Top Gear – Race Through London
by Warren TTop Gear answers the question: which is the best way to cross London, one of the most congested cities in the world? They pitted a Mercedes GL SUV against a bike (Specialized carbon fiber road bike), a speed boat and public transportation during the peak of Monday morning rush hour. Guess who won…
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
I love this show.
Tip of the helmet to kimbofo
Well DUH! Of course the bit where the GIRL told Hammond to speed up was a hoot.
Loved this episode. I was rooting for the Hammond on the bike the whole time.
Rich Hammond revealed a while back that he personally commutes by bike.
No fair–they didn’t use a scooter or motorcycle in the race. In the UK, “filtering” (i.e. lanesplitting) is legal, and they often have space up in front of cars at stoplights for bikes–motorized and pedal–to stop until the light turns green. I bet a courier on a small displacement motorcycle would have beat them all.
I did my own comparison here in the States, Malden MA to the south side of Boston MA during morning rush hour, about 7 mi. Car, motorcycle (no lane-splitting in the US…), or public transport, it didn’t seem to matter, 40-45 min. Bicycle, 25-30 min. Plus, public transport sometimes has delays, and traffic in Boston can be a nightmare, so there were days where it took over an hour to get into work without a bike, but it never took longer than 30 min to get into work with a bike.
The space at the front of cars is *not* for motorbikes, although motorcyclists don’t seem to think so.
Really? The gridded area in front of the car-stop line, but before the crosswalks isn’t for bikes? Huh. I was told differently when borrowing a motorcycle over there… of course it was a motorcyclist who told me that and maybe he was having a bit of fun, setting up the clueless American for traffic hijinx.
Still, the way I saw couriers ride scooters and motorcycles over in London (think US bike courier, but motorized…), I’d be very surprised if a bicycle could beat them.