Just heading back from a trip to London to visit relatives, blooter a garden and pick up an enormous telly going spare. South west around Bromley. Bromley has a Bike Bromley campaign and I spotted a disability biking programme in the park I was using as a cut through. I had my sister in laws’s flat barred spesh which was two sizes too small. And my Chimpeur cap on so some of my smiles were actually being returned and some people said good morning back to me. I had a favoured route over to Hayes then up through the country lanes to Keston Village. Nice little route and after chatting to the people in the bike shop in Hayes (Panagua brand - they do this in London - bike brands have their own shops). I discovered Keston is the starting point for a system of lanes that stretch out to Sevenoaks and are alleged to contain fewer cars. These cars are driven too fast but the modal share judigimg by the number of roadies heading out is perhaps in favour of the cyclist. Lots of lovely routes, Village ponds, good road surfaces and would be quite tranquil if it weren’t for the cars.
Make no mistake the rest of the area, even the country lanes up to Keston are the domain of the driver and even the London buses. The collective ignoring of the hell of moving anywhere is far worse than in Edinburgh. Any road work, burst pipe or very frequent crashes leads to ten mile tailbacks.
Traffic is at a standstill in SW London. Everyone is jumping in front of you, gesticulating, blaring horns, jockeying for position, fumes everywhere, at every junction you can wait five minutes to get an opening. Every house has paved the front yard and has three cars parked in what was garden. There is a new bridge at Dartford that runs north south to relieve the tunnel that runs south north. Both queues stretch permanently for at least five miles and there is no relief. Satnav even rerouted us via Blackhall Tunnel claiming this would save time. That was carmageddon. I was quite feart. But Mrs Garto prevailed.
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