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easytiger

Now ban them and their bike scheme counterparts in London. An absolute blight on the city.

Their USP is they can be left anywhere.

https://i.imgur.com/s59Bvf3.png

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The lime bikes are wonderful. I’ll fight you and anyone else who tries to take them away again.

You pic shows them towards a corner kerb with space behind.

They are blocking the pavement. They are a disease. Their value to you is derived from the inconvenience they cause to others.

https://i.imgur.com/oeQjcJS.png

Cars literally kill people.

They don’t always block the pavement.

They deliver far more to the city than they inconvenience. I say this as someone who has to push a stroller around.

https://i.imgur.com/j1bRBp5.png

I've been pushing someone in a wheel chair for about a year now. Trust me. This is no trivial matter

Those Lime bikes are terrific. Great for access to places that don't have Santander bikes.

Great for the fraction of a percent of Londoners who use them, terrible for every one else

I just walk past them when I'm not using them. Very easy. Hardly a problem.

Perhaps because you don't have a disability or a stroller with a young child so that you can comfortably and effortlessly avoid them...

If sidewalks could be wider it wouldn't be as much of a concern. Narrow sidewalks are to accommodate car parking more often than not. I would rather see less of that in a city centre.

The overcompensation is palpable

It's not clear what you are implying. Could you elaborate?

That you know these bikes and scooters blocking pavements is a social ill but you do not care because it is convenient for a fraction of a percent of commuters

Ah I see, thank you. I think they are a blight as well, but less of a blight than car dominance in city centres. If you can barely fit a pram past a scooter on your footpath, see the bigger picture, your footpath is tool small. You have given all your space to non-mixed road traffic or parking.

I've worked in London for near on 20 years. The people using these are not using them as an alternative to a car. If you look about in Z1 the congestion comes from poor road management and an uptick in commercial traffic.

But sure, as a plumber to come to your house on his bike. See how that goes.

The footpaths have been rougly the same around where i live for 4/500 years.

I haven't spoken about commuting at all. My core point is that car centric city centres sacrificed their space for people to cars, and that blaming scooters for the lack of space was missing the forest for the trees. The fact that you can't fit a pram past a scooter is the same reason businesses can't do alfresco dining, mothers on bicycles have to ride amongst cars, peds have to wait at crossings, walking anywhere is unpleasant and your children can't ride their bikes to school, etc etc. I am not going to pretend it hasn't happened and shift blame to everything but cars just because it's the current status quo.

Before cars your 400 year old road was mixed use, and your plumber certainly didn't turn up in a box van. When cars turned up, everything got pushed onto the sidewalk to make way for cars. It wasn't so long ago, there is no shortage of film of how cities used to be before cars.

None of this was remotely an issue a few years ago before these schemes were rolled out in my area, entirely invalidating your presumptions.

https://i.imgur.com/8piPcuf.jpg

These schemes provide value to the user because they can be wilfully discarded anywhere.

Had a motorcycle accident. Completely pulverized. ICU for a week. Got out and was driven everywhere for a while, but when I walked these were not a substantial burden.

They’re fine with a stroller mostly. From personal experience around Hackney, Islington and Haringey.

Not without problems, but still miles better than toting your car through a city centre.

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