{"id":53,"date":"2017-01-31T17:22:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T17:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=53"},"modified":"2017-02-08T10:55:54","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T10:55:54","slug":"i-want-to-ride-my-bicycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2017\/01\/31\/i-want-to-ride-my-bicycle\/","title":{"rendered":"I want to ride my bicycle&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You decided to cycle in London. Good choice! The benefits of commuting to the uni by bike are countless. Let me list just a few.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You save money. Plenty of money! Assume, optimistically, that you live in zone 1 or 2 (i.e., in the centre or quite close). Then the monthly travelcard will cost you \u00a3126.80. For this amount of money you could buy a decent new bike, a second-hand one would be even cheaper. So the bike will pay off in just a month, maximum two, if you decide on a fancy one! Do I still need to persuade you that it\u2019s worth it?<\/li>\n<li>You save time. It seems a bit counterintuitive at first, but let\u2019s ask Google Maps. According to this omniscient website, a commute between my accommodation in Battersea and my office in South Kensington campus takes 31 min by train, 40 min by bus and only 21 min by bike. Even if you\u2019re a slow cyclist (as I am), you\u2019ll make it to your lecture faster than your friends suffering in a crowded bus!<\/li>\n<li>You avoid feeling like sardines in a can every day, twice a day, travelling by public transport in rush hours. It\u2019s not only an unpleasant experience, but also a very efficient way of spreading germs. Yuck!<\/li>\n<li>You get your daily exercise. It\u2019s quite hard for me to fit sports into my busy schedule (ok, I\u2019m just lazy and don\u2019t like the gym, don\u2019t judge!), so cycling to work is a great way to get my 30-mins-a-day. I\u2019d say that it\u2019s also the exercise in the fresh air, but the air in London has nothing to do with freshness, so just forget this part.<\/li>\n<li>You don\u2019t contribute to climate change. Since my PhD is in maths and climate science, I could go on and on about this, so instead I\u2019ll just say: cycling can save the planet. Yay!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ok, you have your bike, two working legs, so you\u2019re ready to go, right? Not really. Cycling is one thing, cycling in London is a completely different story. There\u2019s more to it than just pedalling. When I cycled in this city for the first time, I ended up shaking and almost crying \u2013 this is how scary it was! But don\u2019t let it discourage you, it\u2019s a skill one can acquire. Over\u00a0the last couple of months I\u2019ve learned a few things, maybe some of them will be useful to you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get a helmet. I hope you\u2019ll never need it, but wear it just in case. You don\u2019t want to meet with a curb, another cyclist or anything else without any head protection. If you haven\u2019t bought a helmet yet, get a fluorescent one, preferably with lights on it. They\u2019re quite expensive, but you can\u2019t compromise on your safety \u2013 I&#8217;ll ask for such a helmet for my birthday \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Make sure your lights are working. Don\u2019t even try to cycle in darkness without them \u2013 it\u2019s not only stupid, but also illegal. So in a best case scenario you\u2019ll pay a fine.<\/li>\n<li>Become a Christmas tree. Seriously, the more visible you are, the safer you can feel. You want drivers to know that you\u2019re there! Fluorescent vests, reflectors \u2013 the more sparkly and shiny, the better.<\/li>\n<li>Plan your route. Sometimes it\u2019s better to take a longer, but quieter way. When I was looking for accommodation, I ordered cycling maps of London (available for free <a href=\"https:\/\/tfl.gov.uk\/forms\/12419.aspx\">here<\/a>), so that I could find a place with a nice commute to the campus. <a href=\"https:\/\/citymapper.com\/london\">Citymapper<\/a> is a great app, also for cycling: you can choose a quiet, balanced or a fast route. By the way, it\u2019s pretty good also when you decide on public transport. Another useful <a href=\"https:\/\/london.cyclestreets.net\/\">website<\/a> shows the quiet routes. And don\u2019t hesitate to ask other cyclists for advice!<\/li>\n<li>Make sure you know the law, which might differ from the law in your country. The differences can be more subtle than switching to the left-hand traffic. This is essential if you want to avoid fines and stay safe.<\/li>\n<li>Consider a <a href=\"https:\/\/tfl.gov.uk\/modes\/cycling\/cycling-in-london\/cycle-skills?intcmp=2386#on-this-page-1\">cycle training<\/a>. Seriously! I was offered two 2-hour-long one-to-one sessions with a professional instructor, completely for free. I\u2019m going to write a separate post about what I\u2019ve learned. Now I can say that these sessions improved my safety a lot!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summing up: cycling in London is great, as long as you stay safe. More specific tips soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You decided to cycle in London. Good choice! The benefits of commuting to the uni by bike are countless. Let me list just a few. You save money. Plenty of money! Assume, optimistically, that you live in zone 1 or 2 (i.e., in the centre or quite close). Then the monthly travelcard will cost you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1026,"featured_media":54,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85172],"tags":[85837,85467,85998,19019,58070,175,12094],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living-in-london","tag-bike","tag-commute","tag-cycle","tag-cycling","tag-featured","tag-safety","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}