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Post by Humph on Apr 30, 2020 13:52:59 GMT
I suppose I always have used my bike a fair bit. Not just for pleasure, but for convenience really. We're only a mile or so from our local town centre and a further half mile from the out of town supermarkets etc. by bike. To drive to either is further ( we can nip across the park on bikes ) and involves ( or used to ) a lot of stop start traffic and over subscribed town centre car parks.
Most of the time, unless it's a "big shop" I just hop on my bike with a backpack for local errands. I spend quite enough time driving for work. It's surprising how often it doesn't rain in truth, and anyway, if you are wearing the right gear such as a waterproof jacket and overtrousers, even a cold wet day needn't be a problem.
On my bike, it takes less than ten minutes to be parked right outside wherever I want, at no charge, and I suppose I've not contributed to air pollution either. Works for me, and I hope that some at least will see that it could for them.
Sometimes, if I don't need more than a briefcase, I'll drive to the northern outskirts of London ( usually Edgeware because there's a Sainsburys there next to the tube station which has relatively cheap parking ) and do the rest of the journey into central London on my bike. If it's really hissing down when I get there I'll use the tube instead.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 14:00:23 GMT
I have to carry two full size laptops to and from work. Bugger that on a bike. It's 15 miles each way, and not exactly flat. Outdoors for that amount of time, it's going to rain and blow a lot. Extra time faffing about with protective gear and changing clothes, no thanks. Can't get two children plus school bags on it either...no, cycling is a fair weather leisure pursuit for me and will remain so. I very rarely go to a shop, get groceries online and most other things these days too. Taxi/bus/train to social occasions (if you remember those) if drinking, 200 miles to visit my Mum, not many opportunities in my normal movement pattern for cycling.
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Post by Humph on Apr 30, 2020 14:07:26 GMT
You could always get one of them there leccy bikes. They seem to be getting very popular.
I don't feel quite old enough yet...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 14:13:00 GMT
Does the electric help in the carrying of heavy items, and does it protect you from the elements? I'd try it with the wife's electric bike, but it was stolen on the second day she owned it.
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Post by Humph on Apr 30, 2020 14:14:47 GMT
Yeah, sorry, I forgot how dodgy it is where you are.
😉
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 14:20:41 GMT
Yeah. "England."
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 30, 2020 14:30:03 GMT
Several factors to consider here, starting with what happens to all those people who used to use public transport before staying at home. They can’t go back to their old ways and still keep their distance, and many won’t want to even if it’s allowed.
Many, like Vić, will prefer to stop travelling altogether and work remotely. It will be interesting to see what employers allow. Mine, having built a new global HQ and been embarrassed in front of visiting execs by all the empty desks, demanded five-day attendance in many locations (although not in London, where the office isn’t big enough.) Assuming the corporate sky doesn’t fall in this year, will it go back to insisting on presenteeism? The CEO in his weekly webcast acknowledged that restricting 20-person lifts to two occupants might cause some traffic problems in a 20-storey building.
So, assuming the 85 percent displaced from trains and buses can’t all work at home, and that most live too far from city centres to cycle into them even if they wanted to, we’re going to see more car use, but less.
But I also think we’re going to see face masks. Not because, like, science (any more than 2m spacing) but because, like, visible token gesture. Now that 2m spacing is accepted, and people are prepared to berate strangers for encroaching, masks seem like the only way people will be persuaded to allow anyone closer. And without that acceptance, cities simply won’t work.
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Post by Humph on Apr 30, 2020 14:30:53 GMT
It has previously occurred to me that while the English often refer to their neighbours as Jocks, Paddys, Taffs, Frogs etc, that the "term of endearment" they usually receive in return is more likely to be "ba****ds"...can't imagine why...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 14:41:10 GMT
Does your accent persist, Humph, by which I mean yer Embra broag? Or has it been tamed by a life in the Netherworld?
I've a lifelong pal who was born in Doncaster, moved to Germany with his military family, thence to Windsor (where I met him at senior school), and thence to Cardiff for University (7 years, Architecture), where he stayed for a long time afterwards running a business. He's now in San Francisco. You'd not think he'd ever left Donnie to listen to him. Another guy I used to know from Sheffield, went to Glasgow University and has sounded ever since like he was born on Sauciehall Street and never left. Well he does to me, other folk I know from Glasgow swear blind he still sounds like a Yorkshireman. Weird.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 30, 2020 14:43:14 GMT
Does the electric help in the carrying of heavy items...? Yes, if hills are a problem. But plenty of continental European cyclists already strap their work kit to a bike; it’s more about having the right load-carrying kit than how the bike is powered. ...and does it protect you from the elements? Not so much. But, as Humph says, there are fewer days than you think when that matters, for short journeys anyway. 15 miles might be another matter. I think we may see a big change in the property market. (Nearly went for ‘seismic’ but I don’t see houses actually falling down.) The houses that cost the most today are the ones within commuting range of high-paying jobs. If fewer people are commuting to such jobs (and there will, of course, be fewer jobs of any kind) those who have jobs will have more choice in where they live. Possibly bad news for Slough but better for Shropshire. |
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Post by Humph on Apr 30, 2020 14:44:13 GMT
I think I still have something of an Edinburgh accent, but when I return to Scotland it gets stronger.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 14:47:59 GMT
Does the electric help in the carrying of heavy items...? Yes, if hills are a problem. But plenty of continental European cyclists already strap their work kit to a bike; it’s more about having the right load-carrying kit than how the bike is powered. ...and does it protect you from the elements? Not so much. But, as Humph says, there are fewer days than you think when that matters, for short journeys anyway. 15 miles might be another matter. I think we may see a big change in the property market. (Nearly went for ‘seismic’ but I don’t see houses actually falling down.) The houses that cost the most today are the ones within commuting range of high-paying jobs. If fewer people are commuting to such jobs (and there will, of course, be fewer jobs of any kind) those who have jobs will have more choice in where they live. Possibly bad news for Slough but better for Shropshire. I think striking distance of the bright lights of London will always be an attraction, if less so for work then still just as much for other reasons. |
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 30, 2020 14:52:31 GMT
True, but people will justify paying a high price if it’s where they need to be to earn a high income; less so to be handy for the West End. I miss Warwickshire (today’s the anniversary of our move to Warwick in 1998) but decided in 2010 that I couldn’t live there and earn a living. I still think I need to live near Heathrow to do my present job, but if that travel doesn’t return either, it may not much matter where I live.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 14:58:20 GMT
It's food for thought, certainly. I wonder if South East property prices have indeed peaked for a generation, or longer? A lot of folks like me might be a bit deflated in the years to come when we're planning to cash in...oh well, I'm sure no tears will be shed by others, but having been talked in to shovelling vast sums in to private education instead of investing for the future financially, and going along with it only because of the "back up" of our property value covering funds for retirement, then I shall personally be slightly non-plussed at the turn of events. Hey ho.
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Post by bromptonaut on Apr 30, 2020 16:25:02 GMT
I think I still have something of an Edinburgh accent, but when I return to Scotland it gets stronger. My kids say I whack out the Yorkshire accent as soon as I'm over Tinsley viaduct. Colleagues in one office said they noticed a similar phenomenon when I was on the phone to somebody in/from God's own county. |
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