Commuting.....

[Amulree]

All this talk about getting commuters to cycle or walk......how is this expected to work? In most big cities the commute will be 10 - 20 miles so you're not going to cycle that every day. My younger daughter lives in Croydon and works in Roehampton - about 12 miles by road. Up to now she has done the trip by train - 2 trains, change at Clapham Junction. In the new world order, I would think if you're looking to find Coronavirus, Clapham Junction would be a good place to start. So in future she is going to be on the road. A bike or a scoot would be my choice, but she's no licence, so its a car. I've an old Ford Fiesta for her and we're lucky its all outside the ULEZ. So thats another car on London's roads - lets hope there's not too many cycle lanes taking over the road space! Cheers!

[weeksy]

All this talk about getting commuters to cycle or walk......how is this expected to work? In most big cities the commute will be 10 - 20 miles so you're not going to cycle that every day. My younger daughter lives in Croydon and works in Roehampton - about 12 miles by road. Up to now she has done the trip by train - 2 trains, change at Clapham Junction. In the new world order, I would think if you're looking to find Coronavirus, Clapham Junction would be a good place to start. So in future she is going to be on the road. A bike or a scoot would be my choice, but she's no licence, so its a car. I've an old Ford Fiesta for her and we're lucky its all outside the ULEZ. So thats another car on London's roads - lets hope there's not too many cycle lanes taking over the road space! Cheers!

Electric bicycle?

Even on a Standard bicycle 10 miles should be viable,

First things first, people have to forget what used to be normal, normal is no longer normal and may not be for a long time.

[weeksy]

Cyclists are everywhere now. All of a sudden everyone has a bike. Fine in my wee town but i think when its the end of lockdown there is going to be a lot of broken bones when folk start taking the cars to the roads again. I see folk being complacent when cycling out on the 60 roads as they are 80% + quieter round here but that wont last for ever. Plus when winter sets in the bikes will be back in the shed for most of them and never looked at again.

Agree. But I'm hoping not all.

Don't get me wrong, mine is an 18 mile commute so it's not often I ride to work and back. But if it was a choice of public transport or an ebike, I'd be phoning the cycle shop asap.
Why anyone would choose to get on any form of public transport at the moment is beyond me.

[Bigyin]

All this talk about getting commuters to cycle or walk......how is this expected to work? In most big cities the commute will be 10 - 20 miles so you're not going to cycle that every day. My younger daughter lives in Croydon and works in Roehampton - about 12 miles by road. Up to now she has done the trip by train - 2 trains, change at Clapham Junction. In the new world order, I would think if you're looking to find Coronavirus, Clapham Junction would be a good place to start. So in future she is going to be on the road. A bike or a scoot would be my choice, but she's no licence, so its a car. I've an old Ford Fiesta for her and we're lucky its all outside the ULEZ. So thats another car on London's roads - lets hope there's not too many cycle lanes taking over the road space! Cheers!

Provisional license and a CBT gets her on a 60 mph 125 cc twist and go moped ....damn sight cheaper than a car and easier to get through the traffic when it increases

[MrLongbeard]

Work is 80+ miles away, I'd best make a start now to be in for Tuesday

[the_priest]

I have just ridden the NC700 into City of London. traffic is as normal during pre pandemic levels. Took me as long to get in due to the new cycle lanes. Glad that I have only 1 1/2 months left of this life in having to commute to London. July will see me walking to work and thinner as a result to. I won't cycle the 14 miles to work as I cannot hear traffic coming up behind me and so don't want to be a statistic.

[Taipan]

I have just ridden the NC700 into City of London. traffic is as normal during pre pandemic levels. Took me as long to get in due to the new cycle lanes. Glad that I have only 1 1/2 months left of this life in having to commute to London. July will see me walking to work and thinner as a result to. I won't cycle the 14 miles to work as I cannot hear traffic coming up behind me and so don't want to be a statistic.

I'm not back until at least the 18th of june, but i'm kind of missing the commute! Where are the new cycle lanes?

[Taipan]

Green transport is a good thing and i'm all for encouraging it. Govt should loosen up the regs on leccy scoots and skateboards. When they eventually put the congestion charge on motorbikes in London, i'll get the train in and get across London on a leccy scoot. My commute is over 30 miles so i cant use a eBike, which is a shame as there are some belters out there. I guess you'd need to be under 10 miles for one to be realistic?

[the_priest]

I'm not back until at least the 18th of june, but i'm kind of missing the commute! Where are the new cycle lanes?

These are down Jamaica Road to Rotherhithe Tunnel. The whole road is a disaster now!

[weeksy]

Green transport is a good thing and i'm all for encouraging it. Govt should loosen up the regs on leccy scoots and skateboards. When they eventually put the congestion charge on motorbikes in London, i'll get the train in and get across London on a leccy scoot. My commute is over 30 miles so i cant use a eBike, which is a shame as there are some belters out there. I guess you'd need to be under 10 miles for one to be realistic?

They can do 15+ miles each way realistically, more if you're prepared to pedal a bit at times or cruise on the down bits... but they're obviously not quick, they're still only realistically <15mph average even for someone who cycles a bit, especially in a city too.

I don't see them being realisitc for 20 mile commutes for anyone less than a dedicated cyclist.

What will make more sense, is people getting jobs closer to home instead, even if on lower wages.

[MrLongbeard]

Govt should loosen up the regs on leccy scoots and skateboards.

I'm in two minds about them, have we not had enough deaths this year

[rossm]

Govt should loosen up the regs on leccy scoots and skateboards.

I'm in two minds about them, have we not had enough deaths this year

Coming as a trial everywhere from next month. Was going to be four towns next year but has been brought forward

[exportman]

Its all right trying to get people to cycle into work but where are you going to keep them whilst you are working we don't have any proper infrastructure for parking bikes in any great numbers. The in the summer you arrive at work sweating and smelly and in the winter wet through and frozen much worse than on a motorcycle.

I did find it confusing.

Go back to work if you can
Dont use public transport unless you have no alternative
Oh and we are going to close the roads to motorised traffic.
Great bit of joined up thinking.

This article https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... o-covid-19 report that 40% of work commutes are under 2 miles I wonder if that is actually 20% but the folks go home for lunch? I don't see how else that could be correct
Unless you live and work in a city-town centre I cant see it, and even in London I would expect the commutes to be much longer than that. Certainly my experience of Waterloo Train/Tube station at rush hours would seem to indicate a lot of people travel a lot further than 2 miles to work.

[WelshDragon]

Milton Keynes was great for cycling! 180 miles of properly planned cycle ways, with pretty much all of it completely away from the main roads.

I did transfer my commute from car to bicycle and spent the last 4 years of my working life cycling to and from work. Granted it was only 7.5 miles a day but it made me the fittest I’d been since school days. At 7am on a glorious summer morning, listening to just the birds singing, they were some of the best mornings of my life! When it snowed less so and when we had that winter in 2010, cycling at -8 was entertaining. Frozen face doesn’t describe it well at all. I was also lucky to have input into the redesign of my office and that included a shower in the toilet area. One of my members of staff also started cycling into work, so it had a positive impact on her too.

Big BUT though, this was in Milton Keynes. Since we’ve moved away our cycling is done in the garage on a trainer. Prior to CV19, the roads were way too busy, the traffic too big - huge tractors by way of example - and car drivers less than friendly. Unless proper cycle ways are put into place, not these narrow add ons to already crowded roads, then sadly I wouldn’t want to commute to work where I am.

[twids]

When we are back in the office I'll do what I used too, drive 10 miles or so to the park and ride and cycle the 5 miles into the city centre. It's free parking if you don't catch the bus and the traffics' pretty clear up to that point.

[hilldweller]

All this talk about getting commuters to cycle or walk....

Unrealistic.

Anyone who has cycled in Netherlands or Germany will know what proper job cycle routes are. Here, most seem an unsafe joke. I was on my e-bike around Edam last Sept, it was just deep joy, cars actually gave way to me where a cycle path crossed a road, and of course it was flat. Some of the cycling was 3m below sea level which is a novelty.

A long time ago my daughter cycled to work down a normal Brit A road, one morning I was going the same way and saw her being overtaken by a milk tanker, how she survived I do not know but I dragged her, screaming, that night and bought her a 2CV. She had a good time in that car.

Then, of course, we have Brit weather.