Sunday 6 February 2011

Can't handle his cobbles!

King Street. Lost to cars, full of bike racks. Nearly no traffic.

Yet what do we see this afternoon but someone cycling along the pavement.

They can't use the "I'm scared of the traffic" gambit here, which leaves just one other: they don't like cycling on cobblestones.

There'll be no entrance form for the Paris-Roubaix race arriving in their postbox this year, we suspect.

4 comments:

amoeba said...

I can't help thinking that that person is a regular pavement cyclist.

If I were to cycle down that street, I'd either slow right down, but if the vibration were too bad, I'd get off and walk.

I can't envisage riding on the pavement, except where it was permitted.

Dru Marland said...

I cycled down that street on Thursday, as it happens, without any ill effects. Perhaps his bicycle has the hypersensitivity of the true thoroughbred. Though, when I see someone like that, I am tempted to ask them "aren't you a bit old to be riding on the pavement?"

gentlegreen said...

More than once, on the way to work on quiet streets in Fishponds, I've encountered the same 40-something cyclist heading for the railway path and riding on the pavements - thereby having to keep a look out for all the driveways and people fussing around their cars...

The craziest example was a recent morning when I was struggling to stay upright as a pedestrian on an un-gritted pavement, and a cyclist - fresh from a different railway path exit, squealed to a halt beside me, then crossed the totally ice-free road to the even icier pavement on the other side.

I have a special look of disdain reserved for such behaviour that I also use for impatient drivers or ones that have already dangerously overtaken me.

SteveL said...

I really like cobbles; time spent in Edinburgh. And I loved the stage in the 2010 TdF when they reran bits of the Paris Roubaix race -classic.

I cycle on a little bit of pavement on a daily basis: whiteladies road just when starting off after walking across it and then turning left into the railway car park, and a bit of Muller Road where I can cross at the new lights. Once the bridge opens, that need goes away,

This road is lovely, almost no traffic, no reason whatsoever to ride on the pavement. Take the cobbles, enjoy them, and you won't end up being made fun on of on Bristol Traffic.