My daily exercise consisted of a fairly tame 8ish mile cycle ride today but it was one that proved to be very eventful for all of the wrong reasons.
My route was a simple 4ish miles there and 4ish miles back and it was on the way back that I spotted one of those all black Dutch-style cargo bikes with the wooden box up front. You see these from time to time in central London and today was no exception. This one - you could tell - was brand spanking new and ridden by someone who I wager is a total prat in all walks of life.
The chap in question wasn't wearing a cycling helmet and neither were the two small children sitting up front in the wooden box. Of course there is no requirement to wear a helmet but I merely point it out - you'll see why.
This idiot was on the open road and in my humble opinion hadn't a clue how to ride a bicycle. He weaved this way and that, didn't care about other road users and when he came to a set of lights either cycled straight through them or worse still, moved on to cycle on the pavement. Yes you read that correctly.
I guess you can see where this is going. On one occasion he veered onto a section of pavement far too narrow for his quite large bike with box. A couple who were jogging faced the bicycle head on, with the cyclist (I don't really want to call him a cyclist) in avoiding them crashing into a parked car. The two children weren't hurt too badly luckily but were both crying and shaken by all this.
The joggers remonstrated with the cyclist, who seemed more concerned that his front wheel was buckled, had a burst tyre and was wedged under the rear (and damaged) bumper, than the welfare of his two children! In addition to the joggers a black cabbie got out of his cab to see if the children were okay. I can't say that I was impressed.
From Wednesday onwards where people can go out for more than one form of exercise, if we have idiots like this (who I suspect would be idiots behind the wheel of car too) out and about, heaven help us!!
Stay safe people.
Worrying as you say. I’ve had my Brompton for the last 12 years but lived in The Netherlands for 4.5 years and had a bakfiets- the cargo bike - which we rode our children (and sometimes the Brompton) around in, always with helmets to the bafflement of the Dutch cyclists who never wore them. The bikes are surprisingly fast and manoeuvrable although it’s easy to forget how big they are. What a prat cycling with his kids so dangerously that it led to an accident but good the kids weren’t hurt. You can take splice that it will cost him a lot to repair the Nike and I doubt his kids will want to get back into it in a hurry. A shame as they are great for the whole family. We were sorry to sell ours as we moved.
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