A seemingly lovely and useful two-way bicycle lane planned for Middlesbrough, England's shopping district has business owners concerned about the loss of some parking spaces and, er, the possibility that the path could become a "clear getaway" route for shoplifters and drug dealers. From Road.cc:
"You see drug peddlers along here all of the time. They [council] are just giving people a getaway. All of the shoplifters that go into Iceland and Tesco and park their bikes outside for a second, run in, take whatever it is, and then they disappear.
"So what's going to happen here is a clear getaway because there will be bollards so no-one can stop them and the police will have a field day trying to catch them."
Another person questioned by the website, but who did not want to be named, expressed concern about the lane being used by drug dealers.
