Just back from another work trip to London and the chance to put my recently-acquired TFL Boris Bike key to the test...
The key is brilliant: you just saunter up to the stand, push in the key, wait for the green light and then unhook the bike and you're off. It takes about 30 seconds and is much quicker than the interminable inserting and re-inserting you need to do if paying by credit card.
The bike was just like last time I went. I rode two that day, and both had extremely spongy brakes and a hub gear that came and went. It must be what they're all like. They certainly encourage a relaxed cycling style: they accelerate very slowly, and they are quite low-geared.
The traffic was heavy, but relatively forgiving of cyclists, particularly if you consider the degree of incompetence I was displaying while trying to route-find while riding.
The quality of other cyclists was, to put it mildly, variable. There was a shocking amount of RLJing, pavement riding and the like. I now see what all the fuss is about and why the media keep banging on about it. There is some RLJing in Edinburgh, but it seems to be the norm in London.
There was also a surprising degree of nonchalance among some quarters of the cycling population. I was on busy central London streets: it was, I thought, full-on urban cycling. On one occasion a classic cycle-chic young lady in a floaty skirt, cycling about 4 miles an hour on a vintage bike with a basket, went across a crossroads so far to the left that she had to veer to the right to keep going straight on. She seemed blithely unaware of me behind her and a bendy bus behind me, both held up by her. Very stylish, but also really quite dangerous.
I used routes from Cyclestreets, which worked well. I chose the 'balanced' routes, but won't in future. From the station to work took 54 minutes(and therefore cost me £1) because I kept having to stop at each junction to work out where to go next. The journey back took 27 minutes because I took the direct, but busy route that was easier to follow. It was free, and about the same time as the tube.
I'd recommend it for business or pleasure. I would have liked a smart phone with me to (a) help with navigation and (b) tell me if there was space to drop my bike where I wanted.
...all that's left is to see if my employer will accept the £2 expense claim to cover the day's hire.
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