Moving Target, 1991
Just over a year ago Alexander Walker, (possible spelling mistake), a man overly concerned with the vast accumulation of obstacles on the footpath, wrote an article entitled "Dodging the Desperados." Here it is with MT Comment.
Not long ago I wrote a column above the vast and still growing accumulation of obstacles on the footpaths. The outcome is that my own progress along the pavement is additionally impeded these days by the congratulations of people who are as angry as I at the build-up of bins, traders’ signs, rubbish bags, parking meters and even stationery cars.
The only thing to do, I tell them, is do something. Kick, shove or move the obstruction out of your way, if you can. Unfortunately, there is one kind of pavement pest on whom this won't work -the mobile kind that seems hell-bent on moving you out of its way. I refer to the bike couriers, those urban desperados of our city centres.
"Cecil Parkinson's placebo to the footsore of London - the always-overlooked folk who move under their own steam - made mention of more cycle tracks to compensate for the abandoned road schemes. Fine, if the cyclists will keep to them. But, more and more; wheels are taking over our footpaths.
"In the past couple of years we have been afflicted by swelling packs of messengers on bikes who break every written and unwritten traffic regulation. By their recklessness in ignoring red lights, swerving on and off pavements at road junctions and slaloming along crowded footpaths, they have added to the impression that Central London is a lawless place - not so much a no-go area as a go-as-you-please one.
I have sympathy with these youngsters who want to earn money by working flat out for it, not simply holding out a hand to you as you pass and saying "Gizza pound". But they have unwisely been made into folk heroes by the media. They are admired for their speed, fashionable. cycle gear, air of streetwise derring-do. This flattery has given many of them the conviction that they are glamorous social outlaws who can get away with any and every act of anti-social behavior.
"They are not. Many provide a useful service in a lawful manner. Too many are now behaving like hooligans.
Even worse are those on motorcycles as big as armoured cars. As road congestion grows, these are veering on and off footpaths to get around traffic jams - the pavement on the part of Wardour Street between Shaftesbury Avenue and Leicester Square is notorious for this kind of dangerous misconduct.
"There will be tears one of these days if the law doesn't quickly crack down on these marauding Mercuries and put them where they belong. 'On yer bikes' - on the road."
Being the ignorant git that he seems to go out of the way to prove he is, Walker writes that there is no way of dealing with CC's on pavement and that every CC is 'hell bent on moving you out of its way. What utter crap. CC’s generally speaking are fully aware of the fact that they have a moral code to observe whilst on the pavement (eg. moving slowly, giving ample warning of movements etc). Walker misses the whole reason why CC's and other cyclists are on the pavement in the first place which is avoiding useless traffic systems based around cars which lead to a hostile environment in which to cycle, and the courier's necessity to get from A to B as quickly as possible. If we were on the pavements as often as he would have people believe, then we might as well just forget using bikes and bloody run.
If Walker had more experience of riding in Central London, then he would realise just how abused cyclists and cycle paths are. It only takes a couple of ignorant fools to leave their prized piece of planet destroying machinery in our cycle paths for us to be forced back into the path of main stream nasty traffic.
As for jumping lights, the high pressure nature of couriering means that clients put despatch companies under pressure to be prompt (everything is 'urgent'). This pressure is passed onto the controller and finally the good ol' courier, who then has the unenviable task of delivering the package at speed through London’s poisonous streets for a pittance. If at the end of the day a few red lights have been ignored for a better-wage then so be it.
We will go where we like, why not? Who does this city belong to?
Your 'sympathy' is an insult to the homeless many of whom are in that position as a result of existing in a culture of greed and self-indulgence. It is also insulting to CC's as it seems our choice is to redeem ourselves by slogging our guts out or begging. Thanks for the choice. Some life!
Forget the media image, your article only goes to reinforce this stereotype in its own self- indulgent manner. Youngsters - as you call us - who work under such diabolical conditions need something to aspire to, why not a social outlaw?
Finally Walker, a choice {undoubtedly an improvement on the one you seem to give us). You are invited to experience the exhilarating and adrenaline pumping excitement of cycle couriering 10 hours a day, 5 days a week for a month while we lounge in your office writing about moral standards and niceness in the 90's. Failing that you could always try sleeping rough and trying to beg up enough money to survive. We're sure these options can only improve your appreciation of life and death in the cycle lane. To quote from a New York courier:
"We owe nothing to a society that would burn out its young on danger ridden streets in an envelope of polluted dirty orange haze no matter how 'hip' our job may appear to be".
On your bike Walker, before you cause any more damage.
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