Opinion : Reckless cyclists are blighting Wycombe town centre

The other day, on my way home from work, I had just driven over the magnificent Abbey Way flyover and happened to be going around the Oxford Road roundabout and heading up the A40 towards West Wycombe.

The pedestrian traffic lights on the exit of the roundabout turned red, the car in front of me stopped and we waited for the people to cross the road.

Four or five people crossed and to my amazement a youngster on a bike followed them however he had the front wheel up in the air doing what I believe the modern people call a ‘wheelie’.

Following closely behind was another delinquent riding a bicycle in a similar manner across the pedestrian crossing.

As the first cyclist got to the middle island of the crossing something wrong and he started to wobble, the front wheel of the bike came crashing to the ground narrowly missing a baby in a pram whose mother was crossing from the other direction.

I had read about young children riding bikes recklessly in the town centre in an article that recently appeared on the news section of this site entitled ‘Police warn about young cyclists who are taking risks on busy roads‘.

During my lunchtime walks around the town centre yours truly has seen other incidents of youngster riding bikes dangerously, indeed it is becoming a common occurrence especially at school holiday time.

Sadly there are never any policemen around to alert so those causing a menace to others can be caught and given a telling off.

Of course the youngsters know there is very little chance of being caught and even if they were the penalty would be equivalent to being hit in the face with a wet lettuce leaf.

It’s only a matter of time before an innocent person is injured by one of these reckless cyclists. The question is what can be done?

Surely it can’t be too hard for those watching over us through the town’s CCTV to notice the presence of a cyclist and get a law enforcement operative to intercept them?

Personally I would like to see bicycles banned from the pedestrian areas of the town centre completely. Perhaps a ‘no cycling zone’ could be created in the town centre?

Over the years the powers that be have brought in measures to tackle the menace of the drunks who blighted the town centre so now maybe it’s time to take tough action against the young people who think it’s acceptable to ride a bicycle around the town on one wheel.

I just hope yours truly isn’t the first to be injured by one of the rascals on bicycles who are causing havoc in the town centre.

What do you think?

*My next blog will be published on Tuesday evening around 8pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.