It's walking and I'm balking - X

Lawless on scooters

I guess there are two things that are my bugbears when I go out on my walks, the first that has become both a menace and a nuisance on our streets and especially on our pavements are the electric scooters or e-scooters, that are left strewn about the place abandoned by riders very much in the ilk of car drivers who discard their banana skins out of the windows are part of the problem.

Sadly, the traffic laws have not kept up with the invasion of these vehicles has allowed impunity to reign in their usage. They whizz by at speed completely oblivious of pedestrians who are almost always startled by the event, the riders do not even care to have a view of what they have done, you would think the things have no brakes.

Bad behaviour about

The other day, one just came out of nowhere and passed in front of me, there was hardy a foot distance between us, I felt the air turbulence on my face. Had I been slightly faster, I would have been knocked down by someone travelling at over 40 kilometres an hour on a pavement, when there is a clearly delineated cycle lane on the same road. It makes going out for a walk a dangerous exercise because careless and carefree people have become the kings of the pavement.

Then it is dogs, dogs out of the control of their owners that scurry or run into your path sometimes snarling and not reacting to the calls of their owners who after that encounter cannot apologise for the behaviour of their canine companions. It should not be lost on anyone that canine behaviour reflects the handler.

Just a second of terror

I sometimes wish when the dog approaches, I momentarily shapeshift and transmogrify into blood thirsty lion just for a split second that it cannot be captured, but effective enough to put the fear of all creation in the dog and the handler, just the change from snarling to whimpering would be a great pleasure and moderator. I need those powers.

On other paths, it is owners that do not have the civic responsibility of cleaning up after their dogs, there are fines for this, but they need to be caught. Maybe one last thing is cars that park on pedestrian crossings, the right of way is for pedestrians first and then it is an inconvenience for wheelchair user because there is a ramp from the pavement onto the road that is blocked off. Such people should receive heftier parking fines. I see this too many times that I wonder, does the council really care about this?