London Rush Hour Cycling (Accidentally!)

I decided to go on an early morning loop through the City of London (from Bromley), and didn’t account for the Cycle Rush Hour!

Morning. It’s 6:30. I’m already running a bit late, so it’s not a long intro. I got a lot to do this morning, and I’m going to try and batter out 30 mi around going up to Westminster and back before we start work. Let’s go. As usual, I start my cycle by getting out of Brmley. First of all, [Music] after going through Bellinham and Beckenham, uh I arrived at this foot bridge uh which is on the other side of Paul River, which uh then takes you down through into Catford. It’s a really nice scenic uh route as you’ll see. [Music] I’m on some nice paths around the back of Catford. And I’m using my beline in balance mode. And I’ve noticed the routing’s a bit nicer than if I was to use commute. Maybe if I change the mode in commute, it will do the same thing. But beline’s taking me along more quieter roads and cycle paths. It’s quite nice. So that path leads you out by Halford’s in Catford as you’ll see here. But instead of going across the main road, there’s actually a foot tunnel underneath the road which is quite cool for cyclists and pedestrians that then allows me to continue my journey uh with minimal traffic. [Music] So, I’ve skipped forward and we are on some cycle paths around the back of Broccoli. Again, cutting out some of that main road traffic. [Music] [Music] Ryane Pekkham. I enjoy cycling down this road. You always get to kind of just see random things that are happening and it looks quite I don’t know what the word is because the graffiti and the feel to Peekom Ry just has something about it. [Music] So, at the top of Ry Lane, I think this is where I first started to see commuters. that is people who weren’t cycling just for leisure, but because they look like they’re actually going somewhere. And this was the start of that. As you can see, this guy on the light blue bike. Uh we stuck together for quite a while, actually. [Music] Now, all of this here behind Peekom Library, I’ve never gone through this part, even as a pedestrian. Um, and I did not know that there were all of the cycle paths that ran behind it, which was quite cool. [Music] So, as I came off the cycle paths around the back, um I joined other cyclists who obviously weren’t cycling for the enjoyment like I was. They were cycling because they were trying to get somewhere obviously to work. And it was a thing to witness the frustration um as they were trying to pass other slower cyclists or cyclists who were on their phones. [Music] And here just around the back of London Bridge on Great Dover Street, instead of going straight on, we can turn left and run parallel to the main road. And it just helps us cut out some of that car traffic. [Music] All right, guys. Help me decide. Is this a pass or a fail? I mean, she didn’t quite put her feet on the floor, but her feet came off the pedals. I managed to get through no problems. By the way, there are some situations whereby you can’t help being on main roads. Um, but I’m up by Waterloo at the moment. And again, this is a turn that I’ve never been up obviously because I’ve not cycled in this area. Anytime I’ve been in Waterloo, I’ve either been on the train or in my car. So, this is a little road that runs round the side and back of Waterloo Station. [Music] [Music] [Music] There we go. [Music] The skies were blue and the weather was so pleasant for this time of morning. I was really enjoying this ride probably up until this point because um all around central London uh there were so many cyclists that when I talk about the cycle superighway, it really is a cycle superighway. There are so many cyclists just trying to get to work and get to where they’re going. In these shots here, most of them are behind me. [Music] And I don’t know what was going on here, but everyone thought that they were going to race for some reason. Um, I let them I let them race. I was in it for the distance, not for the not for the racing. Victoria embankment was an experience for cycling. And this guy here, someone dropped their dropped something and this guy in front of me stopped without saying without any indication and caused the almost caused an accident because the sheer volume of cyclists behind us at those lights is crazy. I’ve not cycled in cycle rush hour before. So, this really was a new experience for me. [Music] And a lot of these cyclists are just really used to the roads here. You can tell they do it every day. But I don’t know what happened here. I got caught off guard. I should have gone around to the left and I went straight over. It was a temporary moment of confusion, but I was committed. I ended up going through and then rejoining everyone on the other side without causing too much of an issue. [Music] Now here is another moment of confusion. I wanted to go right towards Tower Bridge, but there was no easy way for me to see that. And on reflection, I think the cycle path went around to the left and would have eventually pulled me around. I’m not quite sure, but I had to do this fumbly move where I had to go over and stop and then kind of cross over as a pedestrian and then be on my way. And Tower Bridge is another experience as a cyclist when there is rush hour for the cars because there’s not really much space for the cyclist to maneuver around the cars. There’s no dedicated cycle lane and you can’t really go in the outside of them because of the oncoming traffic. Um, but that was another experience. Okay, so after coming over Tower Bridge, I’m looping back around to go back down into South London. So here now you can see the sheer volume of cycle rush hour traffic. Um I was literally going against the grain here. And what I found highly frustrating and highly annoying was that uh cyclists coming in my direction were quite often on my side of the cycle lane and I almost had like three or four collisions just because we’re all traveling at speed and they’re not sticking to their lane because they’re in and not to hammer the point home, but look at this here. There’s not even any attempt for them to really move back over into their lane. Now, what was about to happen here is insanity because we’re on a blind corner and he was clean on the wrong side of the cycle path. Uh that could have really been dangerous if we weren’t both able to move quickly. Now we’re coming out of the head-on cycle rush hour and just approaching the back of Lucam. We’re in the home stretch now. [Music] Now approaching Lewell. There’s a fire station on the left and what was Lady Well swimming pools on the left also now turned into accommodation I believe [Music] and we’re just approaching Catford. Um, we’re going to go through Downham and then back down into Brmley. So, once again, thanks for watching, guys. If you made it this far, please like and comment. Much appreciated.