Olympics

[brianleach]

Aren't they wonderful.

I was planning on taking my bike to the Sidmouth Folk Festival at the beginning of August going from Winchester to Basingstoke and then Basingstoke to Honiton. None of this is particularly close to the Olympic events but of course Winchester to Basingstoke is on the Weymouth line.

The following has appeared today on the South West Train website

Additional cycle restrictions during the 2012 Games
From Friday 27 July to Sunday 12 August and Wednesday 29 August to Sunday 9 September, non-folding cycles WILL NOT BE ALLOWED on any South West Trains services.
We welcome fully folded (Brompton style) bikes on our trains at any time.

I shall now have to take the car as a direct cycle is a bit beyond me!!

[eileithyia]

So clearly we are not expected to use public transport / cycle to the games either... good planning!

[[XAP]Bob]

Do they not have cycle spaces on the trains.
Could you remove the front wheel and "fold" the handlebars round

[brianleach]

All the trains have cycle spaces but I assume they are expecting them to be full of standing passengers who can't find a seat.

It appears to be a blanket ban on non-folding cycles on the days specified.

[brianleach]

I see that both CTC and Sustrans are annoyed about this as well now.

[incidentman]

I doubt ALL the trains will be full. Can't see it having much effect on say Lymington to Brockenhurst

[brianleach]

Indeed and I wouldn't have expected many extra passengers from Basingstoke to Honiton on 2nd August but I suspect a blanket ban is easier to operate!!

[SJSBrompton]

I shouldn't think the narrowing of existing traffic lanes in London is particularly impressing anyone, either. On the Embankment, they have painted the ORN rings in the offside lane, but made the whole lane a lot wider, and narrowed the nearside lane. If the nearside lane is full of cars, there is little room for cyclists on the left (taking the lane is fine, but you'll need to be pretty fast if there is only one lane of traffic).

If you check the 'Get Ready' website, it is full of closed bus lanes and closed cycle lanes - yet the official TFL advice is that cycling might be a good idea.

Most of my route in London doesn't even have cycle lanes anyway (apart from the one in the bus lane on Westminster Bridge - and that is often full of ice cream vans, cycle rickshaws, taxis and open top tour buses). My alternate route, along Lambeth Palace Road, is marked down as coach parking in the section of bus lane from Lambeth Palace to St Thomas's Hospital.

At least I don't have the train problem, as I have a Brompton - but I might be taking a few longer trips on it if London's transport goes to the wall.

[Cunobelin]

There are plans by SWT to remove all bikes from their trains.

Note the "Brompton Style" statement.... there are increasing difficulties taking any bike on SWT as if it does not fit in a luggage rack they can refuse

Many larger folders are and have been effectively excluded by this Brompton rule. A Dahon such as the P7 or Vitesse is now outside the "folding bike" specifications for SWT

[brianleach]

Very depressing. I use them every year to get to the Portsmouth ferries.

[snibgo]

Why wouldn't cyclists be banned? I watched the torch procession on Sunday, and the entire thing was about celebrating motor culture, sweet fizzy drinks and household electricals. Oh, yeah, and some people were running around with a naked flame. Seemed highly dangerous to me, but they were kept well away from the crowds.

I witnessed a policeman on a motorbike chase an official on a push-bike and tell him off -- "pedal bikes aren't allowed", he said.

Perhaps there is some weird security reason for this. It must rank as the un-greenest procession I have ever seen.

[thirdcrank]

My young grandchildren went to see the torch motorcade pass through and we have a couple of good pics of them posing with a girl who was waiting to run her bit of the relay. (No security problem there.)

The thing which most impressed them and will probably be their abiding memory of this once-in-a-lifetime event was the Coca Cola publicity truck, which was presumably the IOC's intention.

[SJSBrompton]

There are plans by SWT to remove all bikes from their trains.

Note the "Brompton Style" statement.... there are increasing difficulties taking any bike on SWT as if it does not fit in a luggage rack they can refuse

Many larger folders are and have been effectively excluded by this Brompton rule. A Dahon such as the P7 or Vitesse is now outside the "folding bike" specifications for SWT

Mind you, the SWT trains I go on, none of them have any luggage racks anyway. The Southern trains from Clapham Junction do, but depending where you get on, someone is usually sitting in the luggage rack already .....

I guess the jobsworth guards will be in evidence - I have found it is a bit hit and miss to be honest - I can be at Waterloo of a rush hour evening, get on with my Brompton, and at an intermediate station, still within the London 'banned' area, see someone with a full size racing bike walk down the platform who, based on the station layout, must have come off the same train. I think on some of the intermediate stations there aren't so many staff to check. The train is probably sufficiently packed at that stage to annoy a few people though.

I need to build up some mileage for the Brompton event in August - if the weather wasn't so unpredictable lately, I'd have a good go at cycling all the way home, though I'm not sure of my level of fitness for that. Its essentially Hyde Park Corner to Heathrow.

I also suspect there will be a sudden increase in PCSOs watching to issue FPNs to pavement cyclists who feel frustrated by being pushed even further left on the roads with Zil lanes.

[brianleach]

There are two ironies here as far as I am concerned.

First, at the moment I think SWT is one of the best operators for bikes. I can just wheel on at Winchester and apart from any valuables everything can remain on the bike and most guards have been very helpful.

The second is I am usually going away from London and apart from the short hop from Winchester to Basingstoke I would have been going away from London this time.

As a regular traveller to London without a bike I do realise things are not as rosy at the best of times travelling towards London.

[Pugwash]

My young grandchildren went to see the torch motorcade pass through and we have a couple of good pics of them posing with a girl who was waiting to run her bit of the relay. (No security problem there.)

The thing which most impressed them and will probably be their abiding memory of this once-in-a-lifetime event was the Coca Cola publicity truck, which was presumably the IOC's intention.

The Samsung chaps tried to foist a Samsung branded flag in my 5 year old's hands. To watch the corporate travelling machine was hilarious, what was more Orwellian was the the security team, their assalt of a cyclist which can be found on you tube is shocking,