Today London was pretty much Tubeless and will remain so until tomorrow evening. The impact this has had on getting around the capital has been nothing short of catastrophic. With wind and rain forecast throughout the two strike days, many commuters have either stayed at home or resorted to the car.
Given there was so much advanced warning, it seems odd that so many cars we passed this morning only contained one person. Surely if you were driving in you’d want to share the cost and ease congestion and pollution by doubling up?
With many employers adopting a 'no show, no pay policy' during the disruption, lots of commuters had no choice but to bus, walk or scooter in. Others, of course, chose their bikes.
The cyclists we encountered on the road were an eclectic mix of hardened commuters and strike victims – in some cases apparently cycling for the first time in years, on machines more used to languishing in the garden shed than actually hitting the road, judging by the amount of punctures and squealing brakes in evidence.
We were courteous (as usual) to those around us but kept our heads down and got on with the commute. This evening we did it all over again, but this time in the rain and the dark. We shudder to think how the cycling strike victims fared on their homeward journeys.
