A London Ride

I had some Christmas presents to deliver, so I rode up to my son's house and then made a loop along the river and back home up CS7 to make a ride of it.  It was quite like some of our London Rides, and I enjoyed it

I noticed a few things along the way.  Firstly, and no surprise, it wasn't very busy, with the majority of the traffic seeming to be delivery vans of one sort or another.  I couldn't easily get anything to eat or drink - the food stalls that were open in a few places smelled enticing, but the queues were long, which put me off.  I guess that it's pretty hard to find your lunch, if you do have to work in London.

Another thing that struck me was the cycling infrastructure.  It has been a while since I rode in Central London, and there have been steady improvements in many places.  There are a lot of segregated cycle lanes, which are very good, and a handful of recently-erected emergency schemes, which are a bit more haphazard.  CS7 has been significantly improved, with plastic posts separating the cycle lane from the cars for most of its length, and with many 'floating' bus stops, where the cycle way passes on the pavement side and the bus stops in the traffic.

To go with all of this were lots of bikes.  The 'Just Eat' and 'Deliveroo' riders often had special purpose electric bikes, with a motor in the front wheel, a box on the back and a large battery in the frame.  But the flagships of the delivery fleet were the danish-style 'barrow' bikes, with a large load compartment in front of the rider.  I saw a few of these, and they're quite imposing coming towards you down a cycleway.  They too were mostly electric, and, like all of the delivery bikes, were being ridden as fast as they would go.

A good run in the sunshine.

Mark

PS - CS7 is Stane Street, of course.  One of the Roman superhighways.