Cycles and scooters and slides in odd places!

Arriving at Pontevedra bus station the other day, we were rather amazed and amused to see a bloke ride his bike up the ramp, the one that surely is intended to make it easy for travellers to get their wheeled suitcases up into the bus station. Up he went and then he calmly continued riding in the interior.

Not long after that I saw one of the employees from the Entre Sartenes cafe get his bike out of a storeroom and ride off through the main area of the station and presumably down the ramp. I suppose it’s a logical extension of riding your bike on the pavement around the city.

And then I have also seen someone on one of those electric scooters ride in through the door of our flats and up the ramp towards the area where the lifts are situated. It’s a different way of looking at the world.

The city of Bruges has taken a stand against electric scooters, which they don’t think go well with their cobbled streets. The mayor, Dirk De Fauw said, “It is not right for our city. We have the cobblestones and those kind of vehicles are not prepared for that kind of street. One of the companies said that they have a special kind of scooter with larger wheels and that could work on the cobblestones. We have said that they could lend us a scooter for us to test for a week but, really, we don’t think it is for us.”

City authorities feared riders toppling over Lovers Bridge, causing chaos under the Belfry or colliding with the swans and tourists by the Beguinage, the 13th-century closed garden once inhabited by single women or widows devoted to God.


So, despite months of negotiations the scooter-hire companies are not going to be able to set up in Bruges.

This is the situation of E-scooters in various other countries:-

UK: Riding an e-scooter on the pavement is an offence against the Highway Act of 1835. Riding one on the road is an offence against the Road Traffic Act 1988 unless you have a driving licence, insurance, helmet, road tax and a registration plate which the DVLA will not provide to “unroadworthy” vehicles such as scooters. 

Paris: A spot fine of €35 (£32) can be levied for bad parking and those those caught riding the pavement will be hit with a €135 (£124) penalty. A speed limit of 20 kilometres per hour (12mph) on the road has been imposed across the French capital.

Shanghai: They are banned from the roads and public pavements. Those infringing for the first time face a fine of 100 yuan (£12). Repeat offenders will have their vehicle impounded and be given a 500 yuan (£58) fine. E-scooters are only allowed to be ridden on private roads, residential estates and some parks.

New York: After holding out against the craze, the state is on the verge of legalising the riding of e-scooters on a road for those aged 16 and above. But local jurisdictions can still prohibit them as New York City currently does.

 Rio de Janeiro: E-scooter companies must provide insurance and helmets to users, the wearing of which is mandatory. The scooters are banned from the Brazilian’s city’s pedestrian areas.

 There you go.

 Pontevedra’s Alameda has a funfair in full swing, big wheel and everything.

Someone must have told the Rev Canon Andy Bryant, of Norwich Cathedral that fairground rides were a good idea for he has set up a helter skelter in the nave of his cathedral. To see a picture go to this link.  He says it’s so that visitors can get a better view of the cathedral’s apparently magnificent roof. He claims he got the idea when visiting the Sistine Chapel in Rome. He said: “I had the slightly risky thought of ‘I know this is amazing, but actually the ceiling at Norwich Cathedral is every bit as wonderful’.”

 I think however that it is a gimmick to get more people into the cathedral, especially as they are charging £2 for people to go up to the “viewing platform”, from which they can admire the roof. This charge will pay for the hire of the helter skelter while any surplus goes into cathedral funds. Now, will those who consider it too risky or beneath their dignity to go down the slide after admiring the architecture be able to go back down the steps? That might be a bit of a problem. And some people are already complaining that the fairground ride stands in front of a fine stained glass window that visitors might want to see in its full glory.

Which just goes to show that you can’t please all the people all the time.