are really very good maps, BUT, London being London they take a masters degree in cartography and get a gps system to follow, OK so I exaggerate, but only a bit.

You need to do your route a number of times before you work it out, but it is possible to do Beckton to Tower gateway and not go on a single main road. The two main routes I would look at are "The Greenway" which runs from Beckton DLR to Victoria Park -

Straight line most of the way, no cars at all except at the few road crossings, and once you have negotiated the motorway flyover (stay on the cycle path) at Beckton Alps to the new Olympic site it's actually a very pleasant, if urban, ride.

You don't need to go as far a Victoria Park as you want to turn off either via canal or road to join up with Cable Street - another long cycle path that runs parallel to Commercial Road and ends at Tower Gateway

I would suggest that even a totally unfit person could do the route there and back in about three hours not including stops to feed the ducks, check out the pubs and so on.

So that would be a pleasant day run, it's almost flat all the way. and if done at a weekend you always have the train if you have any problems.

After that I recon 2-3 weeks of doing the route one way and train back the other, you will be fit enough to do both ways every day

This leaves the problem of where to leave a bike around tower gateway. It will take some hunting, but there are places. You need to see where the staff at all the big offices in the area put their bikes, or the students at Cass.

BentMikey

Lots of people start out by commuting on quiet back roads and canal paths, but soon realise it's both safer and faster to use normal roads in amongst the traffic.

Anonymouslemming

BentMikey wrote:

Lots of people start out by commuting on quiet back roads and canal paths, but soon realise it's both safer and faster to use normal roads in amongst the traffic.

Yay... And to think... I moved here to get AWAY from crime and grief

Bassjunkieuk

I've been commuting to various parts of London for about 18 months now and thoroughly enjoy it! I'm not sure if it's the daredevil in me but I actually enjoy all the traffic and filtering action that I get in town :-D

I think the main thing I like about using my bike is knowing that bar an accident or puncture, I can be fairly certain I what time I will get to my destination as I don't have to worry about traffic. On a couple of my commutes I've been riding when one of the Elephant and Castle roundabouts was shut because of fears about a building possibly collapsing near by and during the tube strike. Both of these caused and increase in the amount of cars (and even cyclists during the tube strike which was nice to see, but did cause problems at traffic lights!) None of these incidents made my journey any longer, but did make it more enjoyable as I zipped past even more people sitting in traffic jams!

Having also had to use PT for 3 months due to a RTA on my bike at the end of '06 I really don' ever want to use the underground during rush hour again! Being squashed into train for 15 minutes and trampled on wasn't fun, and that's when you actually manage to get on one - lest we forget about the barging and pushing on the escalators and platforms!

BentMikey

Anonymouslemming wrote:

BentMikey wrote:

Lots of people start out by commuting on quiet back roads and canal paths, but soon realise it's both safer and faster to use normal roads in amongst the traffic.

Yay... And to think... I moved here to get AWAY from crime and grief

I was thinking more of accidents when I wrote that, rather than crime. I guess crime might be a factor on some routes though.

Anonymouslemming

donnie murdo wrote:

The best way to commute using cycling and public transport is to use overground trains where possible and where permited. London also has a wealth of canal towpaths that can be used provided you have the right bike and lights. You may have to add an extra bit to your journey but it will get you to see parts of London few people see. It does surprise me the amount of people who cycle the same route as a car would take. Use Google Earth or a OS map to plot your different route. I used to cycle to Bishops Stortford and back again from Tottenham without leaving the side of the canal it felt like I was far away from the civilisation over the hedgerow.

I'm looking into overground services in my area, but they seem quite limited, and would push the price of my journey up as they don't seem to take oystercards. I'm sure I used to use a regular travel card on trains within zones 1-6, but either things have changed, or I am misremembering.

I initially thought of canal paths because the bike I am getting will be well suited to them, but I have safety issues. Because of my start and finish times, I'll be riding in the dark a lot, and I've not heard great things about these areas.

Anonymouslemming

BentMikey wrote:

Anonymouslemming wrote:

BentMikey wrote:

Lots of people start out by commuting on quiet back roads and canal paths, but soon realise it's both safer and faster to use normal roads in amongst the traffic.

Yay... And to think... I moved here to get AWAY from crime and grief

I was thinking more of accidents when I wrote that, rather than crime. I guess crime might be a factor on some routes though.

I've already had my fair share of yob crime in Newham since moving there a few years ago, and once or twice was on the canal paths while out walking with my wife.