Lord Shinkwin, a parliamentarian who is disabled, has said that discarded bikes have made cities “completely impassable” for wheelchair users. It said that the failure of government, councils and police to tackle the problem of e-bikes meant they had become a “significant safety risk” to the 20 per cent of the population with disabilities. A report published this month by the Policy Exchange think tank found that the dumping of e-bikes had turned many pavements into no-go areas for the disabled. Recent research by Guide Dogs found that 97 per cent of people with visual impairments had encountered problems with street obstructions, citing a “dramatic” increase in the number of rental e-bikes and e-scooters. Still, what is an annoyance to someone like me is downright dangerous to someone who is partially sighted or disabled. I’m sure whoever parked it this way thought it was terribly funny at the time (midnight, on the way back from the pub), but to the early morning commuters who come across these bulky bikes, they are rather more annoying. The other day, a woman shared a photo of an e-bike that had been parked upside down on its handlebars.
As a result, people have started sending me snaps they have taken. I’ve taken to photographing particularly idiotic examples of bike parking and posting them on Instagram. These bike rentals are all the rage right now, because they’re quick, they’re cheap, and they’re environmentally friendly.īut there are almost no proper docking stations – they are operated through apps – meaning that increasingly, these chunky, clunky cycles are being left all over pedestrian walkways, with little consideration for anyone travelling around on something as old-fashioned as their own two feet. Still, it’s no wonder the delivery riders feel entitled to use the pavements as their own personal bike parks – go to any city and you will struggle to walk more than 100 yards without having to dodge an e-bike dumped in the middle of the street by someone who is clearly far too important and busy to park the cycle somewhere appropriate. Then again, I might counter-argue that as a pedestrian, I should be able to walk on a pavement that isn’t blocked by numerous bicycles.
I suppose they would probably argue that I should have checked the road before I veered into it. Not a single one of the riders acknowledged what had happened. I nodded, and carried on my way, one of those “sliding doors” moments that could have ended very differently, were it not for a few, tiny millimetres. A surge of adrenaline shot through me, as I became vaguely aware of a woman asking if I was OK. I felt the rush of air as it drove past me. To avoid being knocked over by him, I instinctively veered off the pavement and into the road, where a double decker bus promptly passed half an inch from my head. Then, just as it was my turn to navigate what remained of the pavement, one of the riders, clearly arguing with a colleague, lurched backwards suddenly, gesticulating wildly. Meanwhile, pedestrians like myself queued politely to get past, the riders seemingly oblivious to us.
There I was, imagining what unique hell the Crossfit instructor might come up with for that day’s class (burpees three ways? Kettlebell swings?) when I came to a bottleneck of pedestrians trying to work their way around four bicycles that had been parked slap bang in the middle of the pavement outside McDonald’s.Ī group of food delivery riders stood chatting on either side of the bikes, blocking much of the rest of the walkway as they waited to pick up their orders. I was nearly killed the other morning on my walk to the gym.
0 kommentar(er)
