Moved to London, sold the car

[Graham Ashton]

A few months ago I took on a new job and relocated to London. I lived
in London once before and knew that I wouldn't use my car more than
once every few weeks, and the rather novel idea of not actually owning
a car at all rather appealed. It also made a good exscuse for splashing
out on a shiny Brompton (SON hub included, and highly recommended!).

I've had the Brompton for several months now and have done many miles
round the back streets of London. On hearing of my plans to
cycle-commute in London many people have said "oooh, that's a bit
risky" (some Londoners, some not, none of them London cyclists). I
admit to being nervous about it myself at first, but Google lead me to
the London Cycling Campaign site, which convinced me it would be fine.

http://www.lcc.org.uk/

They're right, it's perfectly safe and easy to cycle through London if
you put in a little bit of preparation before hand. It's especially
pleasant if you don't need to rely on road signs to find your way
around (they obviously lead you down main roads), and can stick to
little back streets. The special cycling maps provided by Transport For
London are perfect for finding these routes, and they're free (enter
your name address on the web site and they'll post them off to you):

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cycles/routes/london-cycle-guides.shtml

I'm enjoying the journeys to and from work and, even though it's only
30 minutes of light cycling each way, I'm in much better shape than I
was a few weeks ago.

I got rid of the car this morning. I got £10 for it at a breaker's
yard. So far, so good...

[elyob]

"Roger Burton West" > wrote in message
. ..
> Graham Ashton wrote:
>
>>The special cycling maps provided by Transport For
>>London are perfect for finding these routes, and they're free (enter
>>your name address on the web site and they'll post them off to you):
>
> Some addresses seem to slip through the cracks and the maps never
> arrive. I picked up mine in person at my LBS; several places keep them
> in stock, including On Your Bike near London Bridge.
>
> Note that they're somewhat out of date, not only for the actual mapping
> but for the cycle lanes too. LT is supposedly compiling new ones at the
> moment.
>
> If you're fond of small roads, try their Journey Planner
> (http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/) ("more options", "cycle", "I want a
> cycle only route"). The routes it gives avoid main roads wherever
> possible - even relatively small ones - and are therefore rather more
> complex than they need to be; they also favour canal towpaths, which
> isn't much help if you're riding after dark. It's still a useful
> starting point.

I've only covered a few of the maps, but any feedback appreciated!

http://cycle.elyob.com/

The great thing is that this could cover any area easily. It's also really
simple to add in new routes.

[Tony Raven]

Graham Ashton wrote on 02/01/2007 13:46 +0100:
>
> I got rid of the car this morning. I got £10 for it at a breaker's yard.
> So far, so good...
>

If you ever find yourself needing a car for an odd trip,
http://www.streetcar.co.uk works very well for me and usually works out
cheaper than a cab.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[Graham Ashton]

On 2007-01-02 15:37:02 +0000, Tony Raven > said:
>
> If you ever find yourself needing a car for an odd trip,
> http://www.streetcar.co.uk works very well for me and usually works out
> cheaper than a cab.

Cracking, thanks. Looks like it could be handy on those odd occasions
when you need to pick something chunky up.

--
Graham

[Alan Holmes]

"Graham Ashton" > wrote in message
...
> On 2007-01-02 15:37:02 +0000, Tony Raven > said:
>>
>> If you ever find yourself needing a car for an odd trip,
>> http://www.streetcar.co.uk works very well for me and usually works out
>> cheaper than a cab.
>
> Cracking, thanks. Looks like it could be handy on those odd occasions when
> you need to pick something chunky up.

Whoops, sorry, I read that as picking 'someone chunky' up!

Alan


>
> --
> Graham
>

[Chris Eilbeck]

Graham Ashton > writes:

> I'm enjoying the journeys to and from work and, even though it's
> only 30 minutes of light cycling each way, I'm in much better shape
> than I was a few weeks ago.
>
> I got rid of the car this morning. I got £10 for it at a breaker's
> yard. So far, so good...

Cool!!

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck

[Graham Ashton]

On 2007-01-02 16:55:19 +0000, "Alan Holmes" > said:

> "Graham Ashton" > wrote in message news:
>> Cracking, thanks. Looks like it could be handy on those odd occasions
>> when you need to pick something chunky up.
>
> Whoops, sorry, I read that as picking 'someone chunky' up!

That conjurs up a far more amusing image...

--
Graham

[John Hearns]

Roger Burton West wrote:
>
> Note that they're somewhat out of date, not only for the actual mapping
> but for the cycle lanes too. LT is supposedly compiling new ones at the
> moment.
>
Local bike groups have been asked to submit amendments and corrections
for the new edition.
If you know any, you could do worse than email them to LCC.

[Vivian]

> I got rid of the car this morning. I got £10 for it at a breaker's yard.
> So far, so good...

You sold your car for a tenner????????? What was it??

Vivian
-------
"We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school".
No Surrender

[robertito]

elyob wrote:
> I've only covered a few of the maps, but any feedback appreciated!
>
> http://cycle.elyob.com/
>
> The great thing is that this could cover any area easily. It's also really
> simple to add in new routes.

I like the look of the interface - cycle map data on google maps is
definitely the UI I'd choose. However, the site's currently not showing
any cycle routes for me? I'm using Firefox 2.0.

An alternative with a fairly clunky, sluggish interface (but extensive
route data, as well as proper routing):

http://www.cyclemaps.net/gps/londonD/gaz.asp

These guys have a rather proprietary approach, but anything that puts
cycle route data out there has got to be a good thing I guess. I tried
signing up to their LETS scheme to get a free subscription, but got no
reply. Still a useful site, even in 'free' mode.

Roberto

[congokid]

In article >, Tony Raven
> writes

>If you ever find yourself needing a car for an odd trip,
>http://www.streetcar.co.uk works very well for me and usually works out
>cheaper than a cab.

My partner's just about to give up the regular job as well as the car
that went with it, so I was very interested in this as it looks like an
ideal solution for our occasional car needs - and especially as there
are two cars within spitting distance of us.
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

[Graham Ashton]

On 2007-01-03 10:27:44 +0000, "Vivian" > said:

> You sold your car for a tenner????????? What was it??

A Mk II Golf GTI. A cracking car, but it was just getting too long in
the tooth. The tax had just run out (and I couldn't renew it for a
month as I don't have the V5), MOT runs out in two weeks (I know it
wouldn't pass), and the cost of fixing all the bits would amount to
more than it would have been worth once I'd fixed it, so it wasn't
worth the effort.

Hopefully, now that it's gone to the knackers yard, it'll be recycled
into other Golfs...

--
Graham

[congokid]

In article >, Graham Ashton
> writes
>On 2007-01-03 10:27:44 +0000, "Vivian" > said:
>
>> You sold your car for a tenner????????? What was it??
>
>A Mk II Golf GTI.

I had one of those - bought brand new in 1988. I called it Tiddles after
a grey cat I used to own as the colour was silver grey (possibly 'alpine
silver' on the brochure). I would have enjoyed driving it more had I not
used it to commute between Surbiton and Basingstoke for most of the
first year I had it.

I part exchanged it three years later for a brand new Golf convertible,
which was even more lovely, but got stolen in 1998.
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

[Roger Merriman]

Tony Raven > wrote:

> Graham Ashton wrote on 02/01/2007 13:46 +0100:
> >
> > I got rid of the car this morning. I got £10 for it at a breaker's yard.
> > So far, so good...
> >
>
> If you ever find yourself needing a car for an odd trip,
> http://www.streetcar.co.uk works very well for me and usually works out
> cheaper than a cab.

could be useful as and when the car gets behond usefulness, car is under
20'k so by my standurds very low milage though at the moment i'm
clocking it up well.

roger

[Alan Holmes]

"Graham Ashton" > wrote in message
...
> On 2007-01-02 16:55:19 +0000, "Alan Holmes" >
> said:
>
>> "Graham Ashton" > wrote in message news:
>>> Cracking, thanks. Looks like it could be handy on those odd occasions
>>> when you need to pick something chunky up.
>>
>> Whoops, sorry, I read that as picking 'someone chunky' up!
>
> That conjurs up a far more amusing image...

The mind boggles!(:-)


>
> --
> Graham
>

[Stevie D]

elyob wrote:

> I've only covered a few of the maps, but any feedback appreciated!
>
> http://cycle.elyob.com/
>
> The great thing is that this could cover any area easily. It's also really
> simple to add in new routes.

Fantastic idea ... but bigods it's slow ... 5 minutes so far and it's
still rendering, and the browser (Opera 9.1) is completely locked and
won't do anything at all.

With that in mind, it might be better not to have the default view as
one of the most densely packed areas of cycle networks, but a welcome
page inviting people to choose the area they want to look at.

Hmmm ... just flicked back to Opera and it appears to have crashed
completely. I'll give it a few minutes before posting this to see if
it recovers itself.

OK, after about quarter of an hour, it has appeared, but has near
crippled my computer in the process, and still takes minutes to
display even once fully loaded.

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________

[Clive George]

"Stevie D" > wrote in message
...
>>
>> http://cycle.elyob.com/
>>
>> The great thing is that this could cover any area easily. It's also
>> really
>> simple to add in new routes.
>
> Fantastic idea ... but bigods it's slow ... 5 minutes so far and it's
> still rendering, and the browser (Opera 9.1) is completely locked and
> won't do anything at all.

Works ok in IE and firefox :-) Is there's something horribly slow about
opera's JS engine?

cheers,
clive

[Stevie D]

Clive George wrote:

> Works ok in IE and firefox :-) Is there's something horribly slow about
> opera's JS engine?

Could be. Or could just be my prehistoric computer!

Nope. It's Opera. It's always a bit slow on Ajax-type websites, and
this one is just a bit too much for it. It's still running
unbelievably slowly on the (newer, faster) laptop, while on Firefox
(on the old PC) it runs quite acceptably.

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________

[Rob Morley]

In article >, Stevie D
says...
> elyob wrote:
>
> > I've only covered a few of the maps, but any feedback appreciated!
> >
> > http://cycle.elyob.com/
> >
> > The great thing is that this could cover any area easily. It's also really
> > simple to add in new routes.
>
> Fantastic idea ... but bigods it's slow ... 5 minutes so far and it's
> still rendering, and the browser (Opera 9.1) is completely locked and
> won't do anything at all.

I expect that's because there are 105 errors in the page. :-\ I gave
up using Opera despite the fact that it's fast and has an excellent
interface, because it just doesn't cope well with bad code.

[Stevie D]

Rob Morley wrote:

> I expect that's because there are 105 errors in the page. :-\ I gave
> up using Opera despite the fact that it's fast and has an excellent
> interface, because it just doesn't cope well with bad code.

That's one of the reasons why I do use it!
It is getting a lot better at coping with that kind of interactive
website, and very few give it any serious problems these days.
Unfortunately, there are still too many where I have to tell it to
pretend to be Firefox so that it gets past the browser-sniffing :(

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________