Hire a Bike, Not a Barricade

I’m a big supporter of hire bikes, but there’s one habit that drives me absolutely insane: where people choose to park them.

This became a massive issue for me when I started using a manual wheelchair a couple of years ago. You’re rolling down a footpath, and suddenly, there’s a bike blocking the way completely. I didn’t have the physical strength to move the bikes or a way to get around them. So sometimes, I was forced onto the roadside.

I’ve snapped a few photos to illustrate the point. If you were in a wheelchair, navigating this alone, how would you get past? Hire the bike, enjoy the ride, but please—be mindful of the person coming after you.

The “deliberateness” of parking a bike in the middle of a footpath is probably what annoys me most.