Art, social networking and political change

Heady title. But it's time to come back to the "bike" aspect of my blog. It's odd how things fall into place. I haven't made it yet, but the National Gallery is on my "places-to-visit" list. Trafalgar Square is out front, and in the top left hand corner of Trafalgar Square is an empty plinth. My friend told me it's called "The 4th Plinth" and it hosts changing art displays.

Earlier this week I visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Where-ever I go, I pick up flyers, and in their Dulwich Festival 2010 program, they'd scheduled something called Antony Gormley and the 4th Plinth. One of the participants in this 100- person 2009 performance art event was a Dulwich resident Neil Ellis. He did a 60-minute performance piece on the 4th Plinth, and the Festival showed a short film, Pedal to the Sky, with Neil as guest, last week. I missed the festival, so I googled Neil and the project.

Check out Pedal Power: In conversation with Neil Ellis (mobile podcast #014A) podcast interview by a London blogger Yang-May Doi. Neil talks about the performance art project and how he's trying to turn it into a pressure group, using Facebook, to get London politicians to improve cyclist safety. Now, as a visitor, I have been wondering how the heck cyclists in London deal with the extemely dangerous conditions on the roads in the City. No way in hell do I plan to ride in town M-F that's for sure, as the traffic is basically deadly. Back in Seattle I am a year-round bike commuter, so I've had to learn all about survival on the street. Lord Mayor Boris' campaign is great, as are the tfl bike maps, but all the slick mapping and online promotion in the world doesn't replace commonsense on busy roads. Oh, yeah, and there's the other little problem that I usually ride on the right in the US, but here, it's on the left, so I'm still trying to figure out which way I need to look.

Every day I go into London, I am figuring out what I can [and can't] do by bike. On June 8, I have a reservation with European Bike Express to carry me and my loaded bike to France to start touring. I am still figuring out how to get from my friend's house in Epsom to the pick up point at something called Thurrocks Services in East London, at the junction of two roads: the A13 and the M25. These sound like freeways to me, and my friend doesn't ride bikes, so her car is too small to carry my bike, and of course there is no bike rack around. Paying £££ to hire a cab to get there is out of the question, as my bike is now unboxed, so it won't fit in any typical British owned car. So the conundrum is this: how do you ride to a place that's across basically unrideable terrain?

OK, I've mapped the route online using tfl's route finder, and it's about 20 miles, but the estimated time to ride it is over 3 hours. Now I understand why. I will not ride these 20 miles through London traffic to make an 11:45am pick up. I'm planning to take the earliest train I can from Epsom, so that I arrive at Waterloo before the 8am "no bikes on trains during rush hour" rule. Then I plan to roll the bike over to another part of Waterloo and join an outbound train to Greenwich. There is no rush-hour restrictions if you're leaving London. From there, I will ride (or likely walk) the bike. I'm still figuring out which stations are handicap-accessible, so that I don't have to bounce my heavy and loaded bike up or down flights of stairs. Many of London's train stations date from the C19th, and they didn't care about this sort of things back then. I have to confirm I can get across the Thames, either by foot tunnel or by ferry, as the pick up point is basically on the way to Essex on the coast.

When you do bike touring, you have to learn to think on your feet, you ask anyone and everyone for directions, and you'd better be ready to read maps. And nothing beats local knowledge. Yesterday the information desk man at Waterloo East confirmed that it's possible to get close to the destination by a combo of train and bike, and most importantly, that the "rush hour" rule doesn't apply on outbound trips. Up til now, I'd thought it applied both ways, so my window of opportunity was pretty tight. He also suggested another possible route across the Thames, which would mean less riding on traffic infested roads. I'm all for that, so I'm pouring over the maps again. Hey, learn by doing, right?