"cerebral activity more akin to the late-night security guard occasionally scanning the infrequently changing cameras, sipping coffee and reading comics."

This is of course the time of evening when some complete tit will pull a U-turn straight into your face, because there's not much traffic. If you're dozing along in a blissful state of low-processing requirements, you might end up getting a nasty shock. Although the odds of something trying to kill you are obviously lower, the odds of you noticing in time drop too - it's a tricky balance to get right, useful paranoia vs. mental exhaustion.

I've ridden a motorbike through London quite a lot now, at various times of day (including evening rush hour, but not morning), and although I found it less stressful than I was initially expecting, it was definitely unpleasant. I wouldn't do it every day, that's for certain.

Man, that's so bizarre. I actually very rarely get in close scrapes but had two today. One where I rode across a yellow box and a driver pulled a right across me. Proper close.

On the way home, more or less the exact scenario you describe Denny - a taxi turning round left again across a yellow box.

I got on a train at Vauxhall shortly after that. Just seemed safer at that point ;-)

That's 13km/h on public transport. Holy crap.

Jez: in fairness, the time is including walking from home -> station and station -> work (20mins total), and then you have waiting at platforms, changes (which may require quite a walk inside the station), and sundry minor delays. It was about 60mins door to door today. Still, way too long for me.

That walking will be eliminated soon when my Strida arrives! (www.strida.com) Woot!!