AIBU re cyclist on pavement/cyclist going wrong way down one-way lane?

[blueberryporridge]

Just wondering, genuinely, if IWBU (I know I was a bit assertive) and also WWYD next?

Background (sorry, a bit lengthy): we live on a short stretch of narrow lane off a busy main road. The lane is one-way due to its width, and the direction of the one-way is because drivers coming off the main road are faced with a blind corner so, if anyone is on the road coming in the wrong direction, a car turning into the lane would be at great risk of colliding with him/her. Despite this, cyclists regularly cycle at speed the wrong way up the lane to join the main road. I always slow right down when turning into the lane in the car as I know there is a good chance there will be a cyclist (or a few of them) coming up the wrong way. There is a narrow pavement on one side of the lane (which is on our house's side of the lane and passes in front of our driveway).

Anyway, today, driving home at teatime rush, I was just about to turn into our driveway when I saw a cyclist heading up the lane in the wrong direction and just coming up to our drive. I normally stop to let any pedestrians past before I turn into our drive, but I must admit I was slightly fed-up by yet another cyclist heading in the wrong direction, and turned the car into the driveway making him stop. I also (and wouldn't normally do this but was feeling a bit exasperated after a hard week at work) rolled down my window and said "it's one-way". I noticed in passing at that point that the cyclist was actually on the pavement rather than on the road itself.

Cyclist proceeded to continue up the lane against the one-way flow, then turned round to come back and shout at me that he had been cycling on the pavement, not the road, and therefore it didn't matter what direction he had been heading in. I said that I felt it was inconsiderate and potentially dangerous to be cycling on the pavement, thinking of small DC or elderly mother possibly stepping out of our driveway unable to see cyclist about to whizz past our gate, and being knocked over. (Due to neighbour's mature trees, shrubs etc, visibility when coming out of our driveway (in the car or on foot) is not great.)

I also said that he shouldn't be cycling up the lane in the wrong direction due to the danger of the junction, and that approaching it on the narrow pavement wasn't any safer for him and made it more hazardous for pedestrians coming round the corner on the pavement.

He then told me that I didn't know anything about cycling. I explained that I do cycle quite a bit (well, I used to in my younger days) at which point he looked me up and down and said "I doubt it". (Obviously doesn't think I'd look good in black lycra, which is, unfortunately, correct....) He then went on to say that there was absolutely nothing in the Highway Code to say that cyclists couldn't cycle on pavements, and that he would be continuing to do this when he cycles home up our lane (in the wrong direction) every evening.

Well, I've checked up my Highway Code since and see, as I thought, that it states quite categorically that cyclists must not cycle on pavements. (It also contravenes a certain paragraph of the Road Traffic Act whose reference details I can't remember just now.)

So (1) WasIBU to tell him he shouldn't be cycling the wrong way up a narrow one-way lane with a blind junction and (2) that he shouldn't be cycling on the pavement?

And (3) Would IBU to print out a copy of the relevant Highway Code and legal paragraphs and hand them to him the next time he whizzes along the pavement in front of our house?

Or is it none of my business (unless, of course, I end up knocking the down or being knocked down by him as I come out my gate on foot one evening?

You jest, Gemma, but I saw this the other day. Woman on bike, dog tied to handlebars, both enthusiastically speeding along the pavement. Pedestrians agog.

It's as though there's been a collective brain-rot.

Road tax is irrelevant because under current legislation no emission vehicles don't pay tax however they are powered.

However this cyclist clearly wasn't aware of the law. It doesn't make it easy for other cyclists when grown ups get on a bike without being familiar with the rules of the road and allow their children to do the same. When was this man going to read the Highway Code? When he ended up in court? Frankly the OP did him a favour.

flipflops - I've seen it too! On the road. Really risky for the poor bloody dog.

Have also seen it on the road Irian, and felt so sorry for the dog.

Almost certainly not, pan :)

I really did feel sorry for it, the traffic was horrible and it was struggling.

FlipFlops the whole point of cycling is to offset the onset of perambulation as long as possible. Disability is not an automatic consequence of ageing, and while proper exercise is not an automatic guarantee of avoiding disability, one thing it is almost certain to do is to equip you with a mindset along with a healthy blood supply that will hopefully assist you with whatever ailments come your way.

hth

"FlipFlops the whole point of cycling is to offset the onset of perambulation as long as possible"

What does that mean? What constitues 'proper' excercise.

Isn't the whole point of cycling to get from one place to another?

I can't wait to meet Chelsy when she's 85, ha ha!

So, having wandering toddlers can be cured by: cycling!
On crutches? Forget that, just get on a bike!
Had an operation? You know what you want to do!
Alzheimers? Get into Lycra!

People will go to amazing lengths to justify pavement cycling, bloody hell.

For the record I am a slim, fit middle-aged person who runs and cycles (in the right places) so I am vaguely aware of the value of exercise to long-term mobility. I don't see the relevance of your comment though, Chelsy. Why shouldn't pedestrians be free to walk slowly, meander, change direction? These are the pleasures of walking in areas designated for walking. Why should they be part of your imaginary bike race?

"I guarantee that if I stood at a busy junction and monitored the biggest violators of the highway code then cyclists would outdo motorists by about 10 to 1."

Try it. IME a significant minority of drivers will creep into the bike box (or even drive quite openly into it) and a good percentage at red lights are on their phones, or texting on their knees where they think nobody can see (but cyclists can). Add in all the motorists with faulty lights, driving without insurance (30% of drivers in the UK are uninsured) and/or are drunk and I reckon cyclists look like saints when it comes to the HC.

There has been a change of police policy this week I believe which is fabulous news: the police are to look at the phone records of every driver involved in an accident (and not just drivers who have killed somebody) to see if they have been texting or phoning on their journey. A few test cases (a woman this week was sentenced to 8 years even though, in mitigation, it was said that there was at least 5 mins between her last phone activity and the accident) might reduce the number of motorists thinking it is worth risking the lives of others so that they can chat on the phone without the hassle of parking first.

Perambulate means to walk about.

I've done a lot of cycling but I have never found that it offset the need to walk.

(Although a wheelchair can be quite useful.)

Hth.

Well precisely merry. I guess if you can cycle right up to the door it does prevent the onset of perambulation a little longer..

Well, walking is exercise for some people, if they are unfit enough. For me, proper exercise is something that raises my heart rate. And if you're under 50 and reasonably healthy, walking shouldn't really count as exercise, unless you have let yourself get very unfit. For instance, my resting hr is about 45, walking increases it to about 70 which isn't high enough to get an exercise benefit from.

Obviously, for a number of posters, the excitement created by seeing someone go faster than walking pace will lead to quite an increase in heart rate. For this, smelling salts and holding a handkerchief to one's lips to suppress one's gasp of horror can assist.

Am I cruel to imagine David Walliams as a ladeeee when thinking of some posters on this thread? It would certainly provide him with a lot of material for a sketch!

That's funny because I'm imagin

-Oops-

Imagining him in a sketch about somebody who won't get off their bike because 'perambulating' is beneath them.

What is the relevance of your resting heart rate? It doesn't make it any more legal to cycle on the pavement.

That sounds about as funny as sketch about a middle aged woman standing in the street attempting to accost random perambulators abd bicycle drivers with lectures on her version of the HighwayCode, always delivered in a slightly antiquated form of English, MerryMouse.

Bet that would have people qeueing up in their droves!

Ha ha, except, ha ha, following the Highway Code hee hee stops you from ending up in hospital, ho ho with your head caved in.

You should read it some time - even if you do it on a funny voice it might save your life, or, ha ha, even somebody else's.

I don't see the harm in texting when stopped at a red light with the handbrake on. How is that dangerous??

I can't wait for the day that someone in policy suddenly realises that gazing at a screen whilst listening to it instructing where and when to turn is potentially distracting and bans all sat navs

And op YANBU. As a pedestrian I shouted at a cyclist cycling the wrong way down a one way street, down the really narrow bit as it joins the roundabout. The startled faces on the car drivers weren't funny.
Bet she'd be complaining if one of them smacked her off her bike, imo, it'd have been entirely her fault

onedog "I don't see the harm in texting when stopped at a red light with the handbrake on."

Seriously? How about the fact it is illegal? How about the fact that when you are in charge of a car, you need to be concentrating on the road and who is moving alongside and/or in front of you. If you are ever involved in an RTA and have been found to have been texting on your journey, you would be in BIG trouble. You can't pick and choose which laws to obey any more than cyclists can (I note that although you expect cyclists to obey all traffic laws to the extent where you will become a stand-in enforcer, you yourself are exempt from the law, apparently)

I further can't believe your hypocrisy when you say you shouted at a cyclist for also being stupid and THEN go on to say it would have been her fault if you had startled a car driver enough to run her down :-o What a dreadful thing to say, and to be prepared to cause without remorse.

You and the cyclist were both behaving dangerously (you twice - when you text whilst driving, and when you shout at cyclists). She at least was mainly endangering herself. And I still struggle to understand why you felt the need to shout at her? Do you shout at pedestrians at night not wearing High vis vests? Do you shout at drivers who have placed their vehicles in the bike boxes at red lights? I would leave traffic enforcement up to the police, if I were you.

Also, beware that many cyclists now have headcams (it enables us to show the true story of an accident) and there is a site where you can upload video of bad driving to be dealt with by the police. Personally, I would not shout at you if I saw you texting whilst driving: instead I would film you texting, together with your numberplate, and hope a prosecution followed.

I am stepping away from this thread. It makes me too sad.

Yes little miss. Stopped at the lights. Nope not driving. Yep in charge of a stationary vehicle.
Did not know it's illegal. Not that it matters, my phoned is in silent in a bag in the footwell each and every time I drive, but no I don't see a problem, provided it gets put down and left down the minute you engage a gear and get ready to drive off.

Also how the fuck did I startle car. Basic comprehension, she was startling the drivers, I saw their faces as she cycled at them

Hth

I've just run (run !! please note) to the swimming pool . On the way I passed several cyclists both on and off the pavement. Now if I had been injured by one of them I couldfeel justified as I lay there awaiting the ambulance that at least ihad elevated my pulse above its resting rate.

Hmm...on second thoughts its still irrelevant. Don't care how good cycling is for you, it's still not ok to cycle like an arse on the pavement

Glad to see there is a meeting of minds here, and the usual cyclist-bashing threads of MN eventually comes to a meaningful and long-lasting understanding of one another's situation, with no use of H&S hyperbole whatsoever. Nice warm fuzzy glow.

I was told by police (conversationally not on a road) that only way to avoid prosecution if you are in driver's seat holding a phone is if you are parked up with keys out of ignition. I suppose it's to avoid confusion/grey areas. I think its helpful because you can put your phone out of reach and honestly tell people you aren't contactable. (Although I suppose there is hands free).