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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Saw a cyclist on the pavement today...

145 replies

CarcerDun · 13/12/2014 18:24

...being reprimanded by a policeman. Most probably because its illegal.

AIBU to have smiled at the policeman as he walked past me afterwards?

OP posts:
Mrsmorton · 13/12/2014 19:32

In the UK it's against the law for anyone to ride on a pavement. Some poster on here say that children should be allowed to. They're not allowed to but I guess it's tolerable in some situations although sometimes it seems that cyclists (or their parents) feel entitled to the right of way.

mehitabel tough luck I'm afraid.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/12/2014 19:49

Their fear of riding on the road does not give them the right to make pavements dangerous for pedestrians

^^This

And no, mehitabel, you won't be "continuing to use common sense" - you'll be continuing to break the law, which is there for a reason

silverandblack · 13/12/2014 19:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

s113 · 13/12/2014 21:08

And how about that cyclist who yelled at a pedestrian "move out of the way, I'm not stopping!"

Killed that pedestrian.

Walked free from court, because there's no offence of "causing death by dangerous cycling".

Should have been many years in prison.

s113 · 13/12/2014 21:10

That cyclist was on the pavement, of course!

Goldenbear · 13/12/2014 21:16

I'm sorry but children especially young ones, on scooters on pavements is far more acceptable than 'adults' on bikes on pavements. If I am aware of an adult on the path behind me, trying to circumvent me, even slowly, I will not move out of the way!

Goldenbear · 13/12/2014 21:17

Adult on a bike that is.

RhubarbAndMustard · 13/12/2014 21:19

There needs to be far more cycle paths. The roads are too dangerous for cyclists but the pavements aren't right to use either unless it's a very rural (hardly any pedestrian) type of area.
If the road was dangerous though I would rather the cyclist be on the pavement.

CakeAndWineAreAFoodGroup · 13/12/2014 21:26

In my road the pavement is split, half cycle path, half pedestrian. Marked by a white line with clear images of bikes and pedestrian.

Cyclists treat it as a 2-way cycle lane. At speed. It's on a hill so they do get a fair speed cycling down the pedestrian lane where they shouldn't be...

TheChandler · 13/12/2014 21:38

Nice. Lets hope you don't feel the same way when you see an unhealthy overweight person being treated for a heart attack. Or a driver of a car with faulty lights crashing in the dark...

listed · 13/12/2014 21:39

Oh cyclists can't do right for doing fucking wrong on mumsnet.

They were likely as not on the pavement to get away from all the crazy fuckers trying to run them off the roads.

Goldenbear · 13/12/2014 21:43

It's illegal they shouldn't be on the fucking pavement in the first place!

listed · 13/12/2014 21:58

I'd rather be on the pavement than have Bulbasaur aiming her 4x4 at me and flooring it....

Mehitabel6 · 13/12/2014 22:18

While I have completely empty pavements without a single pedestrian in sight I shall continue to do it. I do not do it if there are pedestrians. There is no way I would take a child onto the road-they would go on the pavement and stop if any people are about.

TheChandler · 13/12/2014 22:27

Why are my taxes not paying for cycle paths, as in other European countries with similar tax rates??

I would love to be able to cycle more, particularly to work, if I didn't face likelihood of serious injury or death each time due to having no option but to share road space with a tonne of metal moving at up to 60mph.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/12/2014 22:28

I'm the first to agree that there are some hopeless drivers who endanger cyclists on the road - what I don't get is how cyclists think it's therefore okay to endanger someone else by illegally using the pavement

Yes, there should be far more bike lanes (I'm another who'd like to see them funded through cyclist registration fees) but in the meantime, if it's not safe to cycle legally then you just don't do it ... it's really not rocket science

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/12/2014 22:38

While I have completely empty pavements without a single pedestrian in sight I shall continue to do it. I do not do it if there are pedestrians

And if a child suddenly darts out of somewhere ..... ??

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid your attitude is all too typical of the type of cyclists who consider themselves beyond the rules; we all see it far too often and frankly it's getting tiresome

TheChandler · 13/12/2014 22:54

Its hardly the only thing that's getting tiresome...

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/12/2014 23:02

I'm sorry you didn't like it, Chandler - but then, I hardly expected you would Grin

TheChandler · 13/12/2014 23:09

Puzzled to clarify, I find the overriding mother superior act tiresome.

I'm a law abiding person, I don't really appreciate being preached at. I know the law, I am a solicitor. I also appreciate that blame in accidents can lie in unexpected places, and that the chain of causation can be more complex than some would like to make out. That's because I'm a solicitor, who often deals with insurance claims. I've dealt with too high a number of cyclists who have been made paraplegics or killed in accidents with cars, otherwise law abiding, hard working people with families to support, who were often mown down on their way to work by cars or lorries, for me to have much patience with someone using this to fuel their own particular branch of hatred against a group of people and spout off on the internet.

I find it incredibly tasteless. If you want to speak to people as if they are juvenile delinquents, may I suggest you find a detention centre somewhere to inflict yourself upon.

Goldenbear · 13/12/2014 23:18

Why can't you just walk? I walk up to 8 miles a day for school runs, my 7 year old son can walk up to 4 miles as does my 3 year old. If it is not possible to cycle due to the risks being too high along your given route it is up to any 'aldult' to calculate that risk. It is highly annoying that they choose to 'risk' other people's safety because the infrastructure is not in place for a 'safe' ride, in fact it I utterly selfish!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/12/2014 23:22

You're absolutely entitled to your view, Chandler - however it doesn't mean that others are obliged to agree with you, just as they're not forced to agree with mine. My comments about cyclists' illegal actions, however, stand

Incidentally, if you're a solicitor (and presumably used to reading far more complex passages?) I'm surprised you didn't notice my acknowledgement of the "hopeless drivers who endanger cyclists ... "

MurkyMinotaur · 13/12/2014 23:24

I hate these threads and usually don't read them.

I'm a cyclist and I'm not welcome anywhere. I have to cycle because I can't earn enough to have a car. I have a minimum wage part time job because I'm autistic. I used to be a road-only cyclist. Then I went over the bonnet off a car. I became scared for my life on the roads and always told my husband I loved him in case I died. Now I use a combination of safer roads and wider pavements, stopping or walking around people, never taking risks.

Cycling is not a life style choice, it's just trying to live and work, just trying to get by and manage, often getting drenched, often feeling depressed and having to plough on. There will always be people acting like idiots with bikes and there's no excuse for that but it's an issue that's really easy to take the moral high ground on and really hard to actually be in the situation where you have no choice but to cycle.

cardamomginger · 13/12/2014 23:32

There should be a test that should include, as it does for cars, theory and practical. They should be required to have third party insurance. I think it is indefensible that neither of these is the case.

SistersOfPercy · 13/12/2014 23:59

My 78 year old mum was sent flying by an ignorant twat cycling on the pavement this week. Fortunately she was ok, if not a little shaken up. Doubly pleased to report that he fell off the thing. I do hope his injuries were nothing trivial.
At 78 he could have quite easily killed her so forgive me if I have zero sympathy for an idiot who uses the pavement rather than the perfectly adequate, fairly quiet, wide road.