Sharing pavements with cyclists and scooters is frightening

But one thing is far more lethal than the other

They're supposed to be speed limited to 12km/hr where I am plus helmets. I've not seen one going that slowly.

We've had one weaving over two lanes of traffic, blissfully uncaring that all cars were having to drive slower behind them. Or the one that zipped across the road meters in front of me, wearing all black. I barely saw them & had to brake, hard. Or DS nearly being wiped out on our holiday on the busy beach Esplanade as teens on rentals flew along the path. I refuse to go there again now. Or the teen who has been charged with manslaughter in my suburb because he hit someone who blazed across the road in front of him!

I believe you should have to have age restrictions, licences and a full set of road rules, like cars & other motorised vehicles.

I've only seen one unicycle rider here - but he seems very respectful & careful & an example of how useful these craft can be.

( I don't think cycles belong on pavement)

Buy If you are in favor of cyclists on roads , would you be happy to have no pavement and walk on roads ? Because the risk to you from cyclists is far less than the risk to a cyclist from a car

We need to encourage cycling /( health and climate change )that means less space and speed for cars in our cities

Unfortunately cycle bells aren't great - I can't hear them when there is other noise going on (and no I never use headphones outside the house as too dangerous).
Although one advantage of having such crap pavements near us is that you don't get a lot of cyclists

We don't have cycle lanes and our pavements are quite old and narrow. As a pedestrian, I use a double pram and I'm constantly having furious cyclists repeatedly ring their bell at me, when there's nowhere for me to go.

As a driver, the electronic scooters are a menace. Pulling out without bothering to look, just relying on your stopping. Not using lights at night. And the kids that own them literally stop traffic doing wheelies in the middle of the road.

At side roads it’s better for the parent to be on the road: you’ve more visibility and are more visible to drivers, so can tell your child/ren when to cross. I did this for years, it isn’t appropriate for adults to cycle on most pavements.

I’m completely & totally in favour of cyclists on roads.

I don't think it's good enough to take an inappropriate pavement that's too narrow, too many obstructions etc and say "hey presto, we've designated this as a shared space" and then pretend everything is fine. They need to be designed properly with safety in mind.

My child was knocked over by a cyclist going way too fast on a shared use path. I wrote to so many people - council and various mps to say I didn’t think this particular shared use path (gets very busy at weekends) was working. But I got absolutely nowhere. The replies were among the lines of “we have to encourage healthy modes of transportation and also to improve the environment” so they just see it as the pedestrians safety is not the priority

Unless it's a shared pavement they shouldn't be on it. I've lost count of the times an e scooter or cyclist has been coming along the pavement towards me and lo and I've had to point out they need to get on the road. Adults 🙄

Cyclists go on the pavement to avoid cars and that leaves pedestrians with nowhere to go

i am a big believer in public transport A buses in particular. Concentrating on cycling at all costs does not help the elderly and infirm or disabled people.

I don’t drive and took dc to school by bus. I then went straight on to work and cycling just wasn’t practical. Yet the message seems to be we all need to be cycling everywhere. It’s such limited thinking

People can be bothered about more than one thing at a time.

Surely you should be more bothered by the car drivers that kill and injure people every day.

Where I live there at no designated cycle paths either on the pavement or the roads but get cyclists riding on pavements which are already narrowed by parked cars.
And mobility scooters can be a nuisance here as well - most are fine but there are a few near here who travel at maximum speed.

CirreltheSquirrel· Today 05:59

I am a cyclist and inconsiderate cyclists on pavements annoy me. I will use shared use paths, but I always ride sensibly and I hate the fact that people lump all cyclists together and assume we're all idiots which creates a hostile environment and makes cycling less safe for those of us who do ride sensibly.

I couldn't have put that better myself.

That said, I rarely use some shared paths, because they're too busy with pedestrians, but on the quieter ones, if I'm approaching people on foot, I'll ding the bell (as per Highway Code) and shout "Coming past!" and give a cheery "Thank you!" as I go by.

I rarely have a problem.

I also move left on roads, if cars are coming and wave them past, although in the last couple of years, most seem reluctant. I get the odd bellend shouting insults, but nowhere near as much as 20 years ago.

The thing with pedestrians is that you don't pass a test to be allowed to use a pavement. There are no disabilities that prohibit you from using one (though I have seen posters claim visually impaired people should be banned from shared spaces). It's all ages and you aren't even required to be sober.

If you're going to cycle with pedestrians you've got to take that into account and cycle appropriately and be prepared to dismount where necessary.

I am a cyclist and inconsiderate cyclists on pavements annoy me. I will use shared use paths, but I always ride sensibly and I hate the fact that people lump all cyclists together and assume we're all idiots which creates a hostile environment and makes cycling less safe for those of us who do ride sensibly.

Our town has an e scooter trial and then dropped it because people got hurt and the scooters were left everywhere.

But I do think it was shortsighted. The same town wants us to stop using cars. So they clearly need to invest heavily in creating car free paths for ebikes and scooters. But instead they do short term policies that typically increase car use, like putting up parking fees so people choose to drive for longer to get to the out of town shopping centre

people moan about cyclists on roads, and about cyclists on pavements. Given that most of the country is unlike London or big cities and doesn't have a cycling infrastructure, where do people think the cyclists should go?

I agree with the OP, they shouldn't ride on pavements but use the road BTW but that triggers regular posts about cyclists blocking the road too... just wondering what the general consus is.

no it is meant for sharing
it is a sustrans route

Cyclists who demand to speed along shared-use paths without making way for pedestrians are exactly the same mindset as drivers who expect to speed along roads without care for cyclists. The rule is, or should be, take care of the most vulnerable road users. If I'm cycling on a shared path and there are young kids or animals who are hard to corral into the right lane, I slow down and often get off the bike and walk it past. Same if I can't get past someone without leaving lots of space. It feels more polite to say 'excuse me' when you're moving at the same speed and at the same height, get past the person, then get back on. Cyclists who speed through red lights and cycle on pavements make it worse for the rest of us (I'm often the only cyclist on the actual road in my town and I'm sure drivers resent me for it).

Sounds like the sort of street which could do with the woonerf (living street) concept. Ditch the concept of seperate footpaths and carriageways, the whole street becomes a shared space. Parking only in marked bays and trees etc. planted to provide obstacles that slow cars down to walking pace.

Never see anyone cycling on a pavement around here. It would be a bit difficult with all of the cars blocking it.

E-scooters are illegal to ride around here (except on private land, and let's face it how many people own that much paved land?). So by definition anyone riding one around here is someone who doesn't give a shit about the law or other people. You should see the amount of entitlement on display when they are told that they can't bring them on trains. No surprises then that they're mostly ridden by drug dealers and assorted yobs.

I actually support the OP as a regular cyclist, that bikes should be segregated from pedestrians, and shared use paths are the spawn of the devil, but the fact the roads are dangerous is kind of relevant to the discussion. A lot of what people think are ‘pavements’ are actually designated as shared use paths, and regularly you get anti cyclist frothing saying ‘there’s a perfectly good cycle path there’ pointing to essentially pavement with a blue bike sign on it, and when cyclists protest that shared use paths are not suitable they get more aggro from drivers for not immediately jumping out of the road onto the pavement. Maybe if more pedestrians who also drive would stick up for cyclists using the road in these discussions it would shut down the hatred and make the world safer for everyone.

It’s very rare on a cycle bashing thread for someone to just pipe up and say ‘I don’t cycle but people have an absolute right to ride their bike on the road and we should all support them to do this as per the Highway Code by making the space safe for them and treating them with respect’. Maybe then people wouldn’t need to ‘feel safe on the pavement’. FWIW Dutch style cycle lanes are the way forward but until as a wider population we can ditch cars for more trips to soak up losing a ‘car’ lane it’s more and more space given over to vehicle congestion and everyone else fighting over 4ft of pavement. I will say that on Dutch and Belgian shared use paths you you don’t get issues with bikes and walkers nearly so much, from both hundreds of personal miles and local friends living there full time. People tend to rides on the right and walks on the left (towards bike traffic) as if it was a road, and everyone seems aware of each other rather than headphones in staring at their phone meandering left to right. Here it’s all groups spread all over walking with a dog on a flexi lead, bikes and e-scooters who can’t stick to a side and it’s all one hot mess.

Pedestrians and cyclists would be constantly crossing the road to get to their correct side. We have an off-road bike lane near me, on one side. I use it when cycling into town, but not when cycling back, as I'd have to cross the road to get to it and cross back when it ends, and it's only a couple of hundred yards long, so not worth the trouble.

Also, as an occasional cyclist, cycle lanes on pavements are a bloody pain - wherever they cross a side street you have to check for traffic and give way, and there needs to be a dropped kerb where you cross. Cycling in the road is much more straightforward.