Cyclist blocks street to 'pop into bakery' and becomes internet hit

Over the weekend, Thomas Geffe posted a picture to Twitter of his bicycle parked in the middle of an urban street. On the back he had stuck a sign reading “just popped into the bakers”.

Since being posted at the weekend, the tweet has been liked over 2,000 times.

Geffe, a member of the “good voters of Cologne” political block, had the idea on Saturday morning when he saw a piece of cardboard lying on top of his fridge. He decided to write a typical excuse that cyclists hear from drivers on it and turn it into a protest.

“Politicians aren’t really doing much about this,” Geffe said, adding that the police just tell cyclists that they can still get past the parked cars.

“I wanted to get across the absurdity of common excuses that drivers make when they park in the cycle lane,” he said.

But Geffe's own protest did not lead to a queue of enraged drivers. He said that he only parked his bike in the street to take the photo, then quickly rode away again.