Meanwhile in London

A triumphant and joyus return.  Covered by Peter very nicely on the Architects Newspaper Blog.  Also coverage in World Architecture News.



Everyone has the usual questions: What was it like? Was it difficult? What was the best bit? Is it good to be back?  I just point everyone in the direction of this blog and ask them to come back to me once they've read it.  Then I'll answer any extra questions.



The work continues, apart form re-adjustment to being back home, which ain't so difficult in glorious summer sunshine.  But loosing the adrenalin of being constantly on the move is a shame.  The 'glory' of arrival has faded already, it's already old news, but the ongoing research project is at the forefront of my mind.  We have amassed a huge amount of information and footage, pictures and advice.  It took a good day just to type up all my notes from the various meetings, and do a little brainstorming over the recurrent themes.  None of which haven't been covered elsewhere: politics, funding, culture and so on.  But we certainly have an attractive way of presenting new findings to add to the growing argument for more cyclalised cities.




As a further reminder of the need to bring this subject up the agenda I joined the Space 4 Cyclists protest ride yesterday afternoon following a research team meeting with Peter & Bob.  I try to steer clear of the politics of protest rides and so on too much.  And when there has been a death, people become very emotional.  The city needs to be made safer for cyclists, and everyone attaches their own meanings and interpretations to the events surrounding the protest and what brought it about.  These events are important, most of all in the diversity of people attending, there are a real cross section of people who want these streets to be safer, and there is little appetite for hearing all the objections or reasons why it cant happen (money, space, political will) when you are stopped at wreaths for a man who was just trying to get across town on a hot summers day.




Our timeline for research is that there is a London Cycling Summit on the 31st July where Peter will be presenting initial findings and progress.  Then the intention is to have a CABE style guide with case studies and a sort of 'best practice' and lessons from the road guide which will be easily digestible and attractive.  Along with a more in depth series of recommendations and lessons to be ready for the 2nd September when there is a parliamentary debate on the Get Britain Cycling report.

So on with the work.  I'll keep you posted, as well as re-visiting parts of the trip that seem noteworthy.

Windsor to London

Like I said before, this isn't the end, just the completion of the actual ride to Portland Place.

After a lovely informal BBQ on Friday night at the Windsor Castle Pub.  There were a fair few cycling out from the hotel in the morning to the Savill Building for our official start.

There were people bloody everywhere.  Tea and bacon butties to fire us up.  Some small speeches, and the obligatory photo call, core riders in the centre please.

Bacon Butties

We had outriders.  An official escort into town.

Through the countryside over the M25 into London.  It was a very gentle pace, but a fantastic sight to see so many riders on the road.  Us sock wearing core P2P riders were generally up front, so I didn't really chat to too many other joiners, but it was a nice way to spend a morning, the group of about 80 riders managed to stay together into the cnetre of town with very little incident.

Of all the memories of this ride though, riding up The Mall with outriders and funny socks to hundreds upon hundreds of adoring fans (I was later informed that they may not have all been there just to welcome P2P to London) lining the streets, It's good to be in London.

There was a re-grouping at Waterloo Place, then up for the final push into Portland Place.
Lots of horn blowing and mock-racing.
Then real crowds of adoring fans at Portland Place.
More photos and a toast.
Angela Brady, the President of the RIBA gave us a very warm welcome, though she almost accidentally handed me the mic after her speech, I could have ruined all the hard work of the last few months.

SO welcoming. And celebrations and hellos and goodbyes, and back to Herne Hill.  Again there is more to say about all this and the last couple of weeks riding and research.  And of course tons more 'content' and pictures and analysis.  There are reminders everywhere that the most valuable part of this whole adventure will be following up all the research stuff and seeing how we can contribute to the ongoing push to improve cycling in the city.

Oh and of course, me finding a job!

Leaving the Savill Building

Simon & Bob at departure

Road full of riders

Not your average ride into London

Sock Shot

Our triumphant return

The Mall

Turns out our socks match the First Capital Connect colours almost exactly

Back to Bristol

Everything's falling apart near the end.  Can no longer view pictures or upload effectively from the chromebook, so not much visually.  And the bike's just about holding up.

• Flew back to London.
• Train to Bristol
• Ride to the Severn
• Ride into Bristol
• With the Mayor, and many others
• Celebrations
• Ride to Oxford
• in the Sun
• Beautiful English countryside
• Oxford - cycling city
• Cycle to Windsor
• Penultimate day

There should be time to catch up on all this in the next week or two, but the adventure continues fro now

Crossing the Severn to greet the team back to England

Coming into Bristol

Picturesque English villages

Country Lanes, Take me home

Bridge Shadows

Astoria to Coney Island. Done!

Astoria to Coney Island. Done!, a photo by Ben Hockman on Flickr.

It's been a busy few days.

A lot happening.

A lot of strong emotions about the trip, the cities and the people all along the way.

All deserves more narration at a later time. But this picture is the end of this chapter.

I did ride across america, Sorry, WE rode across america. Pretty much coast to coast.

There is lots of work and a fair bit of cycling to do from here.

But for now.

Happy independence day.

Oh and of many high points of the last few days. And the whole trip, meeting Janette Sadik Khan to talk about biking NYC.

So here's her wishing us well.

Welcome to New Jersey

Now go fuck yourself.

Excuse my French, but that was pretty much our greeting to the state as we crossed the bridge from Pennsylvania.  We were instructed in no uncertain terms that we couldn't ride the bridge and had to wheel our bikes on the side walk, OK, whatever, those steel surface bridges aren't so nice to ride anyhow.  But as us manoeuvring over the barrier caused a minor kerfuffle some fat ugly older lady in a saloon car with Jersey plates was hurling abuse and bad language in our general direction along the lines of "these ain't your fucking roads."  She couldn't  have been referring to our foreign nationality, not having any significant identifiers to that, so must just be anti-bike to a massive degree.  So New Jersey, home of mobsters, guidos and ranty old ladies according to popular culture.  We're staying in Princeton tonight so I'm expecting a little high brow entertainment... until I lower the tone.




Riding out of Philly we re-traced our revolutions up the river again, in Saturday morning sun with the joggers and cyclists.  Mostly rural riding, very hot, but at least less humid.




It got pretty rural pretty quick and all in all a pleasant day ridning.  Ephram (hope I've spelled your name right buddy) joined us out of town, and I wonder if he knows now what he got himself into.  SO there are 13 riding and Tom in the van, though Bob and Tom swapped for a while.




This is the penultimate day, but only of this chapter.  The ride for me so far breaks up as follows:

1. Pre ride (October to April)
2. Portland to Minneapolis (The West)
3. MInneapolis to NY (The Cities)
4. NY & London (The End?)
5. After the return (The rest - but no resting)

So we're over half way through the narrative, but chronologically only at the beginning.  I'm trying to be philosophical, as I have all along the way, to balance out the fact that I'm really going to miss this weird family I've shared the last few months with as that's what we've become.  Tensions and arguments, friendship and hugs, food and laughter, sharing memories.  

There won't be an experience like this for any of us again, and we've all taken different things from it as much as we all brought different skills and baggage with us (talking of baggage, how did I acquire so much excess in 2 months?)

There's plenty more stories to tell. And I shouldn't be so down, there's still a good day to go.  New York beckons.

notes to self:

• rider profiles
• people
• places
• food
• rooms
• stats
• speed
• distances
• road kill
• policy
• top trumps
• planning
• Planning?
• pools
• tools
• trying to be cool
• read 
• write
• stay in school

No videos today as it's late and we have an early start.  Imagine it will be another amazingly few busy days. Must enjoy, and take notes, and don't forget my camera.  OK one video to dedicate to the last 2 months...

Harrisburg to Philly

Harrisburg to Denver, PA

Not much to speak of.. but whenever I say that I'm here an hour later still typing for Britain.

• 6.45 at the van, no keys
• Probably a bit too much
• Breakfast
• Well kinda 2 breakfasts really
• Short ride for the day, only 52 miles or so.  Not as hot as the last few days, not quite as scenic, unless you count Three Mile Island.
• Stopped for a nice milkshake after about 20 miles or so.
• Got to Econo-lodge Denver at around 1, bonza.  Loads of free time.
• Attempted to fix my broken spoke - yeah broken spoke, why must it be always spokes and chains with me, why not just a little puncture repair.  Though there has been a bit of that.
• Can't fix the spoke without a new nipple so will have to wait til tomorrow in Philly
• Did my laundry
• went for lunch
• sat around
• spoke to home base, which was very nice
• getting excited about Everything: Philly, NY, Bristol, Home.

An amazing meal with limited numbers,
Getting close to the end so researching NY bars.  Must have a final bash somewhere

Denver to Philly

Of course This has been my earworm all day... well the first few lines anyway
There were pretty severe (or from my point of view, amusing) navigational issues from the off, travelling along in pretty heavy fog.  Meandering along busy highways and quiet rural roads.  My tunes were set to 'Philly Sound' as over dinner last night I found out that Grant was oblivious to the Philly sound.




More lovely rural roads, no big hills, but some fine views and well maintained farmsteads
Stopped off after 30 miles in St Peter for a coffee and peanut butter brownie.
Carried on in convoy, a until the head of The Schuylkill River Trail into town.
Luckily for me we came in past the Philadelphia museum of art, and 'the Rocky Steps'.  OK yes i'm a bit of a philistine for just running up, getting a picture of me with my bike and completely neglecting to appreciate anything in the way of art beyond the terrible Rocky statue.  But it had to be on the must do list for someone with a love of popular culture and a nickname of Rocky for various vague reasons.





We made the rest of the way into town and eventually found the motel on Walnut street.  Relatively early, but there was lots for me to do as my spokes is gone, the cleat fell off one of my knackered shoes and the chainset doesn't have much life left in it either!




But being a bit over-excited over-tired and over-heated i ended up just faffing about until a few of us left to join the Urban Geek drinks somewhere up north.  We grabbed a couple of cabs as the skies opened, proper cats & Dog.  We were early to the bar, and with a couple of drinks in started to meet some Urban Geeks.  I met a couple of chaps variously involved in ways to engage people in local planning issues and city building which are particular interests of mine, so some more links to follow up when the dust settles in a week or two.  I was also busy gaining some valuable local knowledge from like minded locals but had to shoot to dinner quite soon.




We rode the el train back, which was cool, because I've seen it in films and everything.  Made it to dinner which was laid on very generously by local architects George Skarmeas and Dominique Hawkins.  A good meal, made all the better by being able to pick Dominique's brains about local knowledge.  As a proud Philly native and someone who has great knowledge of cities her info and general chat was very appreciated indeed.




After dinner there may have been a few more drinks in the Gaybourhood.  Another sign of being back in metropolitan areas.  Through this trip I'm realising more and more how much I like living in cities.  Yes I'm a white middle class hetrosexual man as vanilla as they come for all intense purposes.  Guardian reading sandal wearer with aspirations of fixing the world and no real knowledge of any serious hardship or experience of being ill treated for my race or background (unless you count being the only Englishman working in an Irish bar in Australia during the ashes of '06!, which we shouldn't really now should we) but as much as I'm not any kind of minority in the world I live in it's nice and reassuring to be in a city with difference and tolerance around.




I was a little late to rise in the morning, missing breakfast but joined a few of the guys out to the Peoples Emergency Centre in West Philly.  Another insight to some interesting projects aimed at rejuvenating deprived areas and trying to engage people in their places.  Saw an old vaudeville theatre with an installation in about the cult of Pythagorus or something like that.  Really quite fun, and in a great derelict space.  In fact the whole area had that kind of run down urban feel that looks like a well lived area ripe for gentrification, though that only means that in an area where 1 in 3 people live in poverty, they'll only get displaced so it sounded interesting that the kinds of projects that were being talked about for the Lancaster Avenue area were more about engaging the people living there and improving their opportunities rather than making a buck or two for developers.



I had unfortunately broken the important rule of an urban researcher in the digital era and neglected to bring any photographic recording device

• Parklets
• Make your Mark
• Hot & Sweaty
• Ride back to the Van
• Breakaway bike shop to replace shoes and spoke
• Rejoin the gang outside civic offices with the baton
• Bit of a ride around town with no particular purpose with a spare wheel slung across my back
• hot
• humid
• Return to the van (which by the way was not in a particularly convenient location)
• Turns out that, yes, I had left the van locked.
• Soda
• Off to the Reading Market
• Italian Hoagie (Hoagie being another Philly related thing that has links to old nicknames of mine)
• Back for a rest
• Massive storm again just as I was heading out
• little bit of a touristy photo walk
• back for dinner.

So in summary Philly, well I really need more time.  A very dense city with a strong identity.  The home of Independence, and National Treasure.
I have had a few good chats, more related to wider planning issues than cycling itself, which is quite nice actually, and helping form a stronger idea, or at least remembering the aspects that drew me to studying planning and cites in the first place.




In terms of cycling in Philly I think any issues are very different to those of many of the other cities we visited. It's more akin to British cities with it's older smaller streets.  Cycling seems to be growing, as it is in many places from more personal drivers such as economics and lifestyle choice, and provision is slowly being added in response to this, rather than cycling being seen as a way to revitalise the city.  The city is strong enough that cycling is just a practical way to get around.




So a bit of a long one again, not really with a huge amount of insight but it's late, I'm lethargic and an early start for the penultimate day of riding in the USA.  I didn't even have a Philly Cheesesteak.

Breezewood to Harrisburgh, PA state Capital

What a freeking day.

This could well be the best of the bunch.

I've finally managed to let go of all the worries and stresses I'd been carrying round the last week or so.  Though I'm not exactly rested I feel vibrant and full of beans.  I'm in the moment all day, and what a day.




I left the motel to the sounds of Chris Rea.  The road to hell was appropriate for the worst junction I've seen in some time, tons of lorries vying to get on the freeways, but the P2P machine snaked it's way onto the appropriate highway.  As we turned onto the first big hill of the day almost immediately Fool if you think it's over came on, a fine way to think about the ride.




Last week while heading towards the end of 10 days straight cycling I found a spreadsheet with the day by day route. I miss read the columns and had assumed that 'the worst' in terms of long days were behind us. Sitting in room 228 of the Red Roof Inn, Harrisburg/Hershey after cycling over 100 miles over the Appalachian mountains with 2 days previous being close to similar distances I look back and smile at my naivety.


The terrain for the first 50 miles was exactly the kind of bike ride I love, and the kind of terrain that made me love riding a bike for leisure beyond a utilitarian tool.  It's like the ups and downs of Hampshire I grew up in and still love to ride, but with a little more oomph.  And very hot, not sure I've ever sweated so much.




Yeah there were navigational issues, but the way I have been blindly led across a nation by a man with a machine more attuned to navigation than the whole hive mind of the P2P machine, I have learnt to roll with it, and let frustrations roll over and lie down like the so many road kill that we see all along the route (which are still maintaining a reasonable level of variety - raccoon, gopher, terrapin, squirrel etc.).  




After some faffing, admittedly, we ended up at possibly the best lunch spot of the whole trip, but a quiet river or stream, with ample space for van and picnic under shaded trees.  I was so enthralled taking it all in that I neglected to get a decent picture.  But, always reliable, Bob did a fantastic job of it.

Lunch in Newville.  Picture by Bob West

It's hard to accurately describe why the ride was so enjoyable, but partly the weather. Even if you're sweating buckets, if you have water and a destination then sun is preferable to rain.  it lightens the mood considerably   But the hills were the thing. Some of the steepest of the ride it seems, ups and downs, with curves and corners, a joy to ride.  Bring true the analogy of hills and riding equals life, you work hard to get up, and sometimes it all gets too much and you wanna give up/be sick/throw it all down and go back to where you started.  But once you've worked your way to the top, however you've done it, you get to coast all the way down wooping and hollering and honking your silly little clown horn like there's no tomorrow.

So I'll leave it at that for now apart form these last few notes.  But an awesome day. if this was a day on it's own and not 'tagged on' to a transcontinental bike ride then it'd be one to talk about.  Maybe it still will be, but even some of the older ones are starting to fade away and the true awesomeness of the component parts of this journey are being lost.  But hopefully to be re-found through the generous digital archiving  as well and good old fashioned memory.

• Saw Hockmans house
• offered water by a dude with a tiny dog on a lawn mower
• Still hot
• Little bit of tension
• stopping for watermelon
• Stopping for cold drinks
• (it really was very hot)
• Heavy traffic
• golf balls
• Over the bridge to Harrisburg
• Riding by the river
• Big noisy fire engine 
• Obviously staying a long way out of town
• a few nice beers over dinner
• agreement that there's not far to go now so a late early start tomorrow.

Oh and a final note  - keep forgetting about my mind turning to mush and the phenomenon of just announcing anything I see on a sign as a way of inducing conversation, be it with others or myself. Rotating back into society won't be all bad if I can avoid reading out billboards to strangers!