Cyclists have made my home city too stressful to live in any more

Children too?

That's not what I said though.

I said the problem was "poor active travel infrastructure and poor planning."

I have never, ever had a car drive at me on the pavement. Not saying car drivers are perfect but at least they use the bloody roads!

E-bikes that can go at very high speeds are illegal. The police need to be more active in removing them from the roads. This is an issue with people buying illegal motorbikes, not an issue with “cyclists”.

Legal e-bikes have pedal assist capped at 15.5mph (ie it’s not so much that they “go at that speed” but more that it is hard to get them beyond that speed. In practice, as with any bike, it depends how hard you pedal and how fit you are. 15.5mph is slower than most people who are on a lightweight commuting bike.

Of course no one should be cycling at 15.5mph on a pavement, regardless of what kind of bike they are on - again that’s no more a “all cyclist” issue than someone speeding or driving on the pavement is an “all driver” issue.

I agree op.
Pavements are not for bikes. End of.
I too am sick and tired of cyclists riding towards me on narrow, winding pavements or zooming up behind me.
In winter I will be wearing my hat and have my hood up. I won’t be able to hear them at all, can’t hear the electric ones anyway. I shouted at one who neatly ran straight into me.
Get off the pavement.
There is never an excuse for using it.
I’m sure Leeds city council is looking at making it illegal for cyclists to ride on pedestrianised areas. They have had so many complaints from pedestrians who feel it was safer when cars where able to ride about.

You are making this a cyclists thing when it’s an antisocial behaviour thing. I would be Reporting every instant police getting into my local MP or newspaper about this as it sounds awful. But active travel and getting people out of cars is a good thing on so many levels & should be encouraged and applauded.

Cycling on pavements should be banned outright and anyone doing it should face significant jail time.

Ebikes need to be cracked down on as many of them are really powerful and basically like motorcycles.

Cars have to wait for cyclists now, pedestrians have to move out of the way for cyclists - there is an air of entitlement and arrogance that has developed since the law changes

Car have to wait for cyclists but cyclists are meant to give way to pedestrians. Although we have a dedicated cycle path near where I live and it's really irritating when people walk all the way across it, or don't keep their dogs on leads. The clue is in the name "cycle" path.

That was my first thought too. Every time I go out, I can guarantee that at some point I will see a car parked on a pavement which may well force me into the road or I'll have to cross the road. There's a high likelihood that a driver will speed through a red light or fail to give way to me crossing a side road.

And yet people still moan about cyclists? Oh dear. Admittedly they can be a pain in Central London but that is more the delivery guys on e-bikes.

I’m a pedestrian, cyclist and driver (roughly in that order). I also get annoyed by cyclists who ride on pavements. I agree the food delivery ones are the worst - but as PP have noted they often ride illegal e-bikes anyway. Ten years ago they would have been on petrol scooters.

The bike thieves OP saw were definitely not “cyclists.” Obviously actual cyclists despise them. They were thieves who happened to be using bikes to steal other bikes. Using them to tar actual cyclists makes no more sense than saying the thieves who nicked my neighbours’ Land Rover prove that all drivers are bad people.

The solution is better policing and better punishment of those who are caught. Unforgivably the government has decided that neither policing nor courts and prisons are spending priorities.

OP - whilst \i agree with you, you were never going to win on this. The cyclist para militaries will swarm - their rights, cars are worse, pedestrians get in the way - they pay tax etc etc.

nothing excuses the fact - there are more cyclists - not a bad thing
There is a lack of ability to share, the roads, footpaths, pavements with anyone with any sense of decorum or manners from a growing number of cyclists.
As a pedestrian - you used to think you were relatively safe on the pavement - not a chance anymore.
i had to stop walking down a path last week, because the cyclist coming towards me had such a glaring head light on, I could not see at all. I stopped and got a volley of abuse for blocking the path but as the canal was one side and brambles the other I was safer stationary than moving either way. The light blobs in my eyes left me blinded for a few more minutes aswell. Felt v vulnerable.

Cars have to wait for cyclists now, pedestrians have to move out of the way for cyclists - there is an air of entitlement and arrogance that has developed since the law changes.

And the lycra racers. They are a huge problem round here - they are usually doing a timed route and speed, don't stop for pedestrians....they often travel in packs and can be intimidating. On our local next door group I replied to one of these guys in a perfectly friendly way (he asked what people thought of the new cycle lanes and i said it was a pity they had taken out the bus lane to do it) and he became really angry and any time I posted on the site he mocked me, got his friends to join in...it was appalling.

Cambridge is impossible for driving now though, in fairness to cyclists.

But pedestrians do get a raw deal in ‘active travel planning’ as does public transport. At my council they no longer call walking routes safe, they call them available.

If e-bikes reach very high speeds they actually class as motorcycles so riders should be wearing helmets and have a licence and follow other rules about motorcycling. Privately owned electric scooters are illegal to use in public. The control over these forms of transport exists - the question is whether it’s been used by your local police. Neither of these issues are cycling ones.

This:

You don’t mention if there are any cycle routes that are separate from both pedestrians or cyclists. If you don’t have these then that’s a problem with your local council’s transport lead and department. Look up Local Transport Note 1/20 which has design standards for cycle routes - if your council isn’t providing these you need to complain to your ward councillors as inevitably when engineers don’t design for cycling, cyclists will end up on pavements where roads are dangerous, which normalises the behaviour.

Re the e-bikes - some of these may actually be sufficiently powerful to be classed as motorbikes so rider should have a licence and should be wearing a helmet. It’s difficult for the police to deal with as riders can be hurt in any chase, but some forces are doing things such as using drones to track them. You need to speak to your local councillor to ask them to find out from your police liaison what is actually happening in your area.

Cyclists are the victim of bike thefts - they are not the perpetrator but everyone can help with this by only buying second hand bikes from bicycle recycling orgs or trusted sellers.

YABVU because although what you describe is a real problem, you are simply blaming cyclists rather than thinking about the true cause. As a cyclist I am no more responsible for this type of behaviour in the same way that as a driver I hold no responsibility for the actions of the driver that I saw on Friday who drove down a busy shopping street blatantly on his phone. This matters because road safety in this country is poor and if we are going to improve it we need an educated debate about approaches like Vision Zero or the Dutch approach of Sustainable Safety, which separate pedestrians, bicycles, cars and HGVs to cut out the type of conflict you describe. I live in an area where there are regular collisions (including with child victims) - yet whenever my council tries to do anything to improve safety inevitably there are loads of objections based on whataboutery re cyclists or painting motorists as victims or “we’re not Holland”. The massive irony is that if my council actually ignored the objectors and applied Dutch standards it would make both driving and cycling a lot easier (as the Dutch have very high standards of driver satisfaction).

That’s nothing to do with cyclists, in the main. That’s criminals and weak policing.

It’s not even cities where this is happening. I live in a small town and the e cyclists are everywhere, as are the scooters, weaving in and out of traffic, bloody headache. But tractors ( totally expected where I live) they are a menace to society. Cant overtake as they place themselves in the middle of the road, doing 5 mph. They do so sometimes pull over to allow drivers to pass. Sigh!

Cyclists are not the issue, people who don’t care about laws, rules, community etc are the issue.

It sounds like criminals are the issue, I doubt the people stealing bikes with balaclavas on are your traditional cyclists

Cambridge is really not that bad. When it's raining and all those cyclists chose to drive the roads are absolute hell on earth.

Agree with all of this.

It's not an increase in cycling or an improved cycling culture that causes issues for pedestrians at all.

Look at places like Denmark and The Netherlands, where the vast majority of short and routine journeys are made on bikes by people of all ages. Their quality of life and their shared spaces are actively enhanced by increased bike traffic.

Sounds like Amsterdam.

It sounds like anti-social/ criminal gang issues rather than a "cyclist" issue.