Yes, I know I can walk around it, hence the mildly infuriating. Still a d*ck move
You can walk around them, people in a wheelchair or with a buggy cannot. Disrespectful af.
Even just people with luggage and baby strollers are fucked. People who are blind also are really disadvantaged here. The scars on the shins of people who have used a white cane for years are numerous.
I’m a fan of fewer cars on the road, but things like this are also reasons why we need still some forms of direct transport access. Travelling a few blocks from a public transport stop can still be filled with hazards like this that prevent people from arriving at their destination.
Yup, exactly this.
It’s not an old video game. They’re not immovable parts of the level design. You can likely move or bump them out of the way enough to pass through.
Meanwhile right next to them is a huge metal box that stole 4 times as much sidewalk, transported half as many people and is literally un-moveable if you’re not in a heavy motorized vehicle.
Fietsers jonguh! 🤮
I find this post hilarious in a really sad and aggravating way.
Everyone complains how the bikes block the path for pedestrians, strollers, wheelchairs. But pictured on this very same image is how the entire sidewalk is narrowed to make room for cars. That one car takes up twice as much space as those two bikes and likely transported half an many people. And if you’re on foot, in a wheelchair or pushing a stroller you can push the bicycles out of the way. You can’t push the car out of your way.
These bicyclists are completely wrong because of how it’s set up now, you’re talking about fantasy scenarios. If this is an old city, it was probably set up for horse and buggy before bicycles were even invented. Pedestrians are more important than bikes. I realize you have to fight the good fight to make people aware, but this isn’t the one.
It’s Europe, not a fairy tale. We do in fact renovate and change our streets occasionally. A clear indicator are the fancy cut grey slabs and the metal disc. I can guarantee you those are not there since the time of horse and carriage. Also the red bricks would be waaay more worn down by now if they were that old.
Move them to a place where it will take them a while to find but put each one in a different place so they will get mad
There’s an office building near me where one of the employees parks his Harley Davison motorcycle on the handicapped ramp of an emergency exit. Granted it doesn’t see daily foot traffic but someone in a wheelchair might need to, you know, escape a fire.
Someone should inform the authorities and let them tow it. There should be something that can be done legally.
I wonder if there is a law against this or if it’s some kind of building code violation. What authority governs having handicapped accessible escape routes from a private building?
I’m just guessing, but in my country you get towed for blocking escape routes. Maybe your local fire department can help you understand what is possible to do.
That’s actually a great suggestion. The fire department are always helpful.
Why are you riding your bike on the sidewalk?
You’re supposed to be on the sidewalk when you’re walking with you bike
While they could have snugged them in, they do need the ability to park them somewhere while shopping. One option is in the road, like the white van. Or put up some bike racks to guide parking. This is poor city planning.
There’s no way to tell from this single pic. Who knows, there might have been proper bike parking spots just around the corner.
This is the Netherlands, better bike parking is always a stone’s throw away
This is poor city planning.
There’s a lot of things wrong with the Netherlands, but poor city planning - at least when it comes to bike infrastructure - is not something you’ll find there.
The social way is to at least put them both right next to a wall, not side by side in the middle of the sidewalk
Some people truly believe the whole world exists just for them
Yes especially these expecting the path to always be clear for them
Or, the bike owners could have snugged them in leaving the path clear, at no extra effort to themselves.
In the US, this would be a F250 extended King Cab blocking your path while idling and spewing diesel exhaust.
I guess our “mildly” infuriating things are different.
It’s not legal to ride your bike on the sidewalk in the US, no?
It’s a local thing. My town doesn’t let you ride on the main street sidewalk, but you can everywhere else. There are signs posted at the end of the street that you would never notice.
That being said, ride in the road. Assert some dominance.
When I learned to drive there was a pretty big emphasis put on paying attention to cyclists in round abouts. Nowadays the official rule for how a bicycle should go through a round about is: in the middle of the road. Even as a car driver I love the boldness of this approach.
Unless the cars on the road are going to fast for comfort or are too agressive, then do whatever you can to not feel like you are going to die at any moment.
Says the one sitting on his bike on the sidewalk while holding a phone?
It’s not like the person taking this photo left their bike for a while.
I’d be the asshole who just moves those bikes to a random location a short walk away so the owners have to go looking for them. Inconvenience them for making the sidewalk less accessible to the disabled.
I’m in the US and when I read the title I assumed it’d be a car parked in an insane way. I wish we had the opportunity to be mad at bikes haha. The closest is people dumping scooters wherever or they try to park them politely but then they fall over
I assume people putting themselves, or their personal shit in everyone’s way.
Yes Karen, you and your five friends, walking shoulder to shoulder, on the only place for people to walk, at a slow meander, DOES obstruct everyone else. And yes, I have somewhere to be, but even if I didn’t, get the fuck out of the goddamn way.
you may not realize…that belongs to the main character
Yes you can walk round it but could you get past with a pram?
Stuff like this infuriates me when im walking with our twin pram…
It’s mildly inconvenient but yes I would just walk around and budge the bike a few inches out of the way. It’s like carts at the grocery: if someone parks theirs blocking the lane you just shove it aside. With bikes and carts you can do this. People here are acting like this is a misplaced car that cannot be easily be moved aside.
I might be too american, but I’m more concerned about leaving a bike outside unlocked without a fear to have it stolen. How does that work?
I am an american but i think it works like this:
- streets are bike friendly
- more reasonable to just bike everywhere so everyone does
- city may provide free bikes to use
- more demand for bikes, more competition, less expensive bikes
- less bike theft in general as a result
- these aren’t $4k+ bespoke bikes
- something something socialized healthcare something something better labor laws something something higher taxes but a better quality of life. Why steal? Be happy.
We don’t have these things here. Except for expensive bikes, that’s all we have. That’s why I got these boltcutters…
Haha no, bikes get stolen all the time and the cheap ones are easiest to sell. These bikes are in fact locked
We call them junkie bikes because you buy them from your local junkie for 10/20€ and don’t ask where it’s from.
Except for expensive bikes, that’s all we have. That’s why I got these boltcutters…
Well of course, how else do people get expensive bikes?
Also these kinda lock are really common here. I could pick then up and walk away with them yeah, but they where locked
Here it comes paired with a surveillance state that will catch you stealing a bicycle and have the cops waiting for you at your home before you can even reach it.
Nah. In Copenhagen we lock them like this, too, but you’d never get the police to check video to maybe identify the theif. Rape or violence, sure, but not bike theft.
I’m not in Copenhagen, however.
Sorry, no, of course not. It wasn’t my impression it was like that in NL.
They are actually locked. In the Netherlands bikes usually have ring locks attached to the frame that lock just the rear wheel. It’s way more convenient, you can quickly lock your bike and pop into a store. It’s of course less safe, so especially in larger cities and at train stations people do lock their bike to something.
Example of lock ring lock: https://www.google.com/search?q=axa+ring+lock&biw=412&bih=712&dpr=2.63
Those are all locked. This is in from the Netherlands. The most bicycle happy and bicycle friendly country in the world. So much so thar they have bicycle parking problems.
In the Netherlands they get stolen all the time as well. Locked or not. We have bike thieves that just load the whole bike including lock into a van and drive off with it.
Either that, or if attached to a pole/bike rack with a chain or bar lock, they’ll just pull out the old angle grinder and go to work.
Happens everywhere, happens in broad daylight, happens when there’s people around, and usually doesn’t raise a lot of suspicion because “might be someone who’s lost their keys”.
Since there’s 4 bicycles for every person living in the Netherlands, the key strategy is just making sure your bicycle is a little less fancy than the one locked up next to yours. Thieves tend to go for the ones they can resell for the most amount of money. In other words: Hide in the numbers.
Key strategy, hah. I do that too, parking my bike next to fancier one.
Leuke naam, ik krijg er honger van.
