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[email protected] · October 13th 17, 05:55 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Someone
Somewhere) wrote:

On 13/10/2017 14:37, wrote:
In article , (Someone
Somewhere) wrote:

On 13/10/2017 02:32, wrote:
In article ,
(GeorgeK) wrote:

Thank you all for your replies. My wife doesn't drive but we are
willing to live on the suburbs of Oxford provided that she can take
at least the bus to work which is at the city center. We are mainly
interested in living near a city with certain amenities (restaurants,
bars, shopping street, etc).

The idea of staying at Headington doesn't sound bad as it seems to be
less than 30min from the city center by bus. From your replies, it
seems that the 6th zone (Ickenham, Hillington or Rickmansworth) is
the closest I can get by car to London before being stuck in the jam.

When I checked the commute from Didcot to London by train it wasn't
faster (or cheaper) compared to Oxford. You reckon that Didcot would
be more convenient though?

Has you wife actually looked at the cycling option? Oxford is only
second to Cambridge for UK cycle commuting and up to 5 miles is an
easy cycle commute. My wife doesn't drive and regularly cycles to her
job 2.5-3 miles away as I did when working even though I drive.

The problem with relying on cyclng is that it's lovely when the
weather is, and when it isn't it's bloody horrible.

I live on what is allegedly one of the busiest cycle routes in the UK
and it's incredibly noticeable how usage drops when the weather is
less than clement.

Because of this I'd seriously argue that a modal shift to cycling is
impossible - you still have to dimension the transport infrastructure
for those bad days, and if you've just taken a chunk out of it to
accomodate the cycle lane then for periods of the year (e.g.
"February") you're actually making things worse, not better.

Sorry, but that is as ridiculous as saying you will drive even though
10% of the time traffic will be so bad that you will be seriously late
to work.

No it's not - it's observational that during poor weather (or winter)
the number of cyclists reduces dramatically. Do you dispute this?

Have you got the traffic counts? There appears to be much more traffic.
While a bit of that is cyclists using their cars but the main effect is
because cars are driving slower due to the conditions.

Non-trivial rain occurs as commuter time well under 10% of the time. It
isn't that hard to get good cycling raingear either.

That's not the point, the point is cyclists seem fickle about the
weather but presumably will still make their journey which presumably
will be via tube / trian / taxi / uber / car.

Ones like contributors to this thread maybe. How many of you ever cycle?
Even since I retired I cycle regularly in central London. Sometimes it rains
too. Fortunately reality is becoming more apparent in places where cycling
is properly supported.

Look at Cambridge commuting if you don't believe me. Traffic is worse on
wet days but that makes cycling even more advantageous in travel times.

That may well be, but a) this is still uk.transport.london however
many times you wish to bring Cambridge into it and b) I suggest that
when introducing segregated cycle lanes that reduce overall
throughput of people (excepting cyclists) then this needs to be taken
into account.

I'm not arguing that cyclists shouldn't have safe routes to follow,
or similar, just that cyclists have differences that aren't shared by
other modes of transport which means they don't use the road capacity
with the uniformity of other users.

Similarly it could be fairly argued that on days of bus strikes,
penalties for other vehicles using bus lanes should be removed, but
such events happen far less frequently than inclement weather
(probably less than 0.1%).

Again, I'm not arguing that such measures are practical - they
probably aren't (reasonably) - just that such a modal shift is not as
simplistic is as often presented (creating safe, segregated cycle
lanes will mean people shift to bikes and overall journey times will
decrease and not increase)

I worked in London for nearly a decade and cycled a lot between westminster
and main line railway stations as well as between my Cambridge home and the
station. I know perfectly well what the advantages of cycling are, as well
the the largely imagined issued raised here. Cycling meant shorter commutes
and a predictability of journey times just not available by car or tube. So
when I left the office I knew with far greater confidence which train I
would catch than when I took the tube. In the mornings after I stayed at my
parents' in Putney, I could cycle in in much the same time as taking the
tube, using low traffic and car-free routes (rather than a cycle
super-highway composed mainly of paint), and, unlike on the tube, I got a
seat.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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