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Cyclists suffer punctures as drawing pins strewn on planned Quietway in South LondonDrawing pins (licensed CC BY 2.0 on Flickr by Emanuele Longo).jpg

Cyclists suffer punctures as drawing pins strewn on planned Quietway in South London

Several reports of punctures at Mawbey Street in Southwark, just off the Old Kent Road - Metropolitan Police investigating
by Simon_MacMichael
Fri, Sep 22, 2017 16:38
12

Cyclists in South London are being urged to be vigilant due to drawing pins being repeatedly scattered on a street in Southwark that is due to be closed to motor vehicles to form part of one of the capital’s Quietway cycle routes.

The charity Cycling UK was alerted to the issue by cyclist Richard Allalouf, who asked for its help in alerting the south east London cycling community to the problem.

He wrote: “On Mawbey Road in Southwark (a small road with heavy cycle use that runs onto the Old Kent Road) an individual has repeatedly scattered handfuls of drawing pins. This is resulting in many many punctures!”

He added that he had submitted a street cleaning response to Southwark Council, who subsequently replied and said they would clean up the drawing pins – although of course it was not an isolated incident.

The Metropolitan Police Cycle Safety Team also highlighted the problem on Twitter and said they were investigating and would be monitoring the area.

Last year, Transport for London held a consultation on proposals to close Mawbey Road at the junction with OId Kent Road to non-emergency motor vehicles as part of a Quietway linking Honor Oak Park to the existing Quietway 1 from Waterloo to Greenwich, which runs along Oxley Close a couple of hundred metres to the north.

One Twitter user who suffered a puncture suggested someone against the scheme – 51 people were fully in favour of TfL’s plans, with four opposed to them – might be responsible.

Another revealed that three members of a group he had been on a weekend ride with had also had punctures in the area.

Sam Jones, Cycling UK Campaigns Coordinator, told road.cc: “This sort of reprehensible and illegal behaviour targeting cyclists might be seen as a joke by the miscreant wasting their pins, but it is not just inconvenient but downright dangerous.

"We can only hope this is a one off, rather than a coordinated, if misguided, protest at Mawbey Road’s turning into a Quietway,

“Thankfully Southwark Council is making sure the route is swept clear, and the Met Cycle Team is on it and will hopefully bring those responsible to justice.”

punctures
drawing pins
Quietway
cycling uk
old kent road
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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12 comments

Avatar
kitsunegari | 7 years ago
0 likes

How is it that in the most monitored city in the world, the police conveniently don't have any CCTV footage of this particular 'incident'?

Avatar
Metaphor | 7 years ago
3 likes

I'm assuming the police will dedicate as much manpower to this incident as to the policing of protests outside fracking sites?

Avatar
srchar | 7 years ago
8 likes

I hope it's not too much of a leap to assume that the pin-spreader lives on the street - purely because I can't see why anyone would bring drawing pins to the same spot repeatedly.  Which means they would rather live amongst shit-smelling traffic fumes and road noise than the gentle hum of bicycles rolling by.  I just can't imagine how such a person exists.  The de Beauvoir area shows how pleasant a neighbourhood can become simply by taking motor vehicles off residential streets (residents can still gain access, but through traffic can't use the roads).

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to srchar | 7 years ago
3 likes
srchar wrote:

I hope it's not too much of a leap to assume that the pin-spreader lives on the street - purely because I can't see why anyone would bring drawing pins to the same spot repeatedly.  Which means they would rather live amongst shit-smelling traffic fumes and road noise than the gentle hum of bicycles rolling by.  I just can't imagine how such a person exists.  The de Beauvoir area shows how pleasant a neighbourhood can become simply by taking motor vehicles off residential streets (residents can still gain access, but through traffic can't use the roads).

Yeah, but I read somewhere that all cyclist are killers who ride illegal bikes. This has to be stopped before it gets out of hand and a third person is killed... I'm pretty sure no one has died since I started this campaign was started, so I must be right.

Avatar
Crippledbiker | 7 years ago
9 likes

This is especially cuntish because it also takes out us wheelchair users.

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Housecathst | 7 years ago
1 like

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

Avatar
velodinho replied to Housecathst | 7 years ago
7 likes
Housecathst wrote:

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

You don't really get the pins/nails in the road thing, do you?

Avatar
fenix replied to Housecathst | 7 years ago
0 likes
Housecathst wrote:

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

Stupid stupid stupid.

Who's even saying that it's a motorist ? Pretty much everyone hates us now thanks to the Mail and co.

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to fenix | 7 years ago
0 likes
fenix wrote:
Housecathst wrote:

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

Stupid stupid stupid.

Who's even saying that it's a motorist ? Pretty much everyone hates us now thanks to the Mail and co.

Because pedestrians would rather share this road with cars and bikes than just bikes? Who else woukd it be?

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to wycombewheeler | 7 years ago
1 like
wycombewheeler wrote:
fenix wrote:
Housecathst wrote:

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

Stupid stupid stupid. Who's even saying that it's a motorist ? Pretty much everyone hates us now thanks to the Mail and co.

Because pedestrians would rather share this road with cars and bikes than just bikes? Who else woukd it be?

Plenty London pedestrians dislike cyclists. We really don't know who done it.

Avatar
Bluebug replied to wycombewheeler | 7 years ago
1 like
wycombewheeler wrote:
fenix wrote:
Housecathst wrote:

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

Stupid stupid stupid. Who's even saying that it's a motorist ? Pretty much everyone hates us now thanks to the Mail and co.

Because pedestrians would rather share this road with cars and bikes than just bikes? Who else woukd it be?

A dog walker who uses an extendable lead or walks 4/6 poorly trained dogs?

There are plenty of idiots around who simply don't like other peoples method of transport if it is different from theirs.

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to Bluebug | 7 years ago
2 likes
Bluebug wrote:
wycombewheeler wrote:
fenix wrote:
Housecathst wrote:

Cyclists shpuld replace them with a couple of bags of 6inch wood nails, see how the motorists like it. 

Stupid stupid stupid. Who's even saying that it's a motorist ? Pretty much everyone hates us now thanks to the Mail and co.

Because pedestrians would rather share this road with cars and bikes than just bikes? Who else woukd it be?

A dog walker who uses an extendable lead or walks 4/6 poorly trained dogs?

There are plenty of idiots around who simply don't like other peoples method of transport if it is different from theirs.

The fact that it is a road that is due to be closed to motorists is merely a coincidence?

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