To expect cyclists not to ride on the pavement and not expect pedestrians to move out of their way!

[ophelia275]

I am so sick of having to swerve the pushchair or move out of the way so that some idiot on a bicycle can avoid the traffic by cycling on the pavement and expect me to stand aside with my kids/pushchair/shopping so that they can ride past. Sometimes (when I am not with my kids) I stand firm and don't move out of their way so they have to get off or be patient and wait until I have walked past.

When I was quite heavily pregnant I was walking along and this guy on a bike came zooming up and shouted "move" and just pushed past me. Nob.

Grrr. Hate them!

Pan I hope you don't mind me saying this, but:

1. You're a man
2. You're thoughtful and intelligent
3. You cycle
4. You're a fan of the über-cool Maya Angelou

Therefore:

I think I'm a bit in love with you.

I'm not a thug - I'm a decent person. The cyclist was a cunt. he was perfectly prepared to knock an old lady over.

Maybe he'll think about doing it again.

if you're a cyclist on pavement you should get off and push your bike

I used to live in Holland. There, we cycled on the pavements because pavements were made wide enough to have both pedestrian and cycle paths on them. And at roundabouts, we were kings of the road.

I will only cycle on the roads in this country on my way to off-road cycle tracks, because it isn't safe. That's it really.

MayaAngelCool you can't honestly see from my post and looking at the supplied link that I'm not claiming cyclists are well catered for!?

Maya - it happens.

Nancy - act of violence over which you are boastful. Yep, bit of a thug. Sorry.

Sorry, haven't read whole thread but must just point out local cycling festival. Oooh, doesn't it all sound dynamic and exciting

www.cardiffcyclefestival.co.uk/?portfolio=knitting-for-cyclists

oh gwan, here's the proper link

Oh Jeez, sorry Tyler - got caught out speed-reading your post!

and you are journalist, iirc. Does your thuggishness come out in your writing?

There is just not enough room and good will in England to give cyclists decent cycling lanes.
As have been said before, look at scandinavian countries, and Holland, Germany, Austria, they can do it. Pedestrians are happy, cyclists are happy.
I am talking about big, busy cities.
Crappy countries like France and England just pretend they are doing something, they are, and it is useless, it doesn't work and accidents rates are horrendous, both for cyclists and pedestrians. Still I'm sure the quotas are fine.

I only tolerate children biking on the pavement, the rest can buzz off and wait.
As a pedestrian with DCs I always look out for entitled moron cyclists at crossings, and on pavements.
As a cyclist I respect the highway code and most of the time find drivers reasonable.
As a driver I always look out for a hollier-than-thou- cyclist with a death wish.

All this makes me want to move to Amsterdam and be happy with a funny wooden case for DCs at the front of my bike and big DS safe on cycling lanes.

Pan - I see it as self defence.

I'd do it again.

Mary - that is sooo sweet!

Oh, and, I cycle on pavements.

We cycle through the park into town. There is a stretch of 200 metres between park and bike racks. There are pedestrians and we go really really slowly with them. Sometimes we just push the bikes with our feet, whilst sat in the saddles, to go round people. No bell ringing, no speeding, no pushing people out of their way. If people do stand out of the way, we say "Oh thank you" and go carefully past.

And still people moan and shout "get off your bikes".

Which I find quite rude actually and more to do with their issues about the kinds of cyclist mentioned here, than what we're actually doing.

On that stretch, the roads are definitely not suitable for young children

yes okay Nancy. Unrepentant thug. Get the message.

Idreamof - of course there's not enough room, that's sadly obvious to cyclists. It's nice to dream that one day it might happen, though

Pan - WHAT? You mean to say I'm not the first?!

trending #unrepentant obviously.

Maya.....well.....

I was kind of worried you'd seen the link and thought that was good cycling provision and wondered where on earth you were that things were so much worse.

Even for those who aren't really pro-cyclist, look at the warrington cycle campaign facilities of the month and think of the monumental waste of (your) money that's being spent on this rubbish across the country

But on a sidenote it's important things to remember with the popularity of cycling in Denmark, it is pretty much flat everywhere, you get charged 200% of the cost of a new car in tax (so total cost is car 1/3, tax 2/3). There are reasons beyond the provision of facilities that cycling is popular there. And incidentally, if you do ride on the roads there, car drivers ime are far less considerate than they are in this country.

Love that link, Mary!

Crikey Nancy, that's bad.

marymotherofchese - you need to seek some type of forgiveness for this pavement cycling - it will get you in to great trouble on mn land and you will perish you know - best to just do it and not admitt to it

you need to shout aout silly things like road tax and on ur bike me lado

oh and mayo - yes to the bike ride but i dont like the rain as i tend to melt

Tyler - and I thought you were saying it was good provision simply because of the existence of a cycle lane! Slapped wrist to me - especially as I tend to criticise people who speed-read on MN and leap to the wrong conclusions!

Pan - I'm sorry, I don't take sloppy seconds.

Marymother - it was very bad of him, you're right.....and stop cycling on the bloody pavement.

I'm now quietly chuckling to myself as I look through past facilities of the month and read the comments accompanying them

The dutch don't always get it right!