An incident on my commute home yesterday got me thinking about etiquette and when to help another cyclist. The valve on my rear tube split at the beginning of the route so in went the spare, which proceeded to develop a huge hole five minutes later – thus I had no option but to stop and get the sandpaper and glue out.
I was stopped on the corner of Balgreen Road and Baird Drive for at least fifteen minutes (first time I have changed a puncture for years, and it required a few goes – I have been quite lucky with my tyres since I swapped the car for a bike seven months ago!). In that time I counted at least twelve other cyclists (possibly more while my head was down) whizzing past me – most of whom looked at me, then quickly moved their gaze away when I caught their eyes.
On several occasions, both commuting and pleasure, I have approached someone changing a tube / fixing a chain etc, and every time I have slowed down to ask if they need a hand or any equipment. I was really amazed that not a single person stopped to offer me help, which I would really have appreciated – in fact the only person who spoke to me was the nice lady whose house I was outside, checking that I was ok, and that I hadn’t hurt myself.
But then, why should they? We have nothing in common other than our chosen form of transport – would you stop to help someone you don’t know who dropped their shopping just because you share a choice of shop? Hopefully, yes – maybe because it is so much more difficult just to walk on in that situation than to cycle on when you are already moving at 10 mph.
So what is the consensus of the forum? Should we offer people help if no-one offers it to us, because it’s the right thing to do, or continue on our way because there are simply too many cyclists in Edinburgh for one puncture to matter?
Apologies if this topic is one of common discussion here, but it has been on the back of my mind all morning, and I thought it was a worthy first post!
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