On Bicycle Ettiquette

[danieldwilliam]

Someone has started chaining their bicycle to the railing of my garden. This irritates me.

My flat is a ground floor main door flat (1). It is on the corner of two roads, one quite large and busy and overlooks a large park. So the garden is quite open to the street and exposed to the elements..  My front garden is rectangular – about 12 meters by 4 metres.  It’s surrouned by a low wall, perhaps half a meter high. On that wall are some railings, again about half a meter high.

The bike is chained to the railings at one corner. Planted in this corner are a large climbing rose (2) and some other climbers. These are damaged slightly, but this could be the wind or people passing by.

It is most likely that the bike belongs to a student who rents one of the flats in the block or a visitor to their flat.

I am wondering what the appropriate response is.  The railings and the plants on them are mine.(3) The bike looks ugly where it is and I fear it is damaging some already vulnerable plants.

Personally, I think chaining your bike to someone else’s garden is rude to the point of unacceptable.

(1) i.e.  it is a flat, in a tenement block but it has its own front door. This is not unusual in Edinburgh but less usual in other places I’ve lived. 

(2) under-peforming and on a performance plan pending its exit from the organisation. Also, it has vicious thorns. 

(3) although NB I live in Scotland so there is no law of criminal tresspass. On balance I think this is a good thing.