Originally published at: UK town shopkeepers argue that planned bicycle lane will be a "clear getaway" route for thieves and drug dealers | Boing Boing
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I must be missing something, these “thieves and drug dealers” can use a bicycle to get away regardless of the presence of a bike lane… right?
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Tell me more about your town and why I should visit your lovely shopping district.
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Loss of parking is a legitimate concern. But lets reinforce that concern with fear of thieves and drug dealers
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I recognised Linthorpe Road before I read any of the text 
My university is a street or two back from there. It wasn’t particularly rough but you’d be dodging puke outside kebab shops on a friday night
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A blue path goes into a pub, everyone edges away, they know he is a cycle path.
The locals are known as Smoggies by non-locals (mainly a football thing with the Mackems).
A lot of these bollarded cycle paths have sprung up round my way, they are reasonably well-used and do make life safer for the commuters and Deliveroo/Uber Eats riders on electric cycles.
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Not even that. Shopowners overestimate the number of customers coming by car, and underestimate the numbers coming on foot, by bike or by public transport. People coming by bike or on foot spend more in high street than those who come by car.
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Up next, a very modest proposal that all pedestrians should be hobbled when entering shops so as to prevent them from stealing and running away.
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One worker from The Sleep Centre, a bed and mattress shop, said the cycle lane would be a nightmare for their business, and even went as far to say it would give a “clear getaway” to criminals.
"You see drug peddlers along here all of the time. They [council] are just giving people a getaway. All of the shoplifters that go into Iceland and Tesco and park their bikes outside for a second, run in, take whatever it is, and then they disappear.
“So what’s going to happen here is a clear getaway because there will be bollards so no-one can stop them and the police will have a field day trying to catch them.”
Another person questioned by the website, but who did not want to be named, expressed concern about the lane being used by drug dealers.
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I’d really like to see someone shoplift a mattress with a bicycle. Buy that person a beer.
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Once upon a time, some convenience shops used to keep everything behind the counter and had clerks serve the customers.
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I think the bicycle lane is intended to be used by anyone, no matter their profession. /s
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Hmm, sounds… delightful. And you are quite sure it is not a lawless hellscape? I mean there are bike lanes, right there, in the road! At least it doesn’t look like there are any frozen lakes nearby. I hear those ice-fishing shanties are hot spots for prostitution.
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Weird how owning a bicycle gets you lumped in with drug dealers and shop lifters. 
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Peddles/Pedals. You can see where they started to go wrong.
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When I grew up nearby 'Boro was well known to be full of idiots - all the chemical pollution. Nice to see that things haven’t changed.
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well right now they only have drug drivers and drug walkers. so this is a whole new class of people!
whatever you do, just remember. don’t get started with drugs. it’s a vicious cycle
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One worker at a bed and mattress shop and one person who declined to be named is hardly “UK town shopkeepers”
However, a rather more varied range of opinions (some of them just as asinine, even though different - some of them less so) are represented in the article.
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That was truly awful, well done.
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When I’m in the thieving mood, I search high and low for businesses that have a bike lane directly in front of their establishment so I can get away as fast as possible on my push scooter.
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So wait…are you insinuating I didn’t read an article that I directly sourced a quote from?
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What did I miss? Again, today, Right Now!
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Fair enough I am just basing on my own experience in my local commercial district by my house
Too far to walk from home and free parking that used to be there is now blocked due to reasons. If I want to stop and eat for an hour no worries but if I just want to stop at the butcher or bakery I have to fuck around with paying for parking at a meter or searching.
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