Slushy story: Weather brings out worst in York drivers

Unpleasant encounters with York's traffic are as rare as good estate agents. Car drivers are generally courteous and patient, and give cyclists good width. Just as well, given the number of cyclist swinging shopping bags from their handlebars.

But today's weather brought out the worst in some motorists. The problem seemed to be this (right, on Bootham): cycle lanes covered in ice and slush. Of course, you cycle further out, in the clearer and safer part of the carriageway.

Some drivers couldn't cope with this: we were hooted and mock-rammed twice by taxis, and once by a white van man. Not to mention nearly being doored by someone getting out of the pedestrian side in a queue.

The city's pavements, of course, have been covered in slippery ice for the last week. Which has at least meant no pavement cycling.

So stand by for green-ink letters in the local press moaning that cyclists are swanning around in the road, and should be back on the footway where they belong...

True grit. And ice

It was snowy enough on the peaks - up in the southern ranges round Forest Hill - for the toboggans to be out in force yesterday. But still not much snow in central London, though there's a fair bit of ice on side roads. It's all rather boring really: cycling isn't especially enjoyable, but neither is there the prospect of a snowman session to lighten things up.

Our road near the Elephant was finally gritted (right) the other day. The council team were quite keen I should take a picture to prove they'd been out. No doubt they've taken over from bankers as the villains of the moment. Being a cyclist, and therefore regarded as little more than a wheeled pavement assassin, I sympathised.

Evidently no shortage of the gritty stuff here: there was enough to make a few sandcastles. Once we'd cleared off the donkeys and deckchair sellers, the ice went, and we could actually cycle round the block again.


But a different story in posh Cleaver Square round the corner (right). The road is little more than a four-sided rink. No way you can cycle on the road or the pavement. Progress is a Bambi-like slither, half-pushing, half-leaning-on your bike. How are all those cycling Tory MPs getting back to the House?

Report from the frozen far north (St Albans)

London's just cold and damp at the moment, with hardly enough settled snow to make a decent snowball out of. However, guest blogger John T (right) has just sent us this report from an arctic-looking Hertfordshire...

Years ago I bought a set of Nokian tyres in preparation for a(nother) trip that didn't come to fruition. Today they saw service in the wilds of Hertfordshire.

The tyres have metal spikes so you find yourself looking for ice to cycle on. They are clattering and unwieldy on a clear road, but on snow, or preferably ice, they're excellent.

They should be too. They cost more than the bike they're on.

I enjoyed cycling past cars crawling up hills, or getting off to help push, then hopping back on the bike as carefree as I dared away from them.

The only down side is that the bike won't comfortably carry a child seat, so I haven't been able to share the delights of ice cycling with anyone else yet.

Tips of the iceberg: Guide to cycling in the snow

Typical, isn't it? London has only a dusting this morning, but just because the rest of the country is blanketed in snow, it dominates the news. That's our nation-centric media for you.

Anyway, we've only got a light carapace of slushy white stuff here - just enough to show footprints. Clearly the foxes in our back garden have been investigating the gardening shoes left outside the door again.

So I don't think the Guardian bike blog's guide to survival in a whiteout is necessary here just yet. But, in case we get more flaky stuff in the capital later today, here's the Real Cycling Guide to Cycling in the Snow.


• Plan your route carefully - for example around pubs, branches of Ask and Carluccio's etc, in case you need refuge

• Set out with equipment you might need in case of blizzard, such as a camera to take pictures of stranded cars for the BBC website

• Throwing snowballs may look fun, but it can be dangerous and distressing for those targeted - worth remembering when drivers cut you up on an icy Waterloo roundabout

• Beware ice. Most whisky is best neat anyway.

• Preparation is everything: make sure you have your whinges about council gritters all ready in case of media interviews

• If stopping to make a snowman, avoid charges of racism and sexism by not making him male or white

• Though they may look identical as they come out of nowhere to land on you, no two white vans are exactly the same

Ah, it's started snowing again...

Icy weather takes the cake

No snow here in London (unlike whiteout Cambridge), but it's a bit nasty out in the capital's streets. Patches of black ice line every gutter and lurk in every shadow, and there's the constant threat of a white van's unexpected triple-axel.

Yesterday's ride out to Greenwich to see if conditions were worse in the eastern hemisphere proved a battle against of the cold of Shackletonian proportions. Despite having the very best quality mitts that East St market can provide - two quid is a lot of money in Dongguan, you know - my fingers were frozen. So much, in fact, that How Am I Driving feedback to the lorry that cut me up in Deptford was out of the question.


Still, not everyone was put off by the skating-rink conditions. On Saturday, at the subzero Kennington Farmer's Market, we chatted to Lara here (pictures). She runs Cakehole, a confectioner's, and this is her delivery vehicle. It replaces the gardening trailer she used to pull by hand.

The Pashley's front basket holds a dozen cakes, the trailer 18 more. The trunk is bolted into the trailer frame because otherwise people try to nick it. Well, the cakes do taste good. Let's hope they freeze pretty well, too.

Foiled again? No, despite the ice

We got chucked out of work yesterday afternoon at 2pm. Rather dramatically, as we signed out, there were foil survival blankets (right) available for us to take home.

This presented something of a dilemma for a Yorkshireman. On the one hand, I couldn't do anything so self-pitying and wussy. The only survival bag you'd admit to having in God's country is a Spar carrier full of crisps and lager.

But on the other, it was free. And that trumped everything. So I took two, telling myself it was OK because I might be cycling somewhere really dangerous one day, like the Stelvio pass in winter, or the Norwegian arctic, or Middlesbrough.

Anyway, I got home OK. The way back was easier than the way in, with very little traffic. I got snowballed by a gang of teenage schoolkids off the leash in Cleaver Square. It was a bit intimidating at the time, though I can laugh about it now. I didn't engage with them because you never know, things might have got nasty, and I might have pulled a knife on them.

I cycled in to work again this morning. The side roads were as uncyclable as yesterday, caked in hard, uneven grey ice. I pushed. It was, in fact, like walking on a glacier. (I was surprised when walking in the Alps for the first time that glaciers are not silky-smooth and translucent blue like virgin mints, but are actually moon-rock dirty and cobblestone bumpy.)

The main roads were fine for cycling though, wet but melted of all ice and snow. In the sun, the tarmac looked sleek, warm and glossy. There was a hard shoulder of slush, ice and snow all the way along the side, though. Occasionally a taxi or bus passed too close, as if they thought I should be off 'their' bit of road and humping along the ice. Not without huskies I wasn't.

But those few impatient drivers notwithstanding, cycling across Waterloo Bridge (right, middle two pics) was elating. It was far preferable to walking on the pavement, which was still carapaced with acned ice and snow.

Tavistock St, running parallel with Euston Road just to its south, has a separated two-way cycle path. I'm getting less keen on using the separated path even in good weather, because it seems to create chaos rather than order at its many junctions. But using it today was out of the question anyway: while the road was fine, the cycle path (right, bottom) was icebound, impassable without crampons. Councils have a duty to keep roads roadworthy, but don't have to do anything about cycle paths, and it shows.

Still, on the way home, if I see any commuters slip and fall and need keeping warm while they wait for the ambulance, I'll be well equipped.

And if not... well, when summer comes, I've got a couple of insulating bags for keeping my beer cold.