Cycling along the Rotten Row cycle path in Hyde park on a crisp winter evening is one of the great pleasures to be had in this city.
At least it was until speed bumps started appearing a couple of weeks ago. These weren’t the usual smooth mounds you encounter on the road, but a series of several cobbled corrugations — unmarked in the dark — which jostled you around no matter how gingerly you rode over them.
So I was amused to see, on my ride home this evening (dry and crisp, but with the ochre sodium-glow in the the sky that a cloudy night casts, rather than the silver-punctured firmament of an anticyclone) that these ridges had been spontaneously uprooted, and their location tarmacked over smooth again.
Too many complaints? A suitably vulnerable cyclist unseated by them into the railings? Or are Westminster City Council / Royal Parks / whoever planted these traps in the first place, planning something more devilish?
Spikes anyone?
Matthew Butt 