Following my problems with the my Tuono being knocked over last week I’ve moved to a different bike bay. However last night when I went to ride home somebody had shoved a Honda 125 in next to my bike and his mirror had marked the tank!!! (OK it wasn’t a huge mark and I managed to polish most of it out, but there is still a mark on a pristine tank)
As I was cursing and swearing the owner of the bike came up, he was pissed with me that I’d moved his mirror back a bit to:
a. see what the damage was and
b. try to get my bike out without creating any more damage
I was pretty pissed off with him as well, although once we calmed down we both realised that the reason this had happened was because somebody has moved his bike over to jam a ratty old scooter in. The problem is, of course, there’s no way to prove what happened, apart from common sense, (please don’t bother with the CCTV suggestions - life is too short).
Now this is not a rant about scooters (well it is, sort of), but why can’t people just be a bit more careful. It also comes down to the way people park in the morning. If everyone starts at one end, parks nice and close together, and fills the bay carefully then you don’t get the odd gaps where somebody thinks “Hmm, I’m sure I could get in there”.
This is a generalisation, but one I’ve found to be true over many years, a large number of scooter riders have no idea of parking etiquette. This week one of my work colleagues was trying to find a space and he, together with 2 other bikers, did a careful scooter shuffle and managed to park 3 bikes where there had been a space for one. This was done without any damage and leaving everyone with a sensible gap. Many Scooter riders park in the middle of the bay, leave too big a gap between each other and have a lack of respect for other peoples bikes.
I’m sure this will elicit a protest wave of “oh no we don’t” from the scooter people and they will counter with a accusations that we move their bikes and don’t respect them…
So let’s have a London bike bay code, let’s all be sensible and considerate with our parking and gently point out to people who park badly the error of their ways. We can then all live in peace and harmony with shiny, well parked, undamaged bikes…
… or end up knifed in the gutter with our bikes a mangled wreck after being thrown under a passing bus for daring to question somebody’s bike parking skills.
OK, Flame suit is on and activated…