lewisham roundabout

It looks fairly quiet on a gray Saturday afternoon in August.

But some day it will no longer be a cyclists' nightmare next to a scrubby patch of green and a concrete water culvert where all the public transport is isolated from the main shopping centre.

Some day it will be "retail, offices, hotel, residential, education, health and leisure premises, parking and associated infrastructure, open space and water features. " according to Lewisham Council And there are also alternative views.

I don't mind that cyclists aren't going to be relegated to cyclepaths but instead we will have advanced stop areas at traffic lights, but a share for cyclists in some decent bus lanes will be important.

More detail about the plans instead of huge inaccessible files next to some marketing gumph so that we can all make real decisions would be nice too.

picture from lewisham cyclist.

Smile and the world smiles with you

Cycling along in the pouring rain this morning.
A chap with an umbrella walks out in front of me so I swerve to avoid him then cycle on my way.
"SMILE!!!!" he shouts after me.



Also, I've now recognised some essential kit to keep at the office - old newspapers to stuff in my soggy wet shoes.

Dreamer's first crash

My first crash the other morning.

A car in the right hand lane of a dual carriageway without indicating, turns left across my lane
I brake, but not fast enough. The car loses a wing mirror and I get bruising down my right arm

"I'm sorry. I didn't see you."

Cycling on south London roads

Cyclists are road-users too.

When I first started to commute to work by bike a few months ago, I was very wary of busy roads, roundabouts and one-way systems. I would keep to the back roads and the shared-use pathways. I won't cycle on pedestrian-only footpaths nor would I run red lights or cycle the wrong way down one way streets. So I would get caught between being some kind of not-quite-vehicle and some kind of not-quite-pedestrian.

After a couple of months, I started to become a bit more confident of my strength and my cycling technique. That's when I came across John Franklin's book "Cyclecraft" that teaches about cycling as a full road user rather than cowering in a gutter or footpath.

I'm now much more confident about cycling on the roads and I'm happy to travel all around south London by bike. I navigate round most one-way systems and roundabouts but not yet Lewisham roundabout or Elephant & Castle. They're both still too hairy for me!

Occasionally, a driver will get fed up with me taking over 'their' lane, but most people just get on with driving and don't get ratty with me. Bus drivers are very tolerant of cyclists and often seem to make sure that I've got the time and space to get past - so I don't try to hold them up or knock down their passengers.

All in all, I feel much safer cycling on the main roads than trying to share pathways with pedestrians or navigating round the back streets. I get home quicker too.

local cycle shops

Whooooo! I can do Google maps: Cycle shops near Lewisham

I'm really looking forward to travelling to work tomorrow.

No really, I am.
Up until a couple of years ago I was crammed in the train or the DLR getting hot and sweaty on my way to work. Then we moved offices and I discovered the joys of buses - especially the 436 bendy bus. But even the bendy bus started to get too much. Though it's reasonable price for a ticket (£1 per journey) the costs soon stack up (£10 per week, £500 per year) and even though I could sleep/read/work/listen to music on the way, I still ended up hot and sweaty - there doesn't seem to be air conditioning on any London transport.
So after crummy oystercards that don't always work and ticket inspectors who treat us like criminals, I decided to get on my bike. And now I really enjoy the daily commute through south London. For the past three months I've cycled almost every day the 10-12 kilometres to work. So it's also saved me £10 a week gym fees. And the journey is at least 20 minutes shorter.
I reckon that in the past three months I've:

• cycled over 1,000km,
• saved over £200 on bus and gym,
• eaten almost what I've wanted and not gained weight
• arrived at work early feeling happy and refreshed (and more importantly arriving home again at the end of the day feeling the same)
• spent 40 hours less stuck in noisy buses.

I've also got to become smug about commuting, narrowly avoided accidents (so far), spent money on bike tools, and worn clothes that are way too tight for me.

lewisham cyclist

flickr (58), originally uploaded by lewisham cyclist.