To think that adults should cycle on the road

[LoopyLou1981]

It’s been a long time since I’ve been organised enough to get up (and get 2 kids up) and out early enough to walk to the station instead of getting the bus.
On a 2 mile walk, I’ve been ‘dinged’ at by 3 cyclists to get me to move over on the pavement so they could get passed.
Is this a new thing?! Our roads aren’t narrow or any more dangerous than any others. AIBU to think they should be on the road?!

It can be really scary and dangerous riding on the roads. Motorists do really stupid things and the way some cycle tracks are designed means you are inches away from cars speeding by.
Is it really a problem if people cycle at a walking pace around pedestrians and are polite and courteous and get on and off appropriately.
I don't think the problem is the cycling but the rude behaviour.

I bloody hate shared pavements and cycle paths. Keeping the kids on the right bit is a nightmare and the cyclists who use them have no concept of gently coasting by when there's a lot of pedestrians, instead of going full pelt.

That's a huge bugbear of mine. It seems to be happening more and more often round where I live, and cyclists are getting progressively bolder with their bell ringing. Twats! Just ride on the bloody road.

I definitely agree that cyclists shouldn't be routinely cycling on pavements - but near my house the cycle path is on the pavement (ie it's dual use) and it seems that (possibly because there aren't many cyclists) very few people understand this - when I used to cycle to the station I would be shouted at to 'get off the pavement' most days, as I cycled along a path clearly marked with a bike!

Erm...surely if it's 'scary and dangerous' to cycle on the road, the sensible answer would be to walk/use public transport, instead of riding on the pavement, which is for pedestrians? Cyclists who ride on the pavement are effectively making it more dangerous for pedestrians.

Also, while I do use them I hate the on-road cycle lanes around us - they're ludicrously narrow and obviously right in the gutter, so it's very hard to not come out of them for drains, etc. - but cars think so long as they're not actually over the line of the cycle path they're fine to drive literally within three inches of you. You get given much more space and so feel safer on roads that don't have the cycle lane marking.

Yanbu

If you’re not confident enough to cycle on the road then get off and walk. I appreciate the road can be dangerous for cyclists but that’s not an excuse to make the pavement dangerous for pedestrians

But people are not supposed to have to expect to be belled by cyclists on a footpath where it’s actually illegal for adults to cycle. Adjacent street/traffic noise often makes it different from a cycle path too. So people’s responses to the bell won’t be reliably safe.

That’s a bit garbled but what I mean is, the mindset is different - if I hear a bell behind me on a cycle path/in the park I’ll instinctively move over but on a standard pavement, my focus is on what’s in front of me and I am not sure I’d have time to do more than get startled/confused by a bell before the cyclist would be right on me.

It’s a moot point though because every time I’ve seen a pavement cyclist locally, they’ve zoomed past with no warning. Once when DS was a preschooler, a cyclist (wearing headphones! ffs) zoomed past us on our narrow pavement beside our very busy road, and nearly hit him. DS was upset and I was too, it was scary.

God, this has come out long. Adult pavement cyclists annoy me deeply though.

Cyclists listening to music whilst cycling is another bug bear.

How can they feel in any way safe if they can't hear what's coming?

@PickAChew I bloody hate shared pavements and cycle paths.

As someone who walks, drives and cycles, I agree with you 100%

Shared pathways are a sop for local authorities to tick a box and they meet no real purpose whatsoever for people on bikes. I hate using them just as much as you hate me using them!

And I can count on no fingers of no hands all the times in my whole life I - or anyone I know who cycles - has ever been asked their thoughts on proposed cycle paths of lanes. Again, they primarily do lip service to "sustainable travel", but in reality they are 99% useless, go nowhere helpful, start and stop abruptly and are danger zones in their own right, as pp have mentioned above. There are reasons cyclists don't use them, it's not just for shits and giggles.

Is it really a problem if people cycle at a walking pace around pedestrians

Yes. It’s against the law, and with good reason.

Imagine if it was legal and everyone did it. Crowds of cyclists and pedestrians getting all tangled up. Wouldn’t work, would it? Because that is not what pavements are for.

I guess people who do this must think that their own superior personal judgement makes them entitled to infringe on space meant for pedestrians. And that strikes me as extremely arrogant, as well as foolish.

If any cyclist regardless of age cycles on the pavement and dings me I refuse to move. In fact, I might just get in their way deliberately and if they fall off they may learn.

There is no excuse for anyone of any age to ride on a pavement that is not a cycle path. And I say that as someone who cycled to school for ten years and commuted around London on a cycle for another 10.

And no, I did not cycle the wrong way down one way streets, jump lights or do an of the other things that get hurled at cyclist.s. They have more contempt from me than pavement cyclists.

Don't move, they'll learn eventually. Don't facilitate their ignorance.

My friend who is profoundly deaf had her hearing dog ran into by a cyclist, Witnesses said the cyclist shouted at her to get out the way but obviously she did not hear him and didn’t move. He carried on and went straight into the back of the dog, my friend was pulled down as well and he came off the bike. He then proceeded to shout abuse at my friend for not paying attention and damaging his bike, the dog was on the floor not responding.

When a man came over to help my friend he shouted at the cyclist that it was a hearing dog as my friend is deaf, the cyclist replied with “she should not be out then she is a danger to everyone”. The man said it is illegal to ride a bike on the pavement, he got told to fuck off and the cyclist rode off.
Dog was put down and my friend didnt go out for well over a year due to her confidence being blown and because she did not have a hearing dog. The police thought they identified the cyclist and arrested him but the CPS said there was a lack of evidence and it was not in the public interest to prosecute.
He is still cycling on the pavement 😡

wooly I'm with you there. Every day I see cyclists going down one way streets the wrong way, going through red lights, jumping onto paths and using pedestrian crossings to avoid stopping at red lights, no lights on their bikes at night and wearing nothing but dark clothing, cycling in pedestrianised areas with signs up saying "no cycling" and either clipping people or sending people flying.

In other words, there are plenty of shit cyclists just as there are plenty of shit motorists. Difference is one lot have to pass a test and pay a lot of money to use the roads.

Slow cycling on un-crowded pavements is fine, most roads are too dangerous for cyclists IMO. Using a bell is better than scaring the life out of someone.

@ClashCityRocker Cyclists listening to music whilst cycling is another bug bear. How can they feel in any way safe if they can't hear what's coming?

How do you feel about motorists having radios/music on in their car, which is itself a sound-insulated metal box (and x times more deadly weight)

Yanbu. Although I wish the cyclist that scratched my car whilst trying to squeeze through two lanes of traffic had been on the pavement that day. He didn't stop and cycled through a red light, by the time the traffic had moved he was long gone.

Oh come on people! I'm not a cyclist myself but lets encourage the cyclist. Better that than breathing in more car fumes! I can't see how a little tinkle bell in good time can cause a problem.

Yanbu.

However @ShatnersWig and other who have said cyclists should cycle in cycle paths, I actually did a council-run cycle safety course that strongly advised me not to use the cycle paths on part of my route to work. Bicycles are vehicles according to the rules of the road, they have no legal obligations to stay in cycle lanes and it is very often unsafe for them to do so- my cycle lane was fine most of the way, then for a large section ended in a way that caused a really dangerous merge back with traffic. It was much safer to ride safely on the road for that part, and I had every legal right to do so.

But yes: twats on the pavement should be yelled at and have it pointed out to them what they're doing is illegal, and shared path/cycle paths are bloody awful. People react to you ringing a bell at them as though you're interrupting their stroll when they are invariably walking three abreast in the section marked for cyclists.

They shouldn't cycle on the pavement, unless it's a designated cycle path or a shared footpath/cycle path, in which case it will be clearly marked which side is for bikes and which for pedestrians.

If a cyclist is cycling illegally on a footpath and they come up behind a pedestrian, they should dismount and walk the bike around them.

My DH is deaf and can't hear cycle bells or the sound of a bike coming from behind. He's had several near misses with bikes, where he's wandered into the middle of the path just as a bike was approaching unseen from behind. The passing bike makes him jump, as obviously unexpected and whizzing by very fast.

reddress Was the course run by the same council who installed the cycle lanes?

Using a bell is better than scaring the life out of someone.

What about pedestrians who for whatever reason can't hear your bell?

If it's a shared path I'll make way for cyclists. If not then I don't care about your bell, I'll just keep going at my own pace.

shotsfired Well, anything that distracts a driver isn't ideal.

But on a bike you don't usually have the mirrors so your visual field is more limited and are much less visable on the road than a car is. You do tend to rely on your hearing a lot more.

Listening to headphones on a bike reduces your awareness of what's going on around you far more than listening to a radio in the car, I reckon.

I rarely cycle but when I do, it’s on the pavement. I’m clumsy and have a chronic pain issue so if I was in the road I’d probably get hit.

Solution is more cycle paths.