Silly commuting racing

veronese68

Tube repair from Friday didn't fully hold on the pub hack so I put the mudguards back on the Kinesis, just as well as it's forecast to rain pretty much all week. Not surprisingly no competition this morning, glad I put my overshoes on.

hopkinb

Wet. Even more wet on the way home it seems. Hurrah for summer! Thinned out the numbers of cyclists though, so quite a pleasant ride in, despite the godawful honking from the brakes.

tgotb

Just realised it's still going to be bucketing down this evening, when I'm marshalling junior's road race; slightly less smug about WFH now. Better throw wellies and dryrobe in the car...

anonymousblackfg

hopkinb wrote:

Wet. Even more wet on the way home it seems. Hurrah for summer! Thinned out the numbers of cyclists though, so quite a pleasant ride in, despite the godawful honking from the brakes.

But at least a bit of a tail wind...

drhaggis

So many complaints about the weather! It's lovely and sunny here in Edinburgh!

veronese68

Wonderful day to be on a bike, the underpass in Kingston is flooded. Totally gridlocked or completely deserted roads depending on where you are. I got home in a perfectly normal 20 minutes, would take hours in a car. I may gloat a little when I see any of the drivers at work tomorrow that laughed at me as I left.

hopkinb

Soggiest ride since erm, this morning. I think I saw maybe 10 other cyclists, which is unheard of.

The shake dry jacket performs well, top half completely dry except what dribbled down my neck.

inbike

DrHaggis wrote:

So many complaints about the weather! It's lovely and sunny here in Edinburgh!

It's pretty unusual for me to be sitting in the South East, looking at the security cameras in Glasgow, and wishing we had their weather!

I'm sure normal service will be restored soon.

itboffin

Hasn't stopped raining down here in windshire all day

cjcp

Veronese68 wrote:

Wonderful day to be on a bike, the underpass in Kingston is flooded. Totally gridlocked or completely deserted roads depending on where you are. I got home in a perfectly normal 20 minutes, would take hours in a car. I may gloat a little when I see any of the drivers at work tomorrow that laughed at me as I left.

A friend took two hours to get less than four miles.

The underpass by Kingston train station has now reopened, apparently.

Chat with Rhodrich for the second half of last night's commute. Seemed to be doing some help-in-the-community type work by pulling three blokes along with him.

anonymousblackfg

I wish I could have had yesterday's lack of cyclists today. One special shout out to the chopper who could not stand being cruised past so had to sprint into every red light and almost got clipped by a scooter.

What is it with rain and sh1t driving, tons more people on their phones last night, one guy on an ipad at Oval... The guy who swerved a metre into me in New Malden saw my reaction and in his keenness to get away almost went into the side of a gyppo van stinking of weed at the Fountain roundabout. It would have been sweet karma.

hopkinb

anonymousblackfg wrote:

van stinking of weed

I passed one of those this morning while trying to hold my breath. The driver must have been utterly baked. He was only just visible through the smoke.

Remembered to dehydrate and re-lube my chain last night. Slightly disappointed to discover that Colliers Wood was not under water this morning.

anonymousblackfg

hopkinb wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

van stinking of weed

I passed one of those this morning while trying to hold my breath. The driver must have been utterly baked. He was only just visible through the smoke.

Remembered to dehydrate and re-lube my chain last night. Slightly disappointed to discover that Colliers Wood was not under water this morning.

Yep am amazed I managed to remember to WD40 the important bits when I arrived home last night. Top marks to Mini ABFG1 who was so concerned by the rain he went and got clothes for me and put them on the radiator for my arrival home, maybe he was just trying to make up for sh1tting on the carpet on Sunday morning.

rower63

... likewise, as I believe first happened to itboffin, someone sneaked into my house last night and sprayed my chain orange.

Last evening's commute one of the memorable ones. I forgot to turn my waterproof booties upside-down last night, and poured about 1/2 pint of water from each this morning as I elected to don a different pair instead.

j_mcd

Baled (bailed?) out of cycling home last night. It was just too wet and the thought of sitting on a train with soaking wet clothes while the aircon tries its hardest to get the temperature to below freezing just wasn't a good one.

Full trip in on PT did suck this morning though.

rower63

Just chatted to someone who used the Kingston Hill cycle lanes yesterday evening. He said they were lethal with all that water on the road, with the lanes trapping the water, and of course all holes, drains and features completely hidden. The lane-edges prevent you from going anywhere else, and the road itself is so narrow that the MGIFs will likely kill you exercising their right to get past.

anonymousblackfg

rower63 wrote:

Just chatted to someone who used the Kingston Hill cycle lanes yesterday evening. He said they were lethal with all that water on the road, with the lanes trapping the water, and of course all holes, drains and features completely hidden. The lane-edges prevent you from going anywhere else, and the road itself is so narrow that the MGIFs will likely kill you exercising their right to get past.

You can contact Neil at the project directly (go@kingston.gov.uk) but you'll get an answer saying 'it's all work in progress, wait and see how it turns out and a better scheme would not have been workable' response. worth cc'ing in Hilary.Gander@kingston.gov.uk and tony.antoniou@kingston.gov.uk who are the local councillors.

arsey

Saw a lady on her phone this morning in slow moving traffic with the window open so took the opportunity to politely ask her to get off her phone. This was met by "no I'm alright thanks" and drove off 50 metres up the road to the next traffic jam. I stopped beside her and calmly explained the potential consequences and legality, and she tried to say she was messing with sat nav (not true) and also irrelevant. People seem to have to defend poor behavior rather than just accepting it.

philbar72

rower63 wrote:

frogonabike wrote:

I think someone on here recently suggested ANPR that only allows you to exit via the same gate you came in to stop people using it as a rat run. Seems the most sensible/easiest to implement idea I've heard

yes I was going to suggest in the survey too that while the gates are closed 0930 to 1600, the car parks' exits to the rest of the park could be closed to allow in parking-only traffic

ANPR with a time limit so that if you are under 15 mins in the park (rat runner) you get fined. make the fine big enough so it supports the cost of install/ police/ park staff/ ambulances. also target single occupancy vehicles.... and Private light goods.

veronese68

philbar72 wrote:

.... and Private light goods.

I thought they were already banned from the park. Used to be signs saying 'no trade vehicles unless authorised', can't remember if they are still there. I saw a van being pulled over in Bushy Park last week, I guessed it was for that reason. But I often see vans in the parks so it can't be getting enforced. Are taxis and minicabs a trade vehicle? Should be.

tgotb

Veronese68 wrote:

philbar72 wrote:

.... and Private light goods.

I thought they were already banned from the park. Used to be signs saying 'no trade vehicles unless authorised', can't remember if they are still there. I saw a van being pulled over in Bushy Park last week, I guessed it was for that reason. But I often see vans in the parks so it can't be getting enforced. Are taxis and minicabs a trade vehicle? Should be.

Trade vehicles are banned, and I've seen them being stopped by the Police on a few occasions.

I fear unintended consequences if motor vehicles use in the park is restricted to a significant extent. Speed limits on the roads across the centre of the park, including the main route to the Ballet School, are currently 10mph; with no through traffic I can imagine widespread support for lowering the speed limit on the remaining roads, and the only people lobbying against it would be the subset of cyclists who actually achieve speeds close to 20mph.

If plans were floated to reduce the limit to, say, 15mph, it would be quite hard to construct a reasonable counter-argument. Electric bicycles are already limited to 15mph, most occasional cyclists probably never exceed that speed, and the same could probably be said for almost anyone riding a bike who doesn't wear lycra. It's not going to make a significant difference to journey times, so you're basically left with "riding at 15mph is less fun and not such good exercise as tearing around at 20mph". It's hard to see that winning non-cyclists over...

Admittedly the current 10mph doesn't currently seem to be enforced for cyclists, and it's possible that the 20mph limit doesn't apply to cyclists either, but once the limit's lower and the fastest park users are cyclists in lycra, I wouldn't rely on that loophole remaining open...

philbar72

am I right in thinking that all the speed limits in the park are enforceable regardless of the vehicle. i.e. a roadbike should adhere to the 20/ 10mph limits as well...

mattsaw

philbar72 wrote:

am I right in thinking that all the speed limits in the park are enforceable regardless of the vehicle. i.e. a roadbike should adhere to the 20/ 10mph limits as well...

Apparently so, since it's a bylaw which refers to "vehicles" rather than "motor vehicles", so is interpreted that it covers cyclists.

I remember there was some debate a few years ago when a cyclist did get stopped and fined that it may be a grey area, and it may be possible to challenge the fine in court.

Personally it's preferable to cycle sensibly, safely and courteously in the park so you're not going to test the patience of parks police. Secondary if you do get stopped and fined you're probably going to be better off accepting it rather than bearing the expense of challenging it in court.

tgotb

philbar72 wrote:

am I right in thinking that all the speed limits in the park are enforceable regardless of the vehicle. i.e. a roadbike should adhere to the 20/ 10mph limits as well...

I've heard some people who ought to know say the speed limits do apply, and others who also ought to know say they don't!

From a practical perspective, if you hit a child/deer/dog/iPed whilst doing 20mph in a 10mph zone, even if doing that speed was technically legal, you'll be hard-pressed to persuade anyone it wasn't your fault. If it's technically legal but p*sses off lots of non-cyclists, it's only a matter of time before it becomes illegal via one means or another.

kingstongraham

philbar72 wrote:

rower63 wrote:

frogonabike wrote:

I think someone on here recently suggested ANPR that only allows you to exit via the same gate you came in to stop people using it as a rat run. Seems the most sensible/easiest to implement idea I've heard

yes I was going to suggest in the survey too that while the gates are closed 0930 to 1600, the car parks' exits to the rest of the park could be closed to allow in parking-only traffic

ANPR with a time limit so that if you are under 15 mins in the park (rat runner) you get fined. make the fine big enough so it supports the cost of install/ police/ park staff/ ambulances. also target single occupancy vehicles.... and Private light goods.

If you are doing all that, why also target single occupancy vehicles? Or would taking a dog in then count as multiple occupancy? Just checking.

philbar72

KingstonGraham wrote:

philbar72 wrote:

rower63 wrote:

frogonabike wrote:

I think someone on here recently suggested ANPR that only allows you to exit via the same gate you came in to stop people using it as a rat run. Seems the most sensible/easiest to implement idea I've heard

yes I was going to suggest in the survey too that while the gates are closed 0930 to 1600, the car parks' exits to the rest of the park could be closed to allow in parking-only traffic

ANPR with a time limit so that if you are under 15 mins in the park (rat runner) you get fined. make the fine big enough so it supports the cost of install/ police/ park staff/ ambulances. also target single occupancy vehicles.... and Private light goods.

If you are doing all that, why also target single occupancy vehicles? Or would taking a dog in then count as multiple occupancy? Just checking.

hmmm. yes taking the dog for a walk makes sense. was targeting rat runners generally. a very valid point.

anonymousblackfg

Anyone see why the po po had shut down the area north of E&C last night? I assumed another GoAhead bus had run another person but couldn't tell.

PT today, grim. Thank god I can now take the Brommie home.

hopkinb

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Anyone see why the po po had shut down the area north of E&C last night? I assumed another GoAhead bus had run another person but couldn't tell.

PT today, grim. Thank god I can now take the Brommie home.

It was all still taped off this morning too. Unclear why.

mtb-idle

Some interesting commuting traffic Youtube footage from Hyde Park here.

Basically a cyclist stops a car that is cutting a corner/on the wrong side of the road and traffic island and a long discussion ensues.

warreng

hopkinb wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Anyone see why the po po had shut down the area north of E&C last night? I assumed another GoAhead bus had run another person but couldn't tell.

PT today, grim. Thank god I can now take the Brommie home.

It was all still taped off this morning too. Unclear why.

Bits fell off the railway bridge at the junction of Borough Rd and Southwark Bridge Rd during Tuesday.