J
Jeremy Parker
Guest
"Andy Gee" <[email protected]> wrote
Anyone else have any
> neighborhoods where the biking goes from wonderful to miserable by
> crossing a street?
Here in London the character of the city is very fine grained, finer
than any US city , even NYC or Boston, but I haven't noticed that in
people's driving. Some streets are nicer to ride on than others, of
course, but that's the street, not the people.
I like riding in London. It's a big city, of course, so you won't be
alone, and people like you to be decisive about what you are about to
do, though they will make allowances if you are obviously a
bewildered tourist. If you look as if you are local, but still
bewildered, then they get more irritated. That's independent of
whether you are in a car, on a bike, or blocking the entrance or exit
at the tube's ticket barriers. On the whole, though, the good
humoured cockney character does still survive.
London has a bewildering street pattern, but that means that there
are lots of fairly quiet back streets. That's not the thing for a
fast training ride, of course, but makes for interesting exploring.
Thanks to London's free bike maps - it takes nineteen maps to cover
the whole of London - exploring is even easier nowadays. There's
London's Journey Planner, on the Internet, which can be set to make
the bicycle your only allowable mode of transport. The Journey
Planner isn't perfect, but which is at least worth consulting when
you are wondering how to get somewhere. [The rival journey planner,
by the London Cycle Network, has a much poorer reputation. I can't
speak from personal experience, since it crashes when I try to use
it]
The congestion charge for cars is up to eight pounds now - about
$13.60 US - and the area covered will expand in a few months time.
When it first came in I thought that the charge's main effect would
be to leave nobody but white-van-man trying to meet impossible
delivery schedules, and yuppie Porsches, now with space to speed, and
the drivers saying, "Yes, I do own the road, I paid for it.". On the
whole, though, driving got more sedate. The bad side was the
increase in motorcycles. They can't be charged a fee, since there is
no way to photograph their tags. Thus there was a big increase in
motorcycling, and big decrease in the average motorcyclist's
competence. They are letting motorcycles in bus lanes, too, alas.
The bike activists didn't notice this was coming, owing to it being
in the motorcycle chapter of the transport plan, not the bus or
bicycle chapter.
Taking bikes on trains is degrading somewhat owing to new rolling
stock with less space, and the number of passengers increasing. My
lines are still ok. With flow bikes are banned on my line during
rush hours, but allowed counterflow.
The question is, though, will we get the Tour de France in 2007?
Jeremy Parker
Anyone else have any
> neighborhoods where the biking goes from wonderful to miserable by
> crossing a street?
Here in London the character of the city is very fine grained, finer
than any US city , even NYC or Boston, but I haven't noticed that in
people's driving. Some streets are nicer to ride on than others, of
course, but that's the street, not the people.
I like riding in London. It's a big city, of course, so you won't be
alone, and people like you to be decisive about what you are about to
do, though they will make allowances if you are obviously a
bewildered tourist. If you look as if you are local, but still
bewildered, then they get more irritated. That's independent of
whether you are in a car, on a bike, or blocking the entrance or exit
at the tube's ticket barriers. On the whole, though, the good
humoured cockney character does still survive.
London has a bewildering street pattern, but that means that there
are lots of fairly quiet back streets. That's not the thing for a
fast training ride, of course, but makes for interesting exploring.
Thanks to London's free bike maps - it takes nineteen maps to cover
the whole of London - exploring is even easier nowadays. There's
London's Journey Planner, on the Internet, which can be set to make
the bicycle your only allowable mode of transport. The Journey
Planner isn't perfect, but which is at least worth consulting when
you are wondering how to get somewhere. [The rival journey planner,
by the London Cycle Network, has a much poorer reputation. I can't
speak from personal experience, since it crashes when I try to use
it]
The congestion charge for cars is up to eight pounds now - about
$13.60 US - and the area covered will expand in a few months time.
When it first came in I thought that the charge's main effect would
be to leave nobody but white-van-man trying to meet impossible
delivery schedules, and yuppie Porsches, now with space to speed, and
the drivers saying, "Yes, I do own the road, I paid for it.". On the
whole, though, driving got more sedate. The bad side was the
increase in motorcycles. They can't be charged a fee, since there is
no way to photograph their tags. Thus there was a big increase in
motorcycling, and big decrease in the average motorcyclist's
competence. They are letting motorcycles in bus lanes, too, alas.
The bike activists didn't notice this was coming, owing to it being
in the motorcycle chapter of the transport plan, not the bus or
bicycle chapter.
Taking bikes on trains is degrading somewhat owing to new rolling
stock with less space, and the number of passengers increasing. My
lines are still ok. With flow bikes are banned on my line during
rush hours, but allowed counterflow.
The question is, though, will we get the Tour de France in 2007?
Jeremy Parker
Mark
