Pavements that ask for trouble

Pavements and road surfaces were not something that often occupied my mind in the past.

All that changed, however, when I took up running and cycling. The Trickster commented that yesterday’s blog title made him think the entry was about road surfaces. Which made me realise it was indeed high time I wrote about it.

It may not sound like an exciting subject but if you’ve ever so much as walked along a dubious footpath, now is your chance to vent.

I suppose you could say it’s agility training when you have to dodge potholes and random raised humps as you run along the footpath. However, as I have a fairly remarkable ability to trip over my own feet, it’s just asking for trouble. And uneven surfaces are terribly hard on my Achilles.

Like the Alanis Morissette song, it's ironic, given the amount of foot traffic that uses it, that Wellington's Oriental - Evans Bay Parade is a terrible offender. Around Evans Bay Parade, there’s been a large segment of the pavement missing for about a year. At least the council has gone to the trouble of putting up a "temporary" warning sign, so I suppose I should be grateful.

It’s a good thing there is a warning sign because I’d hate to trip over the edge. The surface of that pavement is not one I would advise getting up close and personal with. It’s gritty, gravelly asphalt, which does not mix well with human skin. I discovered that first hand and finished that run with blood running down my legs. Battle scars, excellent.

Meanwhile the tyres of a road bike are not very wide, which presents its own set of challenges when it comes to road surfaces.

A rough surface – like the Ironman bike route – makes my arms ache for days afterward. Even with the required soft elbows. Something has to absorb the jarring and the bike doesn’t do it. It feels like it takes more energy to ride rough surfaces too.

Although the roads of Wellington are scary, the council seems to maintain them better than they do the footpaths. I only wish they’d extend this to the sorry excuses for cycle lanes. I don’t have the ability to run my skinny road bike wheels over a large stone unless I want to end up skewing my wheel and lying on the road. Nice surface or not, it’s not high on my to-do list.

I even have to be careful with lips on my driveway – that’s enough to throw me off my bike if I don’t approach it at the right angle.

While I can’t blame the latter on the road surface, I do think they have enough to answer for. Maybe I should borrow Ben’s umbrella and go wave it around in the city council offices.

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Picture: Dominion Post