This is a focus post about London transportation. If that doesn't sound interesting, I would skip it. 👋
As mentioned, the London train system was super convenient. However, when we got ready to leave the house, I felt like a NASA engineer planning a shuttle mission or a parent trying to schedule their child's school and sports activities. Typical checklist:
1. Where were we going? Checked our London Stuff map. The polygons were meant to outline activities for the same trip. Not an exact science but it was helpful.
2. How long will it take to get there / back? Checked transportation apps:
Lime was generally available in most places, lots of bike parking options
Forest included a sustainability component to their service and the bikes were usually in better shape (less usage perhaps?), lots of bike parking options (usually in same places as Lime)
Santander were more limited due coverage area and ebikes needed a parking station
Finally, consider combination of all of the above for more efficiency and enjoyment (bike over train when more efficient).
3. What was the current weather and what was the forecast?
Checked Apple Weather
4. Finally and most importantly, could we do enough within 5 hours to make the trip worth it? Sometimes it wasn't and taking the time up front to figure that out saved disappointment.
eBike Tips - check battery life (usually available when selecting a bike) - check that brakes work - check tires - check for pedals (yeah, they get lost sometimes) - adjust the seat - set the map on your phone put into phone holder
Do these before starting the app to save rental time for riding. You'd be amazed how much time could be wasted while you got yourself ready to ride. 😀
One of the most fun things about the bikes was that sometimes, parking was not an option at your destination. You didn't find that out until you arrived which meant you had to find an accepted parking location which could add unexpected time to your travel. I didn't mind that certain areas didn't want bikes parked all over the place but it would have been helpful for the bike apps to include navigation to help avoid these surprises.
Riding without a helmet was very unsettling. However, since almost all of our routes were on 2 lane streets with 20-30 mph speed limits or bike paths, it seemed an assumable risk. Many of the roads also had bumps for traffic calming so this helped keep the cars speeds down too.
Another interesting phenomenon were the different sounds of the ebikes. As you can imagine, they got a lot of use and did not all get the commensurate maintenance. This resulted in some janky sounds as you whizzed down the road. There were clanks, hums, buzzing, and one that sounded like a bird chirping (that got a lot of surprised looks). I figured that the sounds let people know that I was coming and that was a good thing. 👍
Perhaps this was a trend in most big cities, but we found that the availability of ebikes and bike-friendly roads / paths enabled them to be a viable and efficient option for getting around ... in good weather, of course. 😀
I reviewed the costs and we spent over $20 per day for both us across trains, bikes, and hired cars which seemed like a pretty good deal in London.
That's what we learned on this trip - might be handy next time! 🇬🇧
