Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde in one easy step

How do you go from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde in a thrice? The answer I think is to cycle in London. I cycled into work for the first time on Wednesday; around 70Km door to door from rural Hampshire to Central London. I paired up with Michael who works in outer London and was planning on riding with me up to his office. We left at around 6:15am, travelled at a good pace up the A30 and averaged over 35Kmh until we passed the M25 and got into Hounslow. Here it clogged up significantly and we had to dodge a lot of traffic; the main concerns were cars turning left without looking. Michael would have been knocked off if he had not been alert, a swift bang on the side of the car elicited no response from the driver so we are still unsure if he is aware how close he was to causing an accident. We separated in outer London and I was left to the perils of the London Rush Hour; busses and taxis were the main concerns, the former for their size and inability of the driver to see nearby cyclists and Taxis because they are so unpredictable: stopping, pulling out suddenly and doing all the things they need to do to on a normal day. Actually it was fine and the ride quickly became a series of short sprints from traffic light to traffic light, it is surprisingly easy to out accelerate a car in London and beat them to the lights. I turned into Mr Hyde as I watched the clock get nearer to 9am and started to “anticipate” the lights, the number of cyclists on the road started to increase as I got to Chiswick and they generally kept me honest, I was surprised at how well behaved they all were with very little rule bending. Anyway, I got to work in good time and even had the luxury of a shower before 9:00. I really didn’t fancy the cycle home in the dark as I want to be clearly seen by the cars in Central London so I shall wait till the clocks go back next weekend before cycling home, at least if I can get out of Central London in the light I will be pretty happy.