Coldest Perth morning in 8 months!
I knew it. I knew it was extraordinarily cold. It’s almost as if it was cold last September, and since then, it’s been warm and now it’s getting colder again. There should be a name for this phenomenon.
However, I didn’t have to experience this terrible cold weather as, at 2.30am, I was sound asleep in my bed. No, when I left home at half-past seven, it was a balmy 5.9C and the dew point was a crazy 3.6C*!
*I have no idea what dew point is.
Not only was it cold enough to be newsworthy but I slept in and had to take the short way to work for the third time this week. To make it more fun, I took my mountain bike, which meant I could ride more slowly but also go over more bumps.
Between my house and work is Hyde Park. On one side of Hyde Park is William Street, which is one of the main ways of getting into Perth in the morning. On the other side is Vincent Street, which is nice and wide with plenty of room for cars and bicycles unless you give up most of the street for parking and a median strip.
Lucky the motorists are all so patient when there’s a cyclist ahead of them.
But that’s okay, because you can just cycle through the park, can’t you? Oh hello, what’s that sign? Cyclists, diiiiiismount! Fair enough, the park should be a haven for the pedestrians, shouldn’t it? A safe, peaceful place away from the menace of cyclists and the motor vehi, vehi, hang on – what’s that behind the sign? Not a motor vehicle‽ Well, fair enough. Why park your car 50 metres away and walk when you can push your car into the park instead. Because you wouldn’t tell cyclists to dismount but let cars drive, would you? That wouldn’t make any sense at all. Of course you can bring your car to the park as long as you push it.
Get off your bike!
Why do you think they call it a park?
And then, with my reserves of heavy sarcasm almost depleted, I got to ride along one of the Town City of Vincent’s excellent bike lanes which makes use of that redundant space between parked cars and moving cars. Now what was the name for it again? Ah yes – the door zone.
Still, it’s better than nothing, eh?
To be fair, though, if the is the worst Perth has to offer, I think we are doing pretty well for cycling. It could be better but I’ve seen blogs from other parts of the world and it could be a hell of a lot worse, too.
And then on the way home, I saw a ferry:
That’s a ferry, out on the millpond.
And got passed by some cyclists.
Dude! Liquigas don’t ride Bianchi any more.
Which leaves my People’s Grand Tour looking like this:
Posted on May 24, 2012, in Uncategorized and tagged People's Grand Tour. Bookmark the permalink. 12 Comments.
Elite Racing Cycles
It will never cease to amaze me how as we soar into summer and the 35+ temps you are taking a dive into winter. It was only a few short months ago that I was jealously seeing pics of you all in your short sleeves, shorts and sweaty faces riding through the Perth heat…..ah! How the tables have turned!
Street signs are usually ambiguous sketches that leave nothing confirmed in one’s mind. I suppose the only advantage to having he words ‘Cyclists Disomount’ actually included in the sign is that there is little margin for error. It does somewhat take away from the fun of deciphering said sign. I think it would have been more effective to go with ‘Oi! Off yer bike!”
The tables haven’t quite turned yet. The stormy season hasn’t started but will do soon. At the moment it’s the best time of year – cool, dry, still days. In a few weeks though we’ll start to see cold, wet, windy days. However, we won’t need snow tyres.
This is really great news reporting though. I think the headlines for 1st January 2013 will read “Biggest New Year’s Eve celebrations in 12 months”.
Cyclists just aren’t really welcome anywhere. It’s a strange image that cycling has here in that it’s seen as a sport, and we must go fast, and must not slow down for others. Similar to cars really. It’s probably why we’re not welcome on that bridge across Claisebrook either, where we’re threatened with fines. I wonder if anybody actually has been fined.
How lame, I’m replying to myself. But here’s proof I’m not the only one who thinks cyclists dismounting on a bridge that’s usually not busy is rather unnecessary.
http://g.co/maps/cdjq6
And the particularly egregious thing about that bridge is that before all the East Perth development, it waspossible to cycle over Claise brook. When they widened the inlet, they did not replace that infrastructure. Also, the alternative – to cycle around the inlet and past the pub – is clearly moredangerous to pedestrians than cycling over the bridge. Perth City Council is on my list for when the revolution comes.
Hoping those storms come through in July and August when I’m in Japan.
As Chong says, it’s a bit chilly in the mornings but the days are pretty much perfect at the moment. Great for cycling – not too hot and not much wind.
My favourite sign (or signage, as I’m sure they would call it) from the City of Vincent is under the pine tree in the park. It informs us that “cones will fall without notice”. I’m sure there is great frustration that the bloody things won’t come in to their office and fill in the correct paperwork before falling.
Look at this. I think you got a mention: http://www.peoplesgrandtour.com/the-rolling-blog/
It would appear I did get a mention. I suspect you may recognize yourself as said ‘mate from Perth, Australia’. I hope you don’t mind that I referred to some element of competition between us – I figured I was far more likely to get a response from Lionel if I suggested to him (being an Englishman) that I was doing my bit to keep the colonies in check!
Competition? You mean you think I might not be scrutinising your every move on Strava? Those imaginary watts have a lot to answer for. And you’ve managed to cheer up an Englishman, which is no mean feat.
Yes I did find that quite incredible. I have been so colonized that I forget what a dreary lot we typically are!
I am jealous.
How’s that knee? Well enough for 100 slow kilometres in the Perth Alps this weekend?