camberlou

In case anyone is interested I've been told by a reliable source that the driver of the car has been given 6 points on their licence and fined/costs over ?200.

Donating it to a local school is a nice idea. These guys have just moved to Crossthwaite Ave, just up the road from Bessemer Grange and may be interested. http://thebikeproject.co.uk/ I've heard good things about them when they were in Hackney

There are group sessions in Southwark at the moment I'm afraid. You can have training in the borough where you live, work or study. So, for example if you work in Lambeth, you could go to the sessions Clapham Common, where there are bikes that you can borrow.

COnvex - you can request a fully subsidised cycle session here: http://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/southwark/ I'm a cycle instructor and often ride people's commute ride with them. The sessions are pitched at your level and we go at your pace. We also do training with professional drivers - HGVs, vans, taxis etc. The more cyclists on the road who do what they are expected to do and the more drivers who understand why cyclists are doing what they are doing the safer the roads are likely to be.

LadyDeliah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > By the way, I agree that free cycling proficiency > classes should be available to anyone who wants to > attend them, but this is not a substitute for > dealing with the systemic flaws in our current > rules and transport infastructure. They are. You can request cycle training here: https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/roadusers/cycling/request-cycle-training.aspx

I also visit the shops and restaurants in Herne Hill and have had some great evenings in Number22. Can you give an indication of when you might be open again? As SebsC says, many of us are not on Twitter (and Facebook etc) so would be great if you could update, even very briefly on here.

Just heard on the news that the AA and BSM have announced they will include cycle awareness and safety in their driving lessons. Better awareness of all road users, especeally cyclists and pedestrians seems like a good thing to me.

Thanks Tom, that's very useful. As I say, I know nothing about transport, so hadn't thought of the options you describe, making it more like many of the streets in Hackney, where cycling is much higher. Richard - it doesn't work for pedestrians or cyclists so it will be money well spent to reduce the speed and/or volume of cars etc in this area.

Ah, got it. Thanks for the clarification.

Sorry Penguin, but I don't think I'm getting your point. You say cars are not comfortable in 4th at 20mph. And that 3rd is not optimal cruising gear. What is the best gear for London driving (average speed <20 and for me, personally as above, 20mph or so)? Not my Golf :( Sorry if I misled - I've posted recently on using hirecars and Zipcars, which are mostly new Golfs.

Penguin68 - driving in third gear at 20mph in a new Golf feels very comfortable to me, if I don't have someone on my tail "pushing" me to go faster. It may be an acceleration gear, but only if you are accelerating. Cars may be designed to run better in 4th gear, with associated higher speeds, but people seem to be designed to withstand being hit by a car at 20mph (99% survival) much better than if hit at 40mph (65% survival). That is only fatalities, not serious injuries (DfT figures). Possibly a design flaw, but I suspect the engineers could change the design of vehicles more quickly than evolution can change the design of people. James - the data are very interesting. Have the maps been superimposed with the collision maps? Also (changing geographic location) - the data for southbound Lyndhurst Way are interesting. Does this mean that nearly 200 cars are reversing at approx 15mph every day (into parking spaces)? And 4 cyclists a day seems to suggest that the vast majority of cyclists do not go the wrong way down this one street.

Driving south down LL yesterday about 10am, just past the Plough junction, a car overtook me when I was doing about 25mph. I couldn't put a figure on it, but they were doing way more than 30mph. The thing I notice is that cars seem to be always either accelerating or decelerating rather than moving at steady speed. Having been lurking on this thread for a while, I've been trying out driving at 20mph. It would be much more comfortable and I'm more aware of pedestrians and make more eye contact other road users (whether on foot, on bike or in another vehicle). What stops it being more comfortable, is having people sitting right on my tail, hooting or overtaking. It's not about good drivers or bad drivers. It's about people in a hurry, paying more attention to where they want to be than to the people around them.

No, I tend to use Barnes Van Hire in Dalston (which a north london friend put me onto) for a five door Golf, or Enterprise in Lee if we want something bigger. I think carclubs tend to work out quite expensive for more than 24/36 hours, though I haven't tried it for a while. Forgot to say earlier, I don't know the details of the AA report, I just remember the number from the media fuss around it at the time.

Zipcar took over Streetcar a year or two ago and I noticed a definite decline in standards. But it seems to have straightened itself out again. The amount you'd be using a hire car or carclub car Jim, it looks like the cost/convenience balance wouldn't work. Given that your figures assume approx 5 x 10 days hire per year and one day twice a month of car club, it would be pretty inconvenient not having a car of your own too, I reckon. I pay about ?250 for a week's car hire, including taxi to/from the hire pick up point and annual excess cover. It can be a bit of a faff - either one of goes and gets the car, then we load up. Or we all go together in the cab and move everything from the cab to the hire car. But we only do it a couple of times a year. I don't think we'd do more if I owned a car, but I might get less frustrated with all those weeknd engineering works on the railway.

I've used car clubs for years and find it very useful. I'm not sure about days out, but as an example, I decided on Sunday night to do some shopping for big stuff yesterday and booked a car (5 mins walk from home) for yesterday morning for a few hours. I do tend to be a bit organised ahead of time if I want a car for the whole day, but that's habit. I also use taxis more than my car owning friends. I often get a taxi from the train station when I go to visit friends who live around the country, where public transport is limited (or non existant). They are horrified, as it's such an anathema to them. But for me, a taxi is another of transport option. Either that, or I take my bike. I've gone away on camping weekends, taking the tent, sleeping bags, cooking kit etc on my bike, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that with small kids. Bigger ones, they can carry a pannier and help, but wouldn't want to attempt it with little ones. Last year the AA estimated it costs ?6-7000 per year to run a car (average use of 10,000miles). That would seem to be a lot of weekends' car hire at ?150 a pop. (I have annual car hire excess cover, for ?40 so I don't have to worry about insurance excess). Cars depreciate so quickly in value. And with a hire car or carclub (Avis owns Zipcar) you always have a new vehicle so don't have to worry about maintainence and things going wrong.