Rode to London this morning
- Thread starter Rilot
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I live and work in London and no, London ISN'T fantastic. When you're not working it's busy, expensive and unpleasant. When you are working you're competing with every business in London.
Fortunately I drive to work before 6am so I go through town no congestion charge and always have parking, but coming home can be a pain.
There is woefully inadequate parking for bikes - fact. There should be more, or at least spaces available in NCP's, or be allowed to park on the pavement. That's the whole point of bikes, minimise congestion, parking per sq ft, higher economy (40+ mpg), more space for buses :retch:, and better for the hippy enviromentalists weirdos.
There is no provision for bikers, well insufficient provision at any rate. Furthermore they should open up all bus lanes for bikes.
Those bendy busses can go **** themselves - I never let them out, in fact I never let any bus drivers out, they're all ****s - well individually they may not be, but whoever has trained them is, because they drive like lunatics.
Completely agree here. The bus drivers push out at junctions, block yellow boxes and lights.
I understand that they're trained to be agressive due to timetables etc, but doing any of these activities as a private driver would get you a swift fine.
Ok prices are high but trains/tubes are not THAT bad. I travel on the tube a lot and certainly don't stink of sweat upon arriving at my destination, the summer does make it slightly less pleasant, but keep well hydrated and it's fine.
I live and work in London too and I am very happy with my experiences. It's expensive but then what do you expect, London has never been cheap. Also, it doesn't have to be unpleasant if you don't want it to be. I agree that London isn't great when you have your own car, I have tried to experience it for a short period and whilst parking overnight in my carpark is fine, elsewhere it can be a pain in the ass and you soon realise it's easier to walk/tube it.
Yay Twyford! I used to live there. Norman makes taking the train from there worth it tbh.
Riding into london is horrible... Fact!
it's dangerous, smells, hot, dusty and generally unplesent.
Car drivers, cyclists, busses AND bike riders suck.
filtering through traffic at my own pace at what i feel safe just to have some ******* idiot on an R1 rev his engine behind me because he wants to kill him self in traffic. I'm not going to move over untill i find a safe spot to do so... i don't care how much you rev your engine.
on the plus side it takes me roughly 20 minutes to get to St.Pauls compaired to an hour and half on public transport. lucky for me there is a nice big indoor secured car park with a whole floor for bike parking.
**edit**
Quality of the roads are terrible.
i would rather have a smooth road with speed humps than put up with some of the pot holes and manhole covers in london
it's dangerous, smells, hot, dusty and generally unplesent.
Car drivers, cyclists, busses AND bike riders suck.
filtering through traffic at my own pace at what i feel safe just to have some ******* idiot on an R1 rev his engine behind me because he wants to kill him self in traffic. I'm not going to move over untill i find a safe spot to do so... i don't care how much you rev your engine.
on the plus side it takes me roughly 20 minutes to get to St.Pauls compaired to an hour and half on public transport. lucky for me there is a nice big indoor secured car park with a whole floor for bike parking.
**edit**
Quality of the roads are terrible.
i would rather have a smooth road with speed humps than put up with some of the pot holes and manhole covers in london
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I use a bike in London and yes, it can be a struggle. Especially in the city.
My attitude is this: scope out the place before you go there. I know that's hard to do if it's just for one meeting though.
A lot of bikers park "illegally" and get away with it (e.g. by bank station there are a lot of alley ways that bikers use to park in.
Also, if you're going to a meeting, ask them if you can use their parking for a few hours. Most buildings will have a rear/access/delivery entrace and most will be ok with a bike being parked there for a few hours.
This very issue has concerned me many times. I live by Goodge St so I'm quite lucky in that I can walk to most places.
I do not use public transport. I walk, or cycle, or ride.
My attitude is this: scope out the place before you go there. I know that's hard to do if it's just for one meeting though.
A lot of bikers park "illegally" and get away with it (e.g. by bank station there are a lot of alley ways that bikers use to park in.
Also, if you're going to a meeting, ask them if you can use their parking for a few hours. Most buildings will have a rear/access/delivery entrace and most will be ok with a bike being parked there for a few hours.
This very issue has concerned me many times. I live by Goodge St so I'm quite lucky in that I can walk to most places.
I do not use public transport. I walk, or cycle, or ride.
my one and only experience of travelling to london consisted of driving into central london around 9am on Saturday morning, was busy but traffic was flowing smoothly and there were lots of nice cars around.
Found a pay and display in kensington (where our hotel was) and paid up untill 10:30 when parking was free. Stayed in london up untill about 5pm sunday and drove back out of london. Again at 5pm sunday, traffic was quite light.
Got around the rest of the time via tube, which was conveniant, but was fed up of being squashed by the end of the weekend, the tube was constanstly crammed.
Found a pay and display in kensington (where our hotel was) and paid up untill 10:30 when parking was free. Stayed in london up untill about 5pm sunday and drove back out of london. Again at 5pm sunday, traffic was quite light.
Got around the rest of the time via tube, which was conveniant, but was fed up of being squashed by the end of the weekend, the tube was constanstly crammed.
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Soldato
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I commute into the City every day (bus/tube), not really as bad as everyone makes it out to be, driving in and around London can be a nightmare but once you get used to it/know all the alternative routes then it's not too bad.
My transport costs to work are £76 per month, which is nothing.
My transport costs to work are £76 per month, which is nothing.
Yes, pourquoi?
Then surely your experiences are going to be vastly different to those who commute to work 5/6 days a week...?
*n
Not really because I'm also self employed and work in London 6 days a week for half the year.
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I agree about the road quality - it's ridiculous, more potholes than the moon has craters, and in fact I think once we had to send a search party for my cousin who fell down in one - fortunately he survived on the fields of takeaway food, and the great oceans and lakes that he had - good thing he studied Ray Mears urban survival - or he'd have been screwed. I wonder how many hundreds of people go missing in those pot holes... Shocking tbh.
No! It entirely depends on how you use the place, I live in Central and it is a nightmare if you want to use your own car in the day time but there are more efficient transport services in place.
lol.
ah... that would explain quite a bit.
i could swear i saw a small colony of people in one of them craters.