biking to work

seriously, i haven't had as many incidents as i've had in the last few days in nearly a year cycling 20+ miles pretty much every day in london

now feeling a tiny bit anxious on the road, which is annoying, becuase that makes me feel like i'm more likely to have an accident

ugh, scary

man at least what i've heard anecdotally makes london/uk sound so much worse w/r/t motorists openly hating and/or targeting cyclists. i live in the midwest of the US (where everyone loves cars) and still haven't encountered more than a couple ppl saying shit like "get off the road" or w/e. and then its usually just a yell from a window.

when they catch up at the lights they stop right in front of me, meaning i have to overtake them again.

disgusting, savage.

the other day i rolled past a bunch of slowcoaches stopped behind the line, to stop in the group of go-getting dudes gathered in front of the line, who were obviously going places and fast - some of them had overaken me previously. then when the lights changed, to a man they all took off at a perilously slow wobbling pace, spread out all over the road, me trapped behind them and cars beeping.

slow startin wobblers are the ~worst~

this morning i wasted *everyone* in the bike box at the waterloo junction. mind you i had to hit a pace i would have no way of maintaining if my commute were more than 500 yards long.

- school run mums (morning edition aka the most dangerous people on the road) speeding past at 50+ mph down a 20mph road, scary shit, the road has potholes that will knock you right off your bike

yeah my route to work takes me past an elementary school these ppl are the worst, cannot wait until school is out

MUST GET CHILD TO SCHOOL BEFORE 9AM AND ***NOTHING*** WILL STOP ME!

also, at the school i pass, they all park up right outside the school then they don't bother to signal or even look when pulling out, which is annoying because it's impossible to tell if a car is parked up or if it's going to pull out at any second. usually they'll do a turn in the road too, just to make sure if you do have to swerve round them, they'll still probably hit you anyway.

i kinda hate this cyclist moaning talk, i mean i try my best to have a positive attitude on the road i always try to make life as easy and obvious as i can for cars. think it's kind of important not to be riding around hating on everyone / everything, but sometimes it's really really tough to stay cool. that guy that beeped me, bumped into me then drove round me and called me a cunt, i hate to think what i could have done :-/

Yeah I do find myself cycling with an in-built grudge waiting to take itself out on someone. It's not good. Partially a function of going everywhere at hypersonic speed. "Slow down!" is my not-constant-enough refrain to myself.

Yeah I do find myself cycling with an in-built grudge waiting to take itself out on someone.

Purely because of this, I yelled at a bus driver yesterday for alerting me to the presence of pedestrians on a crossing. Although I hadn't seen them at that point, I was slowing down ready to stop in case I had to, but he really had no way of knowing that. So I felt bad.

I try to be as courteous and pleasant as possible, and try never to be in a rush, but I'm beginning to think there is something genuinely psychopathic about people who want to drive their individual vehicles in, well I was going to say 'urban centres', but I mean London. It's slow, horrible, violent, noisy, smelly and aggressive, and they all snarl each other up - the cars are just too goddam big to negotiate a high street like Marylebone High Street sensibly.

And the aggression doesn't just operate at the level of the odd driver who will actually try to scare you or knock you off your bike, or who clearly hate you, but just general low-level entitlement to road space which also comes across as extremely aggressive.

I've also had a couple of incidents over the last couple of days, one of them on an all but empty road at half six in the morning, where a minicab driver just pulled a complete u-turn across the road right in front of me, which I was lucky to avoid getting knocked off by. I pulled up to him at the lights (which were red, hence his urgency no doubt) and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing and he said 'You didn't see me mate'. Quite the opposite in fact.

I'm generally tolerant of less confident cyclists' tactics to avoid cycling with traffic as much as possible nowadays. However what really peeves me is cyclists going through Hyde Park, a park you'll note, as if it's their personal race track and perfectly respectable dawdlers, wanderers, sky gazers, etc are getting in the way, causing them to shout with phenomenal rudeness. Just wait goddam it, cycle more slowly, wave people through! Be more nice ffs.

Grudge-cycling is bad for all-concerned but it's so easy to get into that mindset.

I think I'me quite a good city cyclist but this morning I simply forgot to look when I turned into a road and, sure enough, the reason that other car had stopped was to let a car past. As it happened, I had enough space to look like a death-defying urban warrior rather than a broken, embarrassed heap in the middle of the road. But that's not the point. Idiot Mark.

So easy tho, all it takes is that level of permanent omniscient concentration to slip. That car stopping to let another one past is one of the most regular danger spots I think I have.

yeh jesus i hate that

i just try to remember that undertaking always = caution

i forgot to mention the dude that overtook me at speed, braked super hard and tried to turn left down a narrow road only to find another car coming up that road and not leaving enough room to get past (esp at the speed the dude that overtook me was going) so he kinda skidded forward and ended up infront of the other car waiting to pull out

this, judging by his body language, was my fault

i might come back here often to vent about these kind of things, my gf and housemates must be sick of hearing these stories

That overtaking plus left turn also happens a lot. And while I find a lot of bus drivers quite courteous, overtaking then pulling in to a bus stop, or similarly taxis suddenly pulling in for a fare also happens a lot.

BUT on the positive side I LOVE my morning and evening commute. I'm happiest when I'm on my bike at the moment, and I also know it's quicker and more pleasant than any other mode of transport.

oh and dude that got hit by a car was d@n at fitzr0vi@ cyc1es (used to be cavendish cycles before they took it over) if that's a shop anyone goes to often

Oh right, that's my main shop. Always found them really good down there. Damn.

yeh, they're a good bunch that lot.

i like buses and taxis. they're fairly predictable.

anyway home time. time for some pwnage! ride safe guys :)

had a wonderful ride to work today, just a great attitude adjustment.

at a SUPER busy 4 way intersection in the suburbs a few nights ago, i saw a cyclist pull a dipshit stunt that left me with an unprecedented reaction: i wished he'd gone down. tbh i don't know how he didnt. my two lane road intersected a very wide four lane arterial road with two turn lanes, and i had a red light, at which i stopped. fixie dude came down hill behind me and simply charged the intersection frogger style at about 30mph. when he realized he wouldn't have space to clear the intersection on the proper side of the road, he swerved hard to the shoulder of the opposite side of the road, however, that oncoming traffic lane had a car peforming a right on red. it missed him by inches.

to be all scoldy schoolmarmy, i imagine any witnesses would fucking hate cyclists at tthat moment.

Crackle Box, you tell your gf about your near misses etc? Mine is worried enough - I keep most of the negative experiences to myself, unless I actually do myself an owie.

i like to keep her worried.

"you really should get out of this stupid mood because you probably won't see me again"

n.b i tried this once and her reply was "good"

Like you Mark I tend to keep quiet, although sometimes I'm angry enough about a piece of stupidity on the road to blurt out an incident, which immediately after threats to hide my bike I have to downgrade to 'Oh it was fine really', making my anger look misplaced and foolish.

riding with a s.o, that's a whole other thing... have done it a few times and it's just too much stress in the city

as long as i wear a helmet and have disability insurance, i'm allowed to play in traffic

riding with a s.o, that's a whole other thing... have done it a few times and it's just too much stress in the city

oh man, whole 'nother can of woims.

haha oh yeah

my wife didn't learn to ride a bike until way late in life, and since she's learned, only done it a few times. we went on a group ride through easy city streets and she ran into poles and a bridge. she was a trooper though. seriously funny

mrs. shasta won't ride since our last time out and she ate it on a sidewalk apron right in front of our house. we lol about it but she would rather just run.