Amy’s posterous

In London, the bike lanes are actually the bus lanes; bikes are just supposed to ride in them, too.  It would be okay, probably, if this is how it actually played out.  Instead, you have taxis darting in and out of the bus lanes as a way to dodge through traffic.  You have bus lanes that turn into left turn only lanes so buses are trying to merge back into normal lanes of traffic, and so are bikes.  Then there are the instances where curb and railings are on both sides of the bus lane, trapping you the lane, in a huge pile up of buses so there you are, standing with your bike, trapped between two double decker buses with visible black exhaust everywhere.  It's awesome!

As I'm sure you can glean from the first point, there isn't a great deal of 'share the road' idealism out here.  The reigning theory is more 'every man for himself' or even a challenge of man v metal.  Of course no where is perfect unless it is just one vehicle or the other, and Portland had many drivers who openly disliked cyclists using the same space.  In London, I've found many a driver who tries to disregard your presence or acknowledge when you were in the right.

Lastly, and most annoyingly, is the city planning.  London's growth outwards from the downtown and in between neighborhoods has made for a crazy nest of streets.  Looking at a map, you'd think it would be miles and miles and a lot of time to get between two places; all of those streets are really so very small, though, that it doesn't take all that long at all to get where you want to go.  

The hardest part is creating a route from the map.  We've all done this before with driving maps, etc.  You find where you are, and where you want to go, and then identify what looks to be the most direct or the only logical route to take.  So, that's what you do, and you take off.  Lo and behold! The street you are biking down magically turns into a one-way going the opposite direction that you are and you have to turn.  Well, you can't just turn immediately onto a parallel street and continue in the direction you want to go because there is no such thing as parallel in London.  Instead you are forced to turn and then continue off course for much too long before you can turn and head in a corrective path that only adds minutes and miles onto the route.  Needless to say, we've had fun!

-----

There have been a few recent bike accident deaths in the news lately which is pretty scary - ghost bikes going up around town much faster than in Portland.  The most recent was a young woman, 31, who moved to London a couple years ago and just celebrated her 2nd wedding anniversary.  She worked as a dancer for a couple local theatres and was biking home when she was actually smashed by a bus.  It was horrible.  We are very careful when we ride, always wearing helmets and being cautious though it seems we are the minority.  In my commute I see many other cyclists not wearing helmets and darting in and out of different lanes.  I'm so scared for them.

It isn't all bad though.  It's a big city, a bigger city than Portland, which means just by per capita standards there are more cyclists on the roads so it always feels a bit better to come to an intersection, stop in the bike box (more bike boxes than I imagined they'd have) and not be the only cyclist.  We've seen a lot and built out a much larger mental map of the city than many other people simply from riding around instead of dropping down to the tube and re-emerging where you want to be with no idea what lies between the two areas.

So, come visit and bring your bikes (or rent them here) and we can show you the city by bike!  Plus, it's much easier biking on the weekends without commuter traffic and all.  Just have to yell at J-walking tourists!