Isle of Wight Observer September 4 1884
To the Editor of the Isle of Wight Observer Sir – Is there any question that the road at the eastern part of the Esplanade and round the Canoe Lake is a public road? I presume not. Yet every afternoon bicyclists may be seen tearing along this public highway at a frantic speed of some twenty miles an hour, as though it were a racecourse. In strange and scant attire (notably one in bathing drawers and sleeveless undershirt, with arms and legs bare) – attire which might well be termed indecent for a place of general resort – these bicyclists go at tiptop speed for hours together round and round that part of the Esplanade and Canoe Lake, utterly regardless, in their headlong course, of all who take their pleasure on these roads, and to the great danger of the very young children, invalids and others, who resort here of an afternoon for healthy air and exercise. Elsewhere the police obtain convictions against cyclists for furious riding when going at no greater speed than ten miles an hour, and magistrates, on conviction, inflict in each case the full penalty, forty shillings. It is high time the police of this borough did their duty by bringing before the magistrates all such offenders against the statute law, and so put a stop to this practice of training on one of our most favourite roads, so fraught as it is with danger to life and limb.
Yours truly,
ANOTHER RATEPAYER
