Stopping smoking near cycle racks?

[661-Pete]

Has anyone made any attempt to bring this about?

I ask because I have a local issue - it concerns a fast food outlet (in this case KFC - but it could be any of them) which backs onto a set of racks which I regularly use. It's not much fun locking up or unlocking, or loading panniers, whilst their staff are loitering close by, on their 'smoking breaks', puffing away like dragons...

I suppose I could send an E-mail to KFC head office or whatever...

[Cyril Haearn]

You like kfc? I prefer McD

Smoking is much more restricted now but there is still too much of it, grrr, on the train station for example or when driving
I do not bother challenging smokers, one never knows if they might get aggressive

Over time there will be fewer smokers

Maybe cyclists and smokers have things in common: small groups with little power

[backnotes]

Our local hospital has several cycle paths that pass through its boundaries. The hospital is a non -smoking site, so smokers congregate on the cycle paths just beyond hospital limits. This includes staff in scrubs, and patients in dressing gowns with drips on stands. These areas get quite tricky to negotiate by bike, and you also get to cycle through a fug of secondary smoke. If people want to smoke, that's fine, but it would be good if planners took this into account and created spaces that make somewhere other than the middle of a cycle path the natural place to go for a quick smoke immediately beyond the hospital grounds.

Years ago I was entertained by an official printed sign at a different hospital prohibiting smoking in an area and informing people that the nearest smoking area was "adjacent to the morgue".

[[XAP]Bob]

I really don't agree with making hospitals no smoking sites.

I am vehemently anti-smoking, smoke in even trace quantities makes me nauseous, no I really don't like being around people who have smoked in the last few hours...

However... a person at a hospital is likely to be in a high enough stress situation as it is. Preventing them from taking the drug which they, legally, use on a regular basis seems to be a particularly cruel and unusual punishment.

I would fully support proper smoking shelters - and a rigorously enforced ban everywhere else.
Smoking shelters would be pretty much enclosed, with a tall (if thin) chimney, and slight active ventilation to get all that secondary smoke to somewhere several metres above the top of the hospital building to be dispersed in the wind.

As it is at my local hospital there are always about 4-5 groups of people in the entrance way meaning that you can't access the hospital without passing through a cloud of smoke - despite the very large no smoking notices, and the speakers which constantly ask people not to smoke...

Give people somewhere to smoke that is sensible, otherwise you'll just congregate them on the edge of your 'no smoking' zone, and the clouds will roll back in.

[661-Pete]

Interesting point about hospitals.

This must have happened back in 2002, when my mother was ill in hospital (terminally, as it turned out ). I.e., before the legislation came into force. I happened to be in the company of her physiotherapist as we were walking through the hospital entrance, past the cluster of smokers - expectant mothers amongst them - congregated just outside. The physio didn't mince her words. Speaking to me, she said something like "If I had my way, all those women would be given abortions. They're irreparably damaging their unborn babies..."

I think I mumbled something in assent. I wouldn't have put it quite as strongly as that!

[mjr]

Has anyone made any attempt to bring this about?

I ask because I have a local issue - it concerns a fast food outlet (in this case KFC - but it could be any of them) which backs onto a set of racks which I regularly use. It's not much fun locking up or unlocking, or loading panniers, whilst their staff are loitering close by, on their 'smoking breaks', puffing away like dragons...

I suppose I could send an E-mail to KFC head office or whatever...

A couple of places nearby have put up smoking shelters nearby and the smokers then seem to prefer the ones without the pesky bikes in the way. It's important for the smoking shelter to have a bus-shelter-style bench, else some will prefer the bike one because they can lean on the parking stands.

I'm not aware of anyone forcing outdoor bike shelters to become no-smoking areas, except for those in hospital grounds, although we have too few bike shelters in our borough because a past police Secure By Design officer had a thing about bike shelters being attractive to thieves but he liked those awful streetpod things which you can't lock most types of practical bike in, so he was clearly wrong

[ambodach]

When I had a long stay in hospital ( the old Glasgow Western) about 35 years ago smoking was permitted in the television room.
I swear the tar on the walls was about an inch thick and the atmosphere was indescribable to a non smoker at least. I never watched tv. Some radio therapy patients were allowed out for walks between doses followed by shouts from the nurses to stay out of the pubs. I am sure the pubs in Byers Road were the main attraction for getting out.

[mumbojumbo]

Posts: 7076
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Contact: Contact 661-Pete
Stopping smoking near cycle racks?
Unread postby 661-Pete » 4 Sep 2018, 11:03am

Has anyone made any attempt to bring this about?

I ask because I have a local issue - it concerns a fast food outlet (in this case KFC - but it could be any of them) which backs onto a set of racks which I regularly use. It's not much fun locking up or unlocking, or loading panniers, whilst their staff are loitering close by, on their 'smoking breaks', puffing away like dragons...

I suppose I could send an E-mail to KFC head office or whatever...
Pete

I think if I had been sweating in a fast food outlet,and some stranger objected to my smoking,I would probably feel rather angry-angry that this person chose to loiter in a public place despite finding smoke unacceptable.I would also feel this person was a little perverse.If I received an email I would delete it at once.

[Cyril Haearn]

Posts: 7076
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Contact: Contact 661-Pete
Stopping smoking near cycle racks?
Unread postby 661-Pete » 4 Sep 2018, 11:03am

Has anyone made any attempt to bring this about?

I ask because I have a local issue - it concerns a fast food outlet (in this case KFC - but it could be any of them) which backs onto a set of racks which I regularly use. It's not much fun locking up or unlocking, or loading panniers, whilst their staff are loitering close by, on their 'smoking breaks', puffing away like dragons...

I suppose I could send an E-mail to KFC head office or whatever...
Pete

I think if I had been sweating in a fast food outlet,and some stranger objected to my smoking,I would probably feel rather angry-angry that this person chose to loiter in a public place despite finding smoke unacceptable.I would also feel this person was a little perverse.If I received an email I would delete it at once.

Then I would stop eating at KFC minus €€€!
It is not nice to see staff smoking before going back to preparing food. They should be kept out of sight I think

[mumbojumbo]

I dont eat fast food full stop-excepting cod and chips.I certainly never loiter near cycle racks =its what thieves do.

[Cyril Haearn]

I often loiter near the cycle racks at the station if I have time to spare
One could write a poem using the names of the machines

Far fewer people smoke now anyway, and the numbers should decline further, +1

[pete75]

Isn't a cycle rack a type of bike shed? Behind the bike shed is a traditional smoking place.

[Cyril Haearn]

It *was* a smoking place when I was at school many years ago

I think people taking a break to enjoy a cigarette should do it out of our sight and out of our smell
Used to be much much worse not many years ago, that is easy to forget

Anyone here smoke?

[Mike Sales]

My sister tells a story of a patient on her ward who was confined to bed but prevailed upon a nurse to wheel her to the open air to smoke. She was forgotten for a couple of hours.

[Mike Sales]

When I was in hospital fifty years ago bedbound patients, but not visitors, were allowed to smoke on the ward.
I remember two visitors keeping watch for each other.
I had tobacco with an extra ingredient brought in for myself.
Those were the days.