Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => On The Road => Topic started by: telstarbox on 07 March, 2024, 07:19:28 pm
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A thread aimed at the more seasoned members. Did you cycle commute "before it was cool" let's say pre 2000?
If you did, would you be the only cyclist on the road or did other people go the same way? Did you worry about bike theft or distracted drivers? Did you bother logging your rides/mileage in the pre Strava era?
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Yes
Yes
No
Of course not.
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Yes
Not really. It was in London.
Yes
Never have done
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I was certainly cycle commuting (about 12 miles a day) in the mid-80s and the mid-90s I did have spells where Mrs WJ worked in the same city, so used the car apart from her days off.
I used to log mileage when we had a thing that tagged it on your profile on here (or wa it on ACF?), but not really before that.
I don't think it ever has 'been cool' around here.
Not many other cycle commuters on my route. When there have been occasionally regulars that commuted in the same direction, they were at a similar pace, so I would see them about half a mile ahead, but never really meet them.
The local bike shop owner (and ex-vet National track champ) is an occasional fair-weather commuter on my route but is usually faster on his carbon road bike.
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Oh yes, cycling into Central London felt like you took your life into your hands each time. I witnessed some kind of accident at least once a month.
Wasn't the only cyclist on the road in London, but there were substantially fewer - it was a minority passtime. bikes were regarded as poor man's travel (although I had a BMW325i AND a central london parking space for some of this time)
Didn't worry about bike theft, worried about all drivers, consideration for cyclists was pretty much non existent. It's when I developed my mantra "Don't be where the accident is going to happen"
I never bothered logging commute even when Strava etc was a thing. I used to ride with a computer, but ditching it was entirely liberating.
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S'pose I've always cycle commuted. Cycled to school and then to work. Lived at home (Stafford) and cycled to Wolves Poly for a few years. When I worked at Sandwell (before moving closer) I took a bike on the train in the morning and cycled home a couple of nights a week.. When I moved to the area I cycled about 8 miles to work every day.
1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. No
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A thread aimed at the more seasoned members. Did you cycle commute "before it was cool" let's say pre 2000?
I didn't start commuting until 2006 and that was a temp job when I was 16, fresh out of secondary school. I rode my bmx to the train station/work.
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Pre 2000, I just "Went to work". I used a bicycle because it was the most logical mode of transport.
"Commuters" were men with briefcases who took the train to work in the city....
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I cycled to school for the last 2 of my primary school school years. Driving on those same roads recently, there would be absolutely zero chance that I would allow a child I was responsible for to do the same today. Traffic levels and speeds and vehicle sizes are in a different league. And on the smaller roads, agricultural vehicle speeds and sizes also in a different league, often driven in a cuntish fashion by contractors who don’t give a toss.
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- Yes - our office moved from walking distance to the next town in 1988. We were given a travel allowance for trains/whatever, and I made a case for using it to buy a commuting bike. Actually I bought a new frame, and repurposed my existing one for commuting ;D
- No - I used to see other riders regularly. There was one guy I would cross over with most days as he commuted in the opposite direction, for example. We waved, but I never found out his name or where he was going.
- No - I was on quiet back roads that I also used for leisure riding, and work built a bike shed and, mostly through my influence I think, put a nice secure, sliding, locked gate on it. After a few years, they also fenced and gated the car park, which helped too.
- Yes, especially when my club started a mileage competition. I've never used Strava, but I do now track all my miles on Garmin devices, partly again for that competition.
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Yes - 1966 to 1997
No - 1997 to 2000
Yes - 2000 to 2006
Most were short commutes, less than 10 miles round trip. Only one year (2000/2001) with 30 mile round trip. As bobb says, it was just the most convenient (and reliable) way of getting to school/work.
I would see few other riders, mostly because I chose to be out early. No worry about theft, but I mostly worked in companies with fenced sites. No worries with distracted drivers or pedestrians (no zomby phones), little of my commutes were in big cities. Yes I kept a rough count for my annual total mileage, but no formal logging system.
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Cycled to school for the last year of the sixth form. 76-77
Bike was my primary mode of transport at university. 77-80
Then, once I managed to get a job, main mode of transport again, 81-88
Car for the next fifteen years or so
Got another bike (influenced by one of this forum's predecessors) in 2003.
Less worried about other drivers and thefts than I am now, but I was a lot younger.
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Yes. I got my first job (in 1983) in Great Baddow, and decided that the best way to get there was by bike. This was how I got into cycling: I bought my first adult bike for the commute and discovered how much I enjoyed riding it. Though the commute itself wasn't much fun as it involved croosing the Army and Navy roundabout (this was before the Chelmsford bypass), and before long I moved out to Maldon which, whilst a longer ride, was much more pleasant.
I continued to cycle commute through various jobs after that until 2010, when I got a job which was too far from home to make cycling all the way practicable. So whilst I could go all the way by train, I've generally cycled to a station a bit further up the line and caught the train from there.
As I was commuting between towns there would be at most one rider going the same way.
I worried about theft after my first bike was stolen (not from work, though, that was secure). Not had one stolen since. Distracted drivers were more of an issue, as I was hit a few times on the Essex commutes, though only badly hurt once.
I never bothered to log mileage, though the longest commute was a round trip of 35 miles (Maldon - Colchester).
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- Yes, from 1983 as a Penniless Student Oaf to 2007
- No except for the last two years. The bulk of it was into central Londonton; 2006/7 Walthamstow <-> Harlow
- Yes
- Only in the later stages; not on Strava though, just a spreadsheet
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A thread aimed at the more seasoned members. Did you cycle commute "before it was cool" let's say pre 2000?
Used my bike as my main mode of transport when I was a student (1990-94) which I don't think counts, and, in combination with public transport, depending on what I was doing, for my first job (1994 - 2002).
If you did, would you be the only cyclist on the road or did other people go the same way?
Lots of student cyclists, unsurprisingly. Not so many in Birmingham. I can't remember noticing or thinking about it.
Did you worry about bike theft or distracted drivers?
I don't think so, but I don't remember. I don't remember any bad experiences from drivers (this does not mean that there were none).
Did you bother logging your rides/mileage in the pre Strava era?
No, I would never have thought of doing such a thing.
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Cycled to work (6 miles each way) most days, from about 1985 onwards. I rarely saw another cyclist, and some car drivers were ignorant or hostile - over the years quite a few close passes, one incident where a full drink can was thrown at me but fortunately missed. Another where a driver coming the other way swerved across the road towards me.
On the other hand, on the way home in the dark my battery light failed so I used the pavement. A driver who had seen this returned with some spare batteries and checked that I was OK.
Definite improvement over the years with more people cycling, less hostility and more awareness from drivers.
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Commuted to school 1975-6. There were a few cyclists about.
Always worried about theft.
Always worried about road safety.
Never owned a car.
Have only suffered trivial collisions with motor vehicles.
Had a Mileater diary.
Never used Strava or a GPS on the road.
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1. Primary school, walked to school with a friend who’d cycle over and leave their bike at our house.
2. Secondary school I’d cycle over and leave bike at house of same friend as they lived near big school. Then walk with them into school. Used to transport Euphonium on rack on back.
3. Got around on bike at University for anything longer than a 30 min walk, assuming not on a pub crawl.
4. Cycle to work on road bike. Drivers fine and didn’t worry about theft. Work bike shed usually full.
5. An off road mountain bike commute with showers and change of clothes other end.
6. Return to a road commute.
As others say, you didn’t call it commuting. It was just riding to / from work.
None of the distance logged, though I did have a mechanical clicker odometer of the sort that sat by the hub of the front wheel. I could calculate the school and work commute totals now if I wished, as they were a known quantity.
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No
No
Yes - I have handwritten note books with places visited on each ride and the distance ridden going back to 1994. They are still my official logbook, so if Strava or anything else goes up in smoke I still have the manual records.
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None of the distance logged, though I did have a mechanical clicker odometer of the sort that sat by the hub of the front wheel.
I had one of those, then one of those Huret band-driven posher ones. Still got some spare drive bands somewhere :D
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None of the distance logged, though I did have a mechanical clicker odometer of the sort that sat by the hub of the front wheel.
I had one of those, then one of those Huret band-driven posher ones. Still got some spare drive bands somewhere :D
I had one of those, they had 2 "displays", odometer and a reset able trip meter I seem to recall.
As far as bike commuting is concerned:
To school from Y8 onwards, had my bike stolen from school bike sheds when I was in the 6th form.
Then a bike/train commute to Uni Northampton - London for 3 years.
Followed by 6 months Northampton - Wellingborough
After which I lived walking distance to work for the next 9 years before 3 years of cycling 8 miles to be picked up by colleague (captain of Northampton Saints and geography teacher) to drive me the rest of the way in.
Then my kids started going to same school so I had to start driving myself until the last one left and I could go back to cycle commuting, ended up doing the whole 58 mile round trip 3-4 times a week before retirement.
During all that time, apart from school/uni commutes very few other cycle commuters to be seen, certainly no obvious change in numbers over the years.
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I was cycle commuting in the eighties, nineties and noughties.
In the eighties the roads seemed busy but somehow less frantic. Motorists seemed to still show patience and restraint. I was living in Coventry initially but moved to Northampton in 1987.
In the nineties commuting in Northampton became quite dangerous and many a time I experienced road rage on a regular basis. I do remember one repeated round of aggravation from one motorist which ended after about a month with me damaging the car of the idiot. I am not proud but incredibly the aggravation stopped. During this period I had three bikes stolen from work premises.
In the noughties I moved jobs a couple of times and I moved home too. At one point I was cycle commuting on occasion between Rugby (home) and Northampton initially and then Milton Keynes. Sometimes I would ride to work, other times home from work. Taking a bike on the train was no problem.
No bikes stolen from work in this window. In 2012 we had the worst bike theft and vandalism event where six bikes were destroyed or stolen. Things were never the same since.
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Like Polar Bear I started in the 80s. Always fortunate to have my bike in the office or try to take it inside. Only time I locked it outside it got stolen. Mcr Uni was a premium spot for bike thefts. Roads were I feel better in terms of traffic behaviour. Cars were smaller, few if any suv's and no one distracted by phones. Didn't log rides or times and still don't.
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Nice!
I should have asked what bikes people were riding too.
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I rode to school through almost the whole of secondary school until I got a moped in lower sixth. Then a BSA Bantam for a year or so until it fell to bits at which time I cycled round uni. Then nothing until about 15 years ago when I started with a new bike to work.
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Raleigh Caprice: metallic purple & cream open-framed 21” steel roadster, with 3-speed Sturmey Archer Dynohub, kick-stand and Pletscher rear rack.
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I rode to school through almost the whole of secondary school until I got a moped in lower sixth. Then a BSA Bantam for a year or so until it fell to bits at which time I cycled round uni. Then nothing until about 15 years ago when I started with a new bike to work.
You are me and ICMFP
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5-speed gaspipe Thing as a Penniless Student Oaf, until it was nicked. Thereafter a cornucopia of divers machines from a Claud Butler Majestic to Depravo the Cotic Roadrat via numerous Perfectly Good Gentleman’s Mountain Bicycles and recumbents.
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Nice!
I should have asked what bikes people were riding too.
My first new bike was a 3 speed Puch I got for my 13th birthday. That was my school commuter and the bike I rode my first 50 miler on, Northampton to Banbury and back,i Iwas completed shattered on the return. Then I bought myself a second hand BSA Tour de France "racer" when I was in the 6th form which I did actually race on, a few 10 TTs, also rode my first hundred miler down to Swansea to meet up with some friends for a bike/beer week. That's the one that was stolen from the school bike sheds after about a year of ownership. After that was a Viscount Aerospace which wasn't risked on the school commute but did see some commuting duties after uni. My uni commuting bike was a bike a neighbour gave me, the frame was an old Vindec and all the bits including a Wrights leather saddle were in a basket so I had to build it up first, I learnt a lot doing that.
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Rode to school in the 60's, 10 miles through Belfast & back every day, flap of schoolbag buckled over crossbar. The bike stands had room for ~20 bikes but were rarely full. Didn't see that many on the road, either. I did lock the bike to the stands for the day, but if I stopped off at a shop in the middle of town I usually parked with a pedal on the kerb and didn't lock it. Had a click-click mechanical odometer but the star wheel invariably came loose from the axle so I'd no idea of my total mileage.
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My Caprice was written off, when left double-locked overnight. Frame was bent, as were wheels.
Stripped for parts and replaced with my trust brown metallic Raleigh Sprite, a flat barred 10 speed (14-34 x 40-49) mixte.
This was stolen when parked overnight outside the newly Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
A gold Claud Butler Majestique was then purchased from JE James on Bramall Lane, using my brand new AccessCard, in anticipation of qualifying and earning imminently.
After moving to Dudley, I learned to drive and the week I passed my test, poor Claud was stolen from the residence at Russells Hall Hospital. I was also moving to Leeds.
I found myself in Two Wheels Good on my first free Saturday in Leeds, in search of a ‘Bicycle’ magazine. I rather liked ths shop and by the end of the afternoon I’d bought an ultramarine blue, mixte, 12-speed Eclipse touring bike...
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I cycled to work for my first two teaching jobs, neither more than 2 miles from home, and some of the time for my civil service job (less than a mile). This would have been between the late 1970s and 1995.
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I came from a cycling family, so cycling everywhere was just what we did, never called it commuting.
Primary school was close enough to walk, but from about 8 years old I was riding solo to swimming lessons in Kettering after school (down and back up Pytchley Hill) or to stay with my Nan in Wellingborough (up and down Orlingbury Hill).
I rode to High School in Kettering in the 1950/early 60s. I often made time to lift my bike over the back gate into Wicksteeds and do a few laps of the track. Not many girls used bikes, but the boys in the adjacent Grammar School did, and several were in the same cycling club as me. They were my friends rather than the girls, as we had much more interests in common. I had to ride in full school uniform, including woollen gymslip and blazer. My satchel sat on top of my saddlebag, held on by the strap, and my uniform pork-pie hat perched on top of that. Because the school bus wouldn't pick me up from the High School, Mum shamed the council into giving me a bike grant- just a small amount for maintenance - which was a moral victory. Another victory was biking in through the snow without falling off every day of the 1962/3 winter, when the bus often didn't get through!
After O-levels, I worked Saturdays and holidays at Woolworths. Usually Kettering, but several weeks riding to and fro Northampton on what is now the A43. It was just the normal thing for me to do, but there were not many other cyclists by then.
Never had to worry about a bike being stolen or about other road users. It was an area and time when all drivers would have ridden a bike when younger. We had "tickometers" and I would check mileages when touring, but didn't record more than the first couple of weeks in the chart that came in Cycling Mag every New Year.
Newcastle Uni was a horrible shock. I took a bike with me on the assumption I would bike in. But N/C Uni was hopeless at looking after it's students, and a lot of first years were allocated grotty off-season B&B accommodation at the coast. The coast road was horrible, no cycle infrastructure in those days. And the uni didn't have lockers so everything I needed (heavy text books, lab coat and equipment, gym kit for lunchtime circuits, food etc) had to be carried to and fro every day. And there was nowhere to park a bike at uni. I did try a few times, until my locked to a fence bike was stolen.
That wasn't the only thing that stopped me cycling: At Fresher's week, I found the University Cycling Club stall, and chirpily asked "Do you have a Ladies Team?" He looked at me like something from outer space. Speechless. Then "well some of the girlfriends come along to make the tea and sandwiches".
I joined the Folk Dance Group and ranted my way round Northumberland for the next 5 years.
Apart from uni holidays, when I mostly worked in Youth Hostels and explored most of North Wales, I didn't use a bike.
Early jobs were in schools where a commute by bike was not realistic, then I escaped to self employment and worked from home, so I have never commuted to work!
I had discovered orienteering and that was my main sport/activity until it juddered to a halt in 2001 (Foot and Mouth year), and I resorted to a bike to try and keep a bit of fitness.
By then I had retired, so I'm definitely off topic now.
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I rode the 8 miles to school for a while in the 60s. Then a hilly 7 miles to work in the 80s, sometimes on a barrow. Then later again in the 90s, 10 miles sometimes to my shiny new factory - though I needed the car a lot of the time. Into the 21st century and just an occasional 15 hilly miles from a different address to a different factory (same business). Then I retired.
No record of mileage, never had a bike stolen (touch wood).
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Cycled a mile or two to Owen's school at the Angel Islington in the late 50s, early 60s, but had one bike stolen from there, so started leaving my bike at a branch of my father's employer across the road in Arlington Way, behind Sadlers Wells.
Took my bike to Leeds University, but didn't use it there except for some Cycling Club runs.
Commuted again in Solihull for my first job at Rover from 1965 to 1968, as I was in digs about a mile away. Never commuted by bike again as usually too far.
My father always cycled to work from Highbury to Holborn until he retired in 1974 (except when it snowed, when he used the bus). He died from a heart attack about six years later, and I always think it was because he had stopped cycling after retiring, and that is my incentive to keep cycling for as long as possible.
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Took my bike to Leeds University, but didn't use it there except for some Cycling Club runs.
You missed out. The Dales were wonderful for Leeds University Union CC and other runs. Which club?
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Yes, I rode with the Uni Union group. This was back in 62 to 65.
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I was 78 to 81. My "avatar" is the British Student Sports Federation 25 in 1979 on (or rather, just off, for the finish) the A14 Newmarket-Bury St Edmunds road. Oops, we've got from commuting to racing ;D
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I rode the 8 miles to school for a while in the 60s. Then a hilly 7 miles to work in the 80s, sometimes on a barrow. Then later again in the 90s, 10 miles sometimes to my shiny new factory - though I needed the car a lot of the time. Into the 21st century and just an occasional 15 hilly miles from a different address to a different factory (same business). Then I retired.
No record of mileage, never had a bike stolen (touch wood).
My first experience was about 64 to 65 also an 8 miler to school. We had to go in Saturday mornings and I think the buses were sparse to non-existent so our parents let us do it so they didn't have to drive us in. We really enjoyed it ISTR and had no trouble with traffic. I cannot imagine parents of today allowing pre-teens to do that.
In the 70s I started doing occasional commutes in NE Essex on an old Sun racer, quite a nice bike with 5 speeds. In the 80's I started a daily run on a utility bike and from 1986 at uni in Manchester I had a nice tourer. Despite dire warnings it never got nicked although I used it daily. Weekends I'd do trips into the lovely Peak District.
From the early 90s to 2005 I always commuted, in York. My Manchester bike got stolen in the town centre and I bought an old Raleigh Richmond for commuting, single speed most of the time. No real problems with traffic until they had the urge to create cycle paths/lanes. Now they are complaining that cycle use in the city has 'plummeted' over the last decade. It's mainly because the cycle 'facilities' are really intended to get cyclists out of the way of the motorist IMO. The latest works on Tadcaster Road are a fine example.
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A thread aimed at the more seasoned members. Did you cycle commute "before it was cool" let's say pre 2000?
If you did, would you be the only cyclist on the road or did other people go the same way? Did you worry about bike theft or distracted drivers? Did you bother logging your rides/mileage in the pre Strava era?
Yes
Only
Yes
No
I rode to the train station. Or directly to work. 9-15miles each way.
First on a cheap MBK, then a lovely fixed gear winter bike (mudguard eyes and clearances for 28mm tyres). Then a converted track bike (SA 3 speed).
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Yes
No
Yes
Yes
I had a CatEye OS1.0 that not only logged my mileage, but also wished me a happy birthday!
Sam
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A thread aimed at the more seasoned members. Did you cycle commute "before it was cool" let's say pre 2000?
If you did, would you be the only cyclist on the road or did other people go the same way? Did you worry about bike theft or distracted drivers? Did you bother logging your rides/mileage in the pre Strava era?
Firstly thank you for making me feel young, pre 2000 my commute was cycling to the newsagent to then ride out with the papers. My first cycle commute was to a student summer job in 2001. I was unusual but not outrageously so. I was often the only cyclist I would see, no worries about bike theft, only after one very near miss, the cycle computer kept a total distance if I bothered to start it but I wouldn't have kept a separate logbook.
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Back in 1981 I commuted from Westbourne Park to Guy's Hospital, London Bridge for my first term at Uni. It was a Triumph Twenty borrowed from my brother, green with a white saddle and tyres.
At that time there were quite a few commuters in central London, though nothing like as many as today. The real hardmen were the cycle couriers.
I remember cycling up Constitution Hill one night (Ever Ready lights) in a very inebriated state but have no memory of how I made it around Hyde Park corner (you couldn't go across the middle in those days). I used a four-digit combination lock but was certainly anxious about cycle theft. Eventually I had the saddle nicked (must have been the colour) just a week or so before the end of term so I resorted to the Tube. Next term I moved house and never did it again.
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Does delivering newspapers and cycling to school count?
Back in the day, hmm subjective timespan. I had a paperound between 1973 and 1976. I had the use of the newsagents/tobacconists and confectioners fleet of bikes. They were very heavy, virtually indestructable trade bikes complete with a metal basket/ frame over the front wheel. Rod pull brakes/breaks( both apply). Black paintwork with the bottom 3" of the rear mudguard painted white. One bike had a front dynamo hub powering both front and rear lights, otherwise Eveready lamps were the order of the day. Single speed freewheel and a chain that wouldnt look out of place on a 650cc motorbike.
I was always at the newsagents by 6am Monday to Saturday for the princely sum initially of 90 pence a week. My seperate Sunday round paid 50 pence but i had two enormous sacks of papers. I loved the paper rounds. I was generously tipped at Christmas. Rose tinted glasses perhaps
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A thread aimed at the more seasoned members. Did you cycle commute "before it was cool" let's say pre 2000?
If you did, would you be the only cyclist on the road or did other people go the same way? Did you worry about bike theft or distracted drivers? Did you bother logging your rides/mileage in the pre Strava era?
I cycled to school between about 67 and 71 from Tottenham to Hornsey. Initially this was on a bitsa I built up from a frame. This was stolen and that's when I bought my Hetchins from a bloke who worked with my father for £5. This also served as my paper round bike, riding with the CTC section and general touring round England, Wales and France.
I rode the same bike to my first job (Highgate) intermittently until about 1974.
All this riding was recorded in notebooks which I still have.
I didn't cycle a great deal between 74 and 84 when I discovered Audax and this was the point I started recording mileage on a spreadsheet.
I kept up these sheets until I started with RwGPS.
I also started commuting in about 85 when we had settled in Leicester. I kept that up until about 12 years ago.
The Leicester commute was on a varied multitude of sensible and ridiculous machines.
I don't think that the fear of theft was a big thing until the mid 80s
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Does delivering newspapers and cycling to school count?
I did those. My brother delivered George Best's newspapers for a time (oops, wrong thread).
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I had Keith Fielding of Superstars fame on my paper round.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Fielding
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I can remember delivering the last edition of the Daily Sketch and the first edition of The Sun in tabloid format.
Friday was the heaviest delivery day due to the number of Jewish Chronicle subscribers.
The Morning Star had (as I recall) quite a few readers on my regular round.
I thing that the previous two observations may have been mutually exclusive.
There was certainly one address that got a well thumbed edition of Cycling Weakly.
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I take it you didn’t do Sunday papers.
The Jewish Chronicle, even with its occasional magazine was a mere lightweight, compared withe the Sunday Times and Observer, which my parents always read but never had delivered.
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Ah but, at least where we were, there were fewer paper orders on a Sunday. So it was better really - same weight of papers at the start, but fewer stops to make.
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It was the day the Radio Times came out (Thursday?) which made my round heaviest. But my round was the lightest, the only one using a bike as it was relatively spread out.
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Yes my brother had that. We were on the very edge of Greater Manchester. My round went round some of the residential streets. His went round the outside, into the country, so he had half the number of deliveries but twice the miles and was, if I recall correctly, at one point the best-paid paperboy in the NSS chain. I did it once or twice when he was away on school trips or whatever.
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I take it you didn’t do Sunday papers.
The Jewish Chronicle, even with its occasional magazine was a mere lightweight, compared withe the Sunday Times and Observer, which my parents always read but never had delivered.
The Sunday round was split in two as I recall - so Sundays weren't too bad.
To make up for less papers we had to go door knocking to collect the bills (which never seemed to reconcile with the book at the end).
I'm not sure when Sunday magazine supplements started and my memory is hazy as to how many supplements / parts that Sunday papers had. I do recall getting told off for posting multiple parts through a tiny letterbox on Amhurst Road.
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1966/7 paper round long enough to use a bike (almost 3 miles). A round in those days was the whole thing, 6 days of morning plus evenings and then Sunday morning which needed two trips. All for the princely sum of £1. It was 18/6 (for those who recall old coinage) until I negotiated a pay rise. Sunday broadsheet papers were huge, with several sections plus a supplement. My pet hate was letter boxes at ankle height.
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Only briefly did a paper round as early mornings were taken up with my swimming training.
After school I delivered groceries for our local Coop using a single speed bike with a large basket on the front. I can still recall how tough it was climbing up the local hills with a heavy front-end load.
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My pet hate was letter boxes at ankle height.
My pet hate, which I still have over 50 years later, was people who expect to get papers and letters delivered, and yet don't put any indication of the numbers on their houses.
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I think the absence of gateposts compounds this issue.
We do have a small plaque, but it’s some distance from the road.
It’s easier on bin days as most bins have HUGE numbers, painted or stuck on them.