Cyclists on pavements

[origamiunicorn]

Ok, please tell me if I ABU.

What's your opinion on people cycling on pavements? I don't mean young children who are clearly learning or parents who are accompanying them but adults. Full blown, fully grown adults.

Where I live it seems common place and I don't get it. AIBU to say if you are an adult and aren't comfortable on the road you shouldn't be riding a bike. It always seems to be middle aged men too who whizz past, so not an adult learner or someone who is gaining confidence.

Just now I was walking home from work and I hear this bell ringing and as I turn around this man in his 40s? whizzes past me and shouts "out the way!" to which I throw my hands up in the air at him and tell him to get off the pavement and then as I walk past him further up the road at a crossing he says something, calls me the C word and rides off. I mean what?!

I actually feel a little shaken with the confrontation so AIBU in my reaction? I thought it was justified considering. I mean if you're going to ride on the pavement like a child at least give people a chance to get out the way and... should people even be on cycling on the pavement?!

Not every cyclist on the pavement is a granny bashing maniac.

Of course not, but can you see how scary/disorientating/worrying it can be when you have no warning a cyclist is going to hit you or ride up your ankles? If you cant hear them in my experience people get annoyed at you for not moving out their way when they shouldn't be there in the first place.

Nacreos - if a car saw a. Pedestrian on the road they would be expected to react accordingly eg slow down or stop to circumnavigate as necessary. If you are cycling it is up to you to do the same thing even in a cycle lane, if you were unable to then you were going to fast for your vehicle or your cycling ability or not paying sufficient attention to the route ahead

Ps if you are. Driving you don't sound your horn at pedestrians in the road, same should go for cyclists

Not every one can cycle, just for starters. You know, people with vision impairment for example.

of cause not everyone can cycle. nobody said everyonr should. But when you look to the Netherlands or Denmark, you see a very different country and there are huge benefits for everyone if we make cycling safer and encourage far more people into two wheels.

these cyclists hating threads always completely baffle me.

If you're in a car you are meant to sound your horn to warn other road users you're there. Why shouldn't cyclists ring their bell to warn pedestrians they are there on LEGAL shared paths??

Also there are plenty of people that can't hear, I would say most people I cycle past in the morning on a LEGAL shared pavement have headphones in. If they are in the middle of the path and it's obvious they can't hear me then I will ride slowly behind them and cycle past on a wider stretch or if they become aware of my presence then they will usually move to let let me go past. Much in the same way they would move if another pedestrian was wanting to overtake or a mobility scooter or a horse or whoever else is just wanting to go to where they need to go. I'm not a danger to pedestrians on that path because I'm in control and I'm considerate.

Fleetwood - yes, as cyclists do this to me frequently but no, I do not fear for my life in the same way I do when a tipper truck comes thundering down behind me, cutting me up at the lights giving me barely inches to manoeuvre. That's how law abiding cyclists die, through no fault of their own apart from the perhaps foolish desire to face uks dangerous roads. And yes the bigger picture is we need more cyclists, more cycle lanes, less deaths, a much healthier nation and a smaller burden on the nhs. The non cyclists also benefit from safer streets and a pollution free atmosphere. Pollution and vehicles kill every day. Bicycles don't.

these cyclists hating threads always completely baffle me

It baffles you that people want cyclists to obay the law?

raspberry

maybe you should read the whole thread. This has looong moved on from cyclists on pavements. Cyclist got a bashing here for riding on pavements (I agree, not on) for riding in the road, for ringing the bell, are blamed for this and that.

Always helps to read before commenting

I've had 4 major collisions in my life, 3 of them with pedestrians, all in the road

I've spent many years cycling as a primary means of transport, I've never hit a pedestrian on a footpath or shared space. I've also never seen any pedestrian hit by a cyclist on a pavement, or ever been hit by anyone in a bike myself. I feel extremely lucky that despite spending most of my life around death dealing bikes to have escaped unscathed.

My pedestrian collisions were all people stepping into the road and one of them turned violent with me , one of them wasn't actually a collision because I opted to slam into the back of a bus rather than hit the family of 4 who ran out in front of me and another crash that threw me in front of an incoming bus. The very very vast majority of London commuter cyclists I've spoken to this is their primary reason for crashing

It's certainly not the case that the majority of London pedestrians have had cyclists mount the pavement at random and crash into them

But I don't judge pedestrians as an entire group because I'm not fucking stupid

Although I do judge zombie pedestrians- the ones wearing headphones looking down at their phones, stepping into the road without looking and then swearing at you if your bike goes anywhere near them.

if a car saw a. Pedestrian on the road they would be expected to react accordingly eg slow down or stop to circumnavigate as necessary

Oh yes and that happens doesn't it! Usually they put their foot on the gas! How dare you be in the road on foot (and how dare you be on the pavement on foot, a lot of the time). I dislike entitled cyclists as much as the next person, but they are not usually dangerous, except to themselves. Drivers of four wheel vehicles are the dangerous ones.

I have a much bigger issue with drivers parking on pavements than cyclists riding on them.

And can we please stop going on about disabled people on pavements being "terrorised" by cyclists. I'm not saying it never happens, but those cyclists are just idiots. If the pavement is empty I really see no reason not to use it if it's easier (for example, where I live, I use it for a short stretch (50m or so) to avoid two difficult right turns across busy roads. If there are pedestrians, I walk it. If there are not, I ride it. Where is the danger or the inconvenience? There is none.

I also judge zombie pedestrians staring at their smartphones all the time too.

The scary thing is you know that car drivers are doing it too.

If it was inherently dangerous for bicycles and pedestrians to be in the same space then we wouldn't have shared use pavements. But there are loads around. I don't think people should cycle on the pavement where it hasn't been designated that they can but the over the top attitude to the risk posed by cyclists is ridiculous.

Always helps to read before commenting

Thanks but I've been reading the whole way through! Seen lots of reasonable concerns imo!

They do it in Sydney as standard. All footpaths can be used by bikes

You see some people riding like right dicks tbf

If it was inherently dangerous for bicycles and pedestrians to be in the same space then we wouldn't have shared use pavements. But there are loads around

Surely they’re safe because the signage makes it clear that a pedestrian can reasonably expect to encounter a bicycle.

There is actually one post itt that criticizes people walking their bikes on the pavement as well btw

The baffling part of this thread is comments like the above and people saying they want to visit death and injury on cyclists (pushing them into the road)

It's not most people though so I don't judge you all by the same metric

Surely they’re safe because the signage makes it clear that a pedestrian can reasonably expect to encounter a bicycle

Not the case in Sydney

Not the case in Sydney

Absolutely the case where I live, which is probably more relevant