How to take the devil's own delivery men – London's couriers.
Earlier last week I was hailed by a neighbour as I was passing the Duke of York on Clerkenwell Road. For anyone who’s never passed it, the Duke of York is the couriers’ pub of choice.
Of the various cycle tribes in London, none are more wilfully offensive than cycle couriers. Case in point is their use of the Duke: while these urban gibbons are happy enough to cluster, whoop and drop litter on the pavement outside, their patronage doesn’t seem to extend to buying a drink there. Instead they shop at the offie a few doors down.
‘Just follow my lead,’ said my neighbour, a courier, when it was time for us to go home. Had I done as he suggested I would have jumped the red light at the busy Farringdon Road junction, and again at St John’s Street, ridden slap bang in the middle of Old Street, using my hands only to give the finger to other road users, and finally turned the wrong way into Columbia Road.
Bending the rules, which I sanction, is one thing: snapping them in half is another. When I quizzed him he justified his behaviour by saying that his take-no-prisoners attitude was a response to aggressive drivers who were in any case planet-wrecking bastards. Anarchic behaviour under the guise of protest is selfish and self-defeating.
It undercuts any reasonable debate or considered protest that London cyclists can make about poor conditions.
Route rating
Miles Four (but felt like ten, Clerkenwell Road to Columbia Road)
Average cycle time 20 minutes
Calories burned 180
Road rules flouted At least five
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6 comments
'Why adhere to a law that endangers me?' (re illegal pavement cycling) The same stupid selfish comment could possibly be made about knife-carrying. Get off the pavement, you selfish git - even if people say nothing to you don't take it as tacit acceptance, it's probably because they're frightened. Read letters in the local press and reports of local community and police meetings - it's you and others like you who are making the pavements in London a no-go area for old, disabled and vulnerable people. What a stupid and irresponsible article for Time Out to endorse - I will not be purchasing it again.
I was with a cyclist who was catapulted off her bike in an accident last week. She landed on her head and shoulder. Result: Helmet severely dented, concussion, face had a nasty case of road rash, broken collar bone. Without a helmet I think it could have been much worse.
Re: amazing statistics - the trouble with accident statistics is it is impossible to measure all the accidents that don't happen...
Did the writer really mean;
'Anarchic behaviour under the guise of protest is selfish and self-defeating.'
Or perhaps;
Selfish behaviour under the guise of protest is self-defeating.
Or maybe;
Selfish behaviour under the guise of anarchy is self-defeating.
Clean up on the stereotypes mate.
I ride through that road system most days and, as I've found generally with cycling in London at all times of day and night, if you ride with your wits about you, it isn't a problem. A cycle lane past Central St. Martin's would be safer and there's loads of pavement but in the mean time the author should grow a pair and use the road.
LB 's Southwark and Lewisham provide free Adult Cycle Training for all those who live, work or study in the borough. Available via www.cyclinginstructor.com. Online Booking!
Statistics show that amazingly cyclists who wear helmets have more accidents than cyclists who don't. This is because, the study says, drivers of cars and other vehicles tend to take it "slightly easy" when they see a cyclist wearing a helmet as opposed to when a cyclist is unprotected. A model Catch-22 situation innit?