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news
Cargo bike outside Waitrose in Headington, Oxford (Innkeeper55, Twitter)“It’s like a HGV parking in a car space”: Row erupts over cargo bike “blocking” pedestrian entrance to Waitrose
A cargo bike user has been branded “selfish” after a Waitrose customer claimed that, while exiting the shop, he almost tripped over the bike’s front wheel, which he said was “blocking” the entrance and adjacent pedestrian walkway.
The customer’s account has been subsequently ridiculed by cyclists on social media, who pointed out that the cargo bike was stationed at a cycle rack, positioned “well back” from the shop’s entrance, and that there was ample space to access the building using the pavement.
However, the customer responded to the criticism by arguing that the bike’s position on the pavement – away from allocated cargo bike spacing nearby – was the equivalent of “a HGV parking in an allocated car space”.
Cargo bike locked & blocking the pedestrian walkway into Waitrose, Headington @BadlyParkedOx @HeadingtonNews
Not worried about the elderly, disabled or less mobile, they’ve blocked the entrance instead of using the cargo bike parking spaces provided on the London Rd. Nice 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/9LSgcyhETA— Innkeeper55 (@Innkeeper55) December 8, 2023
The cargo bike was photographed on Friday by X (formerly Twitter) user Innkeeper55 outside the Waitrose on Old High Street in the Oxford suburb of Headington.
“Cargo bike locked and blocking the pedestrian walkway into Waitrose,” the Twitter user wrote. “Not worried about the elderly, disabled, or less mobile, they’ve blocked the entrance instead of using the cargo bike parking spaces provided on the London Road. Nice.”
The post, which has been viewed over 85,000 times, has divided opinion on the social media platform, as cyclists posted their own photos of the bike parking situation outside Waitrose to argue that the initial photograph was “dishonest” and that there is “plenty of room” for customers to access the shop:
Don’t really see what the problem is - plenty of room to access Waitrose from pavement pic.twitter.com/SIzChZBIYq
— nick gibb (@nickpgibb) December 8, 2023
“You could say the same about cars parked on pavements – yes, you could walk around but you shouldn’t have to,” Innkeeper55 responded.
“I came out of the shop and turned immediately left as I do daily and nearly tripped over the bloody front wheel. Any one less abled would not have been able to pass.”
“I do see your point,” the In Oxford account replied, “A couple of things though: Waitrose have said in the past that section isn’t intended as a ‘path’. The much wider pathway is, to the left of your pic, which you’ve deliberately cut out. Also, the cargo bike owner may not know dedicated parking spots exist for them.”
The customer replied: “It’s a heavily used walkway whatever Waitrose may have said. I’m not looking for an argument with anyone, but this is very selfish parking of a cargo bike which restricts pedestrians who use the walkway. Locals know there’s much more considerate places to park these bikes.”
Rory McCarron, a senior solicitor at Leigh Day who specialises in cycling-related issues, also noted that the cargo bike was “parked at the specific bike parking”.
He continued: “There’s a Boardman bike parked beyond it. Considering the layout here, the cargo bike is well set back from the entrance and not even the nearest rack to the entrance. Absolutely pathetic.”
“No it’s not,” Inkeeper55 said. “It’s like a HGV parking in an allocated car space.”
> Council slaps nuisance notice on family cargo bike parked on pavement
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the placement of a cargo bike has been the subject of controversy.
In September 2022, Hackney Council came in for criticism after an enforcement notice was placed on a family-owned cargo bike which was parked on a pavement, demanding its removal within seven days.
The bike belonged to Will Prochaska, who used it to transport his three children, one aged four and two two-year-old twins, to nursery and at the weekend. As the family did not have access to adequate private storage space, the bike was parked outside on the pavement, where it was issued with a seven-day notice from the local authority.
After Will posted on Twitter about the unexpected notice, the council responded by tweeting that the bike “is causing an obstruction on the pavement so it would need to be removed and parked somewhere safe. This can be on your own private property or somewhere designated for bicycles” – a rather blunt reply which caused something of a backlash on the social media platform.
“I think the case shows the desperate need for cargo bike parking solutions in Hackney,” Will told road.cc. “As it is, the way we park our bike never blocks the pavement, so the argument that it’s an obstruction is false.”
And in July, Bristol couple Anna and Mark Cordle made the headlines after they set up a parking space for their family cargo bike outside their home which, a year after it was installed, became the subject of threats by the council to remove it – because, the local authority said, it was taking up a car parking space.
When asking Anna and Mark – who made the switch to a cargo bike after giving up their car – to remove the heavy planters used to secure the bike, Bristol City Council claimed that placing them on the road is in breach of Section 149 of the Highways Act, and that they would be liable “if any person has an accident as a result of [your] planters being on the highway”.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
Latest Comments
- froze 2 sec ago
Just my opinion, but sorry that bike is UGLY! I can't see that sort of price for a completed bike, not alone for just the frame and fork!...
- Boopop 37 min 25 sec ago
I find it deeply jarring and disappointing that Sir David agrees with these people not wanting a cycle lane. Whenever I watch one of his excellent...
- chrisonabike 46 min 31 sec ago
May need insurance, tax and a licence. No problem with the lights though.
- Simon E 1 hour 2 min ago
Yes, they look just like the Lezyne Zecto model. My club bought a couple of sets from the LBS for our midweek TTs so if someone turns up without...
- Hirsute 3 hours 34 min ago
If you can't see a %^$&ing large tractor what ^%$£"!*ing hope is there that you will see a cyclist ?...
- chrisonabike 3 hours 51 min ago
Well if you *can* interview the original riders at all surely they worked, at least?...
- David9694 4 hours 20 min ago
Live: Car plunges over wall and lands on beach rocks...
- biking59boomer 4 hours 27 min ago
Looks like yet another bike share service that's going to fold because of selfish idiots.
- brooksby 9 hours 33 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
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100 comments
Just brilliant, you accuse somebody else of making incorrect statements and then claim that all rubber products come from oil. I hate to break this to you, but rubber can actually be found in a natural form in the eponymous trees. Synthetic rubber is oil-derived but if you are going to say all rubber comes from oil then I think you'd better stop accusing other people of making incorrect statements until you've sorted your own confusion and ignorance out.
It's a pity his Dad didn't wear a rubber
Latex.
Isn't latex a bit leaky? That's why it keeps going soft
Umm...
the dinosaursdead diatoms subjected to millions of heat and pressure are not really that sustainable now, are they?That's a pity - I loved the idea of our economy running on a kind of dino-based Lee and Perrins.
Technically fossil fuels are renewable of course, just ... extremely slowly. And you need to stop using them while they're building up again - which is the bit we're not able to do.
Wait long enough though and we'd not be able to use renewables or non-renewables as the sun burns out of its own non-renewable resources (barring injections of hydrogen from outside the solar system) - but apparently we will never reach the point as we'll get cooked first.
Yes very sustainable - oil is a naturally occurring resource. Use it, the reserves are unlimited!
May Santa bring you the friends you deserve
FACT: Any NORMAL PERSON would just have walked past the cago bike without a second thought. Twitter X has always been an echo chamber for idiots with too much time on their hands who love turning their life non-stories and petty grievances into drama. Some of them even appear to be coming here.
Interesting [sic] that on both sides of the Waitrose in question there are cafes with cordoned/fenced off al fresco dining areas taking up the same space Waitrose is using as a bike park: presumably the Twitterer also objects to not being able to hug their frontages when entering/exiting their premises as well?
That's whataboutism.
If you leave everything else out of it, it's quite easy to see the catgo bike could have been parked better quite easily.
Yes, and they could also have put a door in the other side of the shop to make it easier for this guy, or there could be no bikes or cars at all, then there wouldn't need to be bollards in front of the shop or any bikes parked a bit out of line.
Will address this in your other post but (and I now understand where you're coming from) you're making perfect very much the enemy of "slightly better than our current awful situation" here.
I know this is a bit of a radical suggestion... but did anybody on the twitter (sorry, "X") thread suggest that innkeeper55 should maybe look where he's going? That would reduce his risk of nearly tripping over things that are plainly visible...
(And I do hope he doesn't drive a car - SMIDSY)
but you wouldnt say if a car was blocking a pavement parked like that, well people should just look where theyre going to avoid it, youd say dont block the ruddy pavement with you car wouldnt you ?
so why cant people park cargo bikes with just a bit of consideration for other people too ? just because theyve used a bike doesnt mean they get to play the smug self satisifed card if they behave like inconsiderate jerks with it.
and I dont care if its a proper designated bike park space, you still have an obligation not to block routes past your bike for other people where ever you leave it.
...only it's not blocking the pavement?
We don't have to argue the rights and wrongs of something that hasn't happened. That covers it I'd think - but if you need any more a) it's not a car (illegal to drive in the pavement) and b) it's parked in a space the store have apparently created for this purpose.
What am I not understanding here? Because it looks like "but but cyclists though!"?
Plenty of room to access Waitrose from the pavement?
Certainly would. But if a car wasn't blocking the pavement but instead was parked in a designated parking space on private land and there was a legitimate public pavement route round to the door of the store that was not even any further, probably wouldn't.
Since it's not on he pavement, it isn't blocking the pavement.
It's blocking a valid access "walkway" route for pedestrians is it not ?
If the shop puts an A board there or outside display, no would quibble if the council told them to move it.
Why is it different if a bicycle blocks the same space ?
Because it's a space specifically set aside for parking bikes
"Can sometimes physically walk there" not equal to "is part of the highway" e.g. footway (I think footway counts as that legally).
One person found it slightly difficult to take a shortcut, one time. No-one was stopped from doing anything, endangered, or anything more than momentarily mildly inconvenienced really. No one was doing anything illegal nor I feel antisocial. This really, really isn't anything like parking an HGV in a car space, or a car on a pavement.
They could have ... I mean, they could have just stuck the bike right in the door, stopping everyone, or stacked a series of bikes across the footway. But ... they didn't.
I mean, living in Scotland I'm all for the right to roam, but that doesn't mean I think it's sensible to campaign for people to move the trees (bollards) or sheep (bicycles) out of the way if I walk across a field in a particular direction - especially if it's still perfectly possible to get across the field by stepping round them.
So ... there doesn't seem to be a general principle here*. Why are we still discussing this?
Plenty of room to access Waitrose from the pavement?
* No principle apart from "bloody cyclists, think they're better than everyone" maybe? Or could it be a case of "when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression"? Or simply "change!"?
Looking at the commercial premises either side of the supermarket, one assumes that the land on which they have their alfresco dining facilities does not belong to the council and nor does the land which Waitrose has designated as a cycle park. It's very common for shops that are set back a distance from the pavement to own the land directly in front of their doors. That being the case, the council have no say in the matter, it would be up to Waitrose as to whether they wish to preserve this "walkway", something they could easily do by simply running a chain between the existing bollards. As they haven't, one must assume that they are happy with the area being used as part of the bike park and for customers to have to walk the extra six feet round to gain access.
There's a difference between a "pedestrian walkway" and "a space that a pedestrian can physically fit through". This is the latter, and is intended for cycle parking, not pedestrian acces.
Like I said below, nobody in the world would think that someone who has become accustomed to walking through a car parking space because there's usually a small car in it would have a legitimate grievance if they were to find a slightly larger car in it one day - especially if there was a massive pavement three feet away.
You have to compare apples to apples here. You're talking about a bike blocking a pedestrian footpath being just as bad as a car blocking one (which is true), but that's not what has happened here - this is a bike parked in a bike parking area being moaned about by someone who's become accustomed to walking where they were never intended to be able to.
The council can only direct a removal on the public highway or if the board breaches any local or national planning rules on adverts.
No one has demonstrated this is a valid walkway and it's not a footway.
As before, I could tie my dog to the rail - would people moan about that ?
What kind of dog?
It's a Waitrose in the home counties dahling, only black labradors and golden retrievers permitted.
I would have thought a poodle or some other kind of yappy dog would be more appropriate for the Waitrose demographic.
What are you trying to say Rendel!
That beauty is surely just made for Waitrose visiting!
Not starting from South Australia! Drakes, maybe 🤔
Ah, I ignorantly assumed Gawler was a place in Wales!
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