to tell (adult) cyclists to GET OFF THE PAVEMENT!

[CelticPromise]

On my run last night a man cycled up behind me and passed pretty close. I didn't hear him cos listening to music. I didn't plan to say anything but 'get off the pavement!' just came out of my mouth. He shouted back something about there being no space on the road.

He then waited outside (i presume) his house and asked if I had a problem, to which I said I did with adults cycling on the pavement. He seemed to think that he was perfectly justified in cycling on the pavement because 'there is no space'. This went into a minor slanging match and I just told him to grow up and ran off.

Now I am not proud of shouting and if I could do it over i'd apologise for that and quietly point out that what he was doing is illegal and dangerous. But AIBU to say something? Has is become acceptable to cycle on pavements? Am I in the wrong?

Teddy I agree that cycling should be made safer. The question is what cyclists should do until that happens. Your suggestion is that they should be entitled to break the law and put pedestrians at risk. My suggestion is that they should find some other mode of transport until the roads are safe enough for them.

And frankly, a lot of the pavement-cycling that I see is on quiet residential roads, where there would be hardly any danger to a cyclist on the road anyway.

Swoosh, Some places are not safe enough to cycle in. Sometimes things are too far away to walk to. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to cycle somewhere where it is not safe to cycle. If pedestrians and cyclists can share paths in so many other countries, I don't understand why British pedestrians cannot share and be a bit more considerate of others. Especially when cycling instead of driving is beneficial to everyone, which includes pedestrians.

that's not the bit i was arguing about!

"you can cycle along a pavement if the road is busy and you would cause problems on the road and if you come to pedestrians then you must be careful."
that bit.
you may not cycle on a pavement if the road is busy - if you aren't able to cycle on the road then walk with your bike on the pavement.

that sentence pretty much says that it's a footpath by a road.

If cyclists stop cycling and use other modes of transport instead, then there is no longer any pressure to change the law, which is what is required before there will be parliament time made for this debate.

Because the pavements here aren't wide enough, Teddy!

the waterways own the tow paths along side many canals - you can check with the waters ways which parts of the tow path you are allowed to cycle along and which they refuse you permsission to cycle along, they will give you the bridge numbers you can and can't cycle along, as the bridges are all numbered it is easy to work out. Some tow paths you need a permit to be able to cycle.

Oh yes why can?t pedestrian be more considerate????????????????????????

I have never come across a pavement which is too narrow for 2 buggies to pass each other, and a bike is narrower than a buggy. There is usually more than enough space if people are willing to communicate and help each other out.

Teddy bare with all due repect you are talking through your %&*.

I take it you cycle on the pavement from time to time? So irritating when those nasty pedestrians get in ones way.

even on towpaths there are rules to obey that give pedestrians priority.

that's what the legislation states from 1999, so you don't like it? What do you want me to say?

Yes, and bikes travel at greater speed then buggies. Why are you determind to make out that the pedestrian are the baddies?

Bizarre.

TeddyBare - try Smith street, Warwick, not only is the pavement to narrow if you do meet a buggy you have to reverse as the cars are legally parked and you can't cross the road either!

teddy - re you a driver?
if you are, then you must be aware that a car is supposed to give an entire car's width to pass a cycle.
if you extend the same logic (that speed means you need a bigger space to pass by) then a pavement must be at least 3 cycles' width (and cycles are as wide as the handlebars, or the arse of the cyclist, whichever is bigger, not as wide as the wheels)
but pavements only need to be a metre wide, because that's the maximum needed by a wheelchair.

nickel - and rightly so of course the rules are there - to protect pedestrians on the tow path - but it means that you can cycle on the tow path

Teddy Bare, with respect, you would need pavements that are wide enough to accommodate bikes on one side and enough space for a double buggy or a wheelchair on the other side for your suggestion to work. It would also be very hard and stressful for parents to keep young DCs, who tend to enjoy zigzagging all over the pavement, on the correct side.

LadyClarice

Teddy I don't want to cycle on the pavement. I am happy and confident cycling on the road in most places, and on those uncommon occasions when I am not, I walk my bike on the pavement. I would like more driver education on how to behave around bikes, not more separation.

I have RAGE just reading this.

Nothing pisses me off more than a grown adult cycling down the pavement or through a green man - you know the places where my young children are ment to be relatively safe!!! If you can't handle cycling on the road, get the bus.

GET THE FUCK OFF THE PAVEMENT and while I'm at it DON'T CYCLE THROUGH GREEN MEN you total CUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't count the time I've had cyclists swerve around me, toddler and buggy!!!! My friends Mum actually died after being hit by a cyclist on a zebra crossing (though fantastically she was subsequently revived by medics and saved)

One day I will sit at the intersection by my home and throw eggs at cyclists going through green men or cycling on the pavement until I am arrested.

OP YANBU - I do this all the time (though not to the junkie/dealer looking chaps as DP fears I will get attacked by them)

(Disclaimer: I am a cyclist as well as a parent)

Actually I live within a 5 minute walk of work, the shops I need and the train station, so I walk walk everywhere Since the dcs I haven't even been on my bike, on the road or the pavement.
I simply don't understand this (English?) mindset that cyclists are to be hated and we should force them all to be at risk. I accept that I haven't seen all of the pavements in the UK. I live in Wales and don't know England especially well. But in my town there is space to pass other people, with buggies, wheelchairs, or bikes if you're considerate to the needs of others. I don't understand what the problem with that is.

well Teddy I live in London and it is a HUGE problem here!!!!!!!!!!

I doubt a small child is going to come off very well after being hit by a bicycle even at low speed (referring to an earlier comment you made). Seriously, I don't ever want to find out.

As a cyclist (and one who cycles on the shared footpath / cyclepath to work) I agree. Drives me mad when people cycle randomly on the pavement (have to say that round here it is almost always teenagers). If you aren't confident cycling properly, then don't do it!

It doesn't sound like you've seen all that many pavements Teddy.

Pavements near me are nowhere near as wide as you describe. If a cyclist is cycling then a pedestrian has to step aside, or get hurt.

you may cycle on the tow path, yes.

How could I not mention when I was run over by a cyclist - I took one step out of a shop and was hit by a 12 year old on a big bike at high speed - on a busy high street. That was 17 years ago - my leg is still fucked & I will probably have issues with it all my life! Guess what - the cyclist just jumped up, untangled me from the bike and went home. I was too stunned to even ask for his name.