Father of toddler who lost finger after getting it stuck in drivetrain brands dockless hire bikes a "menace"

I am hardly an uncritical advocate of these hire bikes, it's a rare Sunday morning walk to get breakfast that I don't have to move three or four off the pavement to leave room for wheelchair users, buggies et cetera, in the space of the half a mile down to the café and those who use them are often pretty dangerous riders, particularly after closing time. Honestly though, this is the sort of complaint that we used to laugh at litigious Americans about, "I got scalded by hot coffee and there was nothing on the cup to tell me it was hot" and so forth. When I've taken a one-year-old out in public I would not let go of their hand/reins for a second on any account, if you let them toddle off they are bound to find some novel way of doing themselves damage. This is 100% on the parents and frankly it's a damned cheek for them to expect an insurance payout to make up for their lack of due care.

Actively looking for excuses to ban them.

If we are looking at risk to children then cars should immediately be banned.

Yes, there are issues with the scooters, but I have seen lots of claims about them blocking pavements etc that ignore:

1. Cars are worse; At least a hire bike(/scooter/etc) that is obstructive can be moved by 90+% of the population. An obstructive car can only be moved by the owner...

2. Cases of people deliberately moving them to obstruct so they can complain (yes, this happens) or moving them because they want to park a car - leave a hire bike in a legal parking spot and if remotely busy a driver will have moved it within a few hours. Because clearly there right to park a car is more important...

3. Lack of any sensible provision for parking bicycles.

Yes, we should probably legislate, but if we are legislating then it needs to apply to ALL vehicles. Make the owner liable for any obstruction; Automatic assumption of £xxx + reasonable court fees if disputed.

Allow the pedestrian to claim based on the vehicle being on the footway (or cyclists for mandatory cycle lanes), with an active defence that it was possible for the pedestrian to pass without leaving footway (inc wheelchairs).

I expect you could allow a process similar to SJPN for speeding etc to keep it cheap on court costs (at the end of the day, a photo of a car blocking the footway is unlikely to be significantly disputable...)

That's a nasty little underhand video.

Dumps me into Instagram on an attempted second viewing.

And why does it include a shot of an E-scooter at random in the middle?

There are very many things wrong with the infestation of these bike-like things on London's streets, not least that whatever the operators say they couldn't care less that they're regularly left blocking pavements, cycle lanes and roads. I'd like them to be a lot more tightly regulated and for enforcement to make a meaningful dent in the providers' pockets. 

I can't see though that they should be held responsible for parents not properly looking after their one-year-old though. Kids that age will stick their fingers in anything that interests them, and literally anything might interest them. A fairly big subset of "anything" can cause them harm, so parents need to keep focussed. This shouldn't be surprising news to the parents. 

When my children were one year old they were barely walking and when they did they were on reins. They certainly  weren't  left to wander across pavements and start playing around with Bikes. These days it's always somebody else's fault, no parental responsibility. 

I'd say that hire bikes and scooters that are parked on pavements are often a menace. There should be specific parking bays for them on the road instead so that they're not trip hazards for pedestrians.

I don't agree with child-proofing everything outside of a home though - it makes more sense for parents to be aware of dangers. Personally though, I'd say that a bike's chain is far less dangerous for an unattended child than is a nearby road with traffic.

So many questions.

How do you break a chain with scissors? Adrenaline mom strength?

Did the assist motor somehow kick in even though the bike is not being used?

Is there something about these bikes that makes it so you can't free a finger by turning either the crank or the rear wheel? Coaster brake maybe?

This little darling spent some time spinning the MKS pedal on my Brompton while I had a beer. I understand, the bearings are so, so good that I sometimes do it myself. That's her dad (I assumed) standing behind her watching while playing on his phone. She came back several times for more spins, and when dad was with her he would just watch. When mom came with her she would hurriedly move her away from my bike.

Hope no-one tells the parents about cars.

Bad this sick menace.

(of unaccompanied children and their feckless parents).

"I don't like dockless bikes because..."
"OK.."
"My child got their finger caught in the drivetrain"
"OK.."
"When I was not paying attention to what they were doing".
"Umm...".

How many other things are a menace in the public realm because they can injure a one year old child left to their own devices? Has this person ever complained about the five deaths a day on UK streets? It's caused by people "in control" of those things with four wheels, not dockless rental bikes. Crikey, that child could have severely injured themselves falling off that ledge in the photo, never mind the bicycle.