Bike in shopping centre

Hi

I went for a ride around Wigan today[1]; upon getting back and trying to
get back to the car park I walked my bike through the new shopping mall
they have there. I was approached by a member of the security/centre
personnel who politely informed me that there was a 'no cycles' policy
in the centre. I replied that I was aware that riding bikes was banned
(I wasn't actually but it's logical) but he told me that this also
extended to pushing bikes, too. I asked him what the nearest exit was,
therefore, and how to get to the car park not through the centre, which
I think flummoxed him slightly, but we worked out a way back.

To reiterate, he was polite about it (possibly because I was too) but I
did wonder about the logic of banning bikes completely in the place. On
the way out I spotted on the doors "No cycles, skateboards, something
else or heelys" under the "No dogs (except guide dogs)" bit but even so
I think I'd still have interpreted it as "No bikes to be ridden" rather
than "No bikes to be walked". It seems a bit daft to me.

Also, while I'm here, is anyone from Wigan around? The gates and
barriers on the Leeds/Liverpool canal as it rises up the 21 locks from
Wigan pier are horrible - they're supposed to allow you to push your
bike through but in practice snarl your gears and pannier and it's
easier to walk the bike through the pedestrian bit on its back wheel or
lift it over instead. Totally horrible (but then I hate these sort of
things anyway)... at least near the Top Lock they changed style to the
more familiar 'pinch point' bike passageway which are miles better (for
me, anyway).

Anyway, I'll go back to being quiet again...

Peter (a relative lurker)

[1] a pleasant 15m ride, ride report will appear below later (with two
from a couple fo weeks ago too hopefully!).


--
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

Peter Scandrett wrote:
Hi

I went for a ride around Wigan today[1]; upon getting back and trying to
get back to the car park I walked my bike through the new shopping mall
they have there. I was approached by a member of the security/centre
personnel who politely informed me that there was a 'no cycles' policy
in the centre. I replied that I was aware that riding bikes was banned
(I wasn't actually but it's logical) but he told me that this also
extended to pushing bikes, too. I asked him what the nearest exit was,
therefore, and how to get to the car park not through the centre, which
I think flummoxed him slightly, but we worked out a way back.

To reiterate, he was polite about it (possibly because I was too) but I
did wonder about the logic of banning bikes completely in the place. On
the way out I spotted on the doors "No cycles, skateboards, something
else or heelys" under the "No dogs (except guide dogs)" bit but even so
I think I'd still have interpreted it as "No bikes to be ridden" rather
than "No bikes to be walked". It seems a bit daft to me.


The local shopping farcility in my town has the same rule, unfortunately
they also have a slashed peak proto nazi as a "security" guard. When
he grabbed me by the shoulder and screamed " no bikes" I argued , then
realised that he was too thick to understand logic, so took the problem
away from him. Picked the bike up cyclocross style and told him " now
it's hand luggage" and continued my journey.

"marc" wrote in message
...

The local shopping farcility in my town has the same rule, unfortunately
they also have a slashed peak proto nazi as a "security" guard. When he
grabbed me by the shoulder and screamed " no bikes" I argued , then
realised that he was too thick to understand logic, so took the problem
away from him. Picked the bike up cyclocross style and told him " now it's
hand luggage" and continued my journey.

Do they have a strict "no pushchairs" policy? A bike has a much smaller
"footprint" compared with a pushchair. He sounds like a jobsworth picking
on someone *pushing* their bike when no doubt kids get away with *riding*
through the precinct!

Peter Scandrett wrote:

Hi

I went for a ride around Wigan today[1]; upon getting back and trying to
get back to the car park I walked my bike through the new shopping mall
they have there. I was approached by a member of the security/centre
personnel who politely informed me that there was a 'no cycles' policy
in the centre. I replied that I was aware that riding bikes was banned
(I wasn't actually but it's logical) but he told me that this also
extended to pushing bikes, too. I asked him what the nearest exit was,
therefore, and how to get to the car park not through the centre, which
I think flummoxed him slightly, but we worked out a way back.

To reiterate, he was polite about it (possibly because I was too) but I
did wonder about the logic of banning bikes completely in the place. On
the way out I spotted on the doors "No cycles, skateboards, something
else or heelys" under the "No dogs (except guide dogs)" bit but even so
I think I'd still have interpreted it as "No bikes to be ridden" rather
than "No bikes to be walked". It seems a bit daft to me.

A similar thing happened to me when I was in Stevenage. I turned round,
pushed my bike out and never went back in. I'd like to think that they lost
a lot of money because of that, but realistically I probably wouldn't have
bought much from the overpriced emporiums anyway.

--
Chris

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"Peter Scandrett" wrote in message
...
I went for a ride around Wigan today[1]; upon getting back and trying to
get back to the car park I walked my bike through the new shopping mall
they have there. I was approached by a member of the security/centre
personnel who politely informed me that there was a 'no cycles' policy in
the centre. I replied that I was aware that riding bikes was banned (I
wasn't actually but it's logical) but he told me that this also extended
to pushing bikes, too. I asked him what the nearest exit was, therefore,
and how to get to the car park not through the centre, which I think
flummoxed him slightly, but we worked out a way back.

To reiterate, he was polite about it (possibly because I was too) but I
did wonder about the logic of banning bikes completely in the place. On
the way out I spotted on the doors "No cycles, skateboards, something
else or heelys" under the "No dogs (except guide dogs)" bit but even so I
think I'd still have interpreted it as "No bikes to be ridden" rather than
"No bikes to be walked". It seems a bit daft to me.

Back home the shopping centre had something like that on the doors. We
asked some security guy if we could walk our bikes through to get to the car
park and were told no.

Where I am now the shopping centre has a no cycling policy in the car park
which means there's no way to ride anywhere close to all those nice shiny
sheffield stands they've put in!
--
peter

Cheap train tickets database
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

"Chris Slade" wrote in message
...


A similar thing happened to me when I was in Stevenage. I turned round,
pushed my bike out and never went back in. I'd like to think that they
lost
a lot of money because of that, but realistically I probably wouldn't have
bought much from the overpriced emporiums anyway.


There's a new shopping centre in Norwich; Chapelfield. I've not been in it
at all. I don't intend to go in it.
Norwich has some cycling paramedics. Chapelfield has banned the cycling
paramedics from cycling on the premises even when responding to an emergency
call. Another shopping centre in Norwich, Castle Mall, has no ban on the
cycling paramedics cycling there. So I choose to go to Castle Mall and not
to go to Chapelfield.

Stopping Joe Public from cycling is one thing, but stopping cycling
paramedics who are trained and cycling for a legitimate reason, to get to
the scene of an emergency where ambulances can't get to, is entirely
jobsworth.

On Jun 4, 8:10 pm, Peter Scandrett wrote:
Hi

I went for a ride around Wigan today[1]; upon getting back and trying to
get back to the car park I walked my bike through the new shopping mall
they have there. I was approached by a member of the security/centre
personnel who politely informed me that there was a 'no cycles' policy
in the centre. I replied that I was aware that riding bikes was banned
(I wasn't actually but it's logical) but he told me that this also
extended to pushing bikes, too. I asked him what the nearest exit was,
therefore, and how to get to the car park not through the centre, which
I think flummoxed him slightly, but we worked out a way back.

To reiterate, he was polite about it (possibly because I was too) but I
did wonder about the logic of banning bikes completely in the place. On
the way out I spotted on the doors "No cycles, skateboards, something
else or heelys" under the "No dogs (except guide dogs)" bit but even so
I think I'd still have interpreted it as "No bikes to be ridden" rather
than "No bikes to be walked". It seems a bit daft to me.

Also, while I'm here, is anyone from Wigan around? The gates and
barriers on the Leeds/Liverpool canal as it rises up the 21 locks from
Wigan pier are horrible - they're supposed to allow you to push your
bike through but in practice snarl your gears and pannier and it's
easier to walk the bike through the pedestrian bit on its back wheel or
lift it over instead. Totally horrible (but then I hate these sort of
things anyway)... at least near the Top Lock they changed style to the
more familiar 'pinch point' bike passageway which are miles better (for
me, anyway).

Anyway, I'll go back to being quiet again...

Peter (a relative lurker)

[1] a pleasant 15m ride, ride report will appear below later (with two
from a couple fo weeks ago too hopefully!).

--http://www.scandrett.net/lx/http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

Had a similar experience with my Brommie (unfolded) at the Canary
Wharf shopping centre a couple of years ago. I'd never been before,
was only passing through while trying to get out of the tube station
and it's quite big so I got a bit lost. Went up to some official-
looking chappie to get help finding an exit and the attitude was far
from "can I help you?", all he seemed to care about was that I was
pushing a bike around and that was not allowed. Charming... Got
hassled by another one of them on the way back too - and there really
were bigger pushchairs around. I'm not going back there in a hurry.

Wonder what these places would do if there was a bike shop in the
shopping centre... they would have to sell magic teleporting bikes.

Hel

--
http://bikehippies.blogspot.com/

lid (Geraint
Jones) writes:

Fortunately it doesn't apply to the cycle track which is technically
within the Parks, between Marston and town. The precision of that
exemption is why there was such a godawfull fuss about building the
cycle track in the first place.

I lived 500m away from the end of that track when it opened, and
was delighted with the smooth tarmac as far as the Cherwell bridge.
Ideal cycling surface, but it didn't last -- within a couple of
weeks they covered it with tar and lots of gravel, enough gravel
initially to make it difficult to ride. I complained on safety
grounds, and was told that the powers that be (were?) thought the
blacktop was too much of an aesthetic intrusion in the flood meadow[1].
To be fair they took the safety claim seriously enough and scraped
off all the loose gravel.

Brendan

[1] It *is* a flood meadow, and it taught me quite a lot about how
deep water can be and still be cyclable. Much above the bottom
bracket, though, and you're likely to end up walking out.
--
Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147
http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html

On 4 Jun, 20:10, Peter Scandrett wrote:

On the way out I spotted on the doors "No cycles, skateboards, something
else or heelys" under the "No dogs (except guide dogs)" bit but even so
I think I'd still have interpreted it as "No bikes to be ridden" rather
than "No bikes to be walked". It seems a bit daft to me.

So I wonder if they ban skateboards and heelys when carried too? Do
any of the shops sell such items?

"Peter Scandrett" wrote in message
...
SNIP
Also, while I'm here, is anyone from Wigan around? The gates and barriers
on the Leeds/Liverpool canal as it rises up the 21 locks from Wigan pier
are horrible - they're supposed to allow you to push your bike through but
in practice snarl your gears and pannier and it's easier to walk the bike
through the pedestrian bit on its back wheel or lift it over instead.
Totally horrible (but then I hate these sort of things anyway)... at least
near the Top Lock they changed style to the more familiar 'pinch point'
bike passageway which are miles better (for me, anyway).


Did the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Easter and have to admit that between
Liverpool and just past Wigan the various "gates" are terrible. I lifted my
bike over as I got fed up with trying to negotiate the different gates.

The Yorkshire end is less of a problem as some of them are just like garden
gates to keep the sheep from roaming?.

Get past Skipton and there are very few obstacles of that nature.

Dave