Cycling to work

I have started cycling to work since I bought a bike two weeks ago. It used to take me 40 minutes by bus or 50 minutes by foot. Now it takes me 25 minutes by cycle, the same time it'll take by tube. Not only do I save time, I save money too!

I was initially hesitant to cycle through central London. Cycling through the city means sharing the bus lane with the red buses which I cannot avoid when crossing Waterloo Bridge everyday. The danger is when I had to weave out of the bus lane and into the vehicle lane whenever a bus stops in front.

Shared cycle lane at Waterloo Bridge

However, records have shown that cyclists in London were mostly killed by heavy goods vehicles rather than by red buses. So that should be a consolation, right? Yet, the worry of being run over by a 12-ton machine from behind is still very real.

Seeing cyclists take on the roads freaks me out. However, I have told myself that it was only fair that I should try cycling to work for at least a week before I misinform myself and dismiss this as an impossible task. If I don't like it, I could always switch back to public transportation. But I was also aware that I may not have the life to do so if anything goes wrong! It only takes a knock.

On the first day of the trial, I wore a hi-vis, a helmet and clipped a blinker at the back of the bike. I looked like an idiot as compared to the "lycra cyclists" but at least I was guaranteed 90% chance to survive through the journey.

I started trying out different routes the following days. I made mistakes like getting into the wrong flow of the traffic and overshooting the junction I had to turn into. This was time consuming. In the UK, cyclists will be fined if caught cycling on the footpath or against the flow of the traffic on the main roads. Cyclists are only allowed to push their bikes at the footpaths to retrace and there's an element of danger too. I can't be expected to stop suddenly when there's a red bus trailing behind! That is why it took me 40 minutes to reach the office on the first day.

Red bus following closely from behind is quite intimidating

I am thankful that I could make and learn from the mistakes. The more mistakes I made the more routes I found. The route to work was different from the route home. It took me two more days to discover the best routes to and from home. Finally I found the quieter and safer routes to cycle. Still I could not avoid the red buses but at least there are less of them and far between. The best routes now cut journey time to work by another 15 minutes! A drastic improvement.

I still wear a hi-vis, a helmet and clip a blinker at the back of the bike because they're the appropriate things to do.

Cycling to work is more interesting and rewarding than I expected. Not only have I found that I have saved time and money, but I have also realised that it is not as dangerous as I initially thought.