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?!

Missmasei - because you don't come into contact with cars, you're discounting their danger? Seems a strange argument. More pedestrians are killed in cities than cyclists, but they are killed by cars or motor vehicles. This hatred of cyclists is over blown and out of proportion with the threat they pose.

I hear you. Cyclists on pavement irk me! We have a dual way walk/cycle track that runs through our suburb and a few neighboring. Reallt nice place to walk...its 2 lanes with arrows. STILL cyclists find it acceptable to ride 2 abreast speeding along.. so myself and my dogs have no choice but to step aside into the scrub & mud to get out of their way! Selfish gits. But to be fair for every couple of ones like that theres alot who are courteous and will ring bell/slow down/try to be safe. We actually are having more issues with people illegally riding dirt bikes down there lately

Lorries jumping red lights/drivers on phones/tail gaters /changing lanes without indicating/turning without indicating/ speeding/illegal u-turners/dangerous parking - we've all seen these and they all kill. But hey - let's ignore all the motor vehicles breaking the law and concentrate on the cyclists on the pavement - they're the real menace

I'm a cyclist (and pedestrian and car driver). Part of my cycle commute is a pavement. It's actually a designated cycle/pedestrian space, but the blue signs are small and not well positioned. I don't cycle fast on it (and I've never seen or cyclist do so either) but I've received aggressive abuse on a number of occasions... I'm not sure what to do.. Really it's the council's fault for not signing it adequately or not separating bikes and pedestrians...

Ihrft but I told my children to ride on pavement not busy dangerous roads around here, BUT I taught them to be considerate of pedestrians and get off bike and push the bike if the pavement was particularly busy.

Oh and I should add cycling on pavements that are not dual use is a total no for me... I've seen it occasionally but not too the levels that some here have experienced

They’re twats but the ones I see aren’t the arrogant lyrca type and usually some chavvy teen or drug dealer looking. I have a quiet moan but tend not to say anything as I don’t want to be stabbed (live in London).

Too right Francis. People seem to be deaf (deliberate ironic wording) to this. They’re the same twats who think they can ring a bell and everyone should jump out the way. And so what if hardly anyone gets mowed down and dies. It’s illegal full stop. You always get people justifying it cos the roads are too dangerous etc. Again it’s the law. It’s inconvenient that I’m not allowed to stroll into the Rolex store and help myself to a nice watch but doubt anyone will sympathise. I say this as someone with loads of hardcore cyclist friends and they think these people are dickheads too. If you’re confident enough on the road you shouldn’t cycle. If you’re over 10 at least

In our town the council has arbitarily decided which paths are joint use - they are dangerous for both cyclists and pedestrians - narrow with too much street furniture & on one a bloody bus stop! right in the middle with no way round

Then there are others pathways no-one walks on parallel to the bike paths which are wide, clear and safe

No idea why they made that decision!

Fucking annoying, a lot of the time.

A lot of our local cycle paths are shared with pavements. I have autistic kids who don't understand the delineation and, tbh, I struggle to stay on the wonky ankle breaking paving slabs instead of the nice smooth cyclist tarmac.

And, yes, my hearing isn't great so don't expect me to respond to a bell rung 30' behind me.

It's illegal.

All other arguments are irrelevant.

If you feel unsafe cycling on a particular section of road then find another route, dismount and walk on the pavement for that stretch, or find an alternative mode of transport. There are many options, none of which involve breaking the law.

YANBU there's a woman local to me that flys around on an electric powered bike and she rides it on the fucking pavement with a fag in her mouth.

It's an accident waiting to happen. I've seen her do it when lots of little ones are walking to school, she gives zero shits.

It's the ones that ring the bell. Ring again, then shout. When it is clear I have nowhere to go except onto the road because it had a particularly narrow section that piss me off. On the wider sections of pavement, it doesn't bother me.

I just wanted to point out that it is illegal to cycle on any footpath or causeway by the side of any road made or set apart for the use or accommodation of foot passengers. If the path is not alongside a road you are allowed to cycle on it. In my area there are several paths where cycling is allowed by this rule, and it is why some of the "snickets" or "ginnels" have specific "no cycling" road signs at each end - without these signs you would be allowed to cycle on them. The rule also means that on paths split for pedestrians and cyclists, cyclists must keep to their side, but pedestrians don't!

But, even when cyclists are legally using the footpath, they don't have the right to shout/ring a bell/blow a horn, fail to slow down and expect other users to jump out of the way - just as car drivers don't have that right on a road.

It's the sheer arrogance of some of them that gets to me. Using the road when there is a cycle lane and not caring who they hold up because they truly believe that their right to cycle trumps anybody else's right to drive above 20 miles an hour and get to work/an appointment on time. However, they also believe that they are the only ones allowed to hold anyone up so when they cycle on the pavements they ring their bell and expect pedestrians to get out of their way! Just who do they think they are? They think they have more rights on the road and the pavements than anybody else. Selfish bastards.

ohthere, where you propose cyclists do cycle then? cycle lanes are largely unusable: trees in the way, cars parked in the cycle path, countless potholes, rubble at the side of the road, cycles patches that suddenly end etc.
Have you ever tried cycling using a cycle path???

I am a cyclist and always use the road. I regularly challenge adults who use the pavement.
Two incidents spring to mind.
A woman in her thirties on a bike with her dog on a lead on a busy pavement. Everyone, builders, parents with buggies, older people had to stand in the road while she went by. She obviously thought it was her human right to have pavements cleared for her. When I suggested she cycle on the road, she stopped giggling helplessly and looked really put out.
Second incident involved two older teenagers, sixteen seventeen, one giving the other a backy. They were careering along the pavement and cycled though a bus stop, shouting get out the way. When I suggested they get on the road, they were aggressive to me (as I suspected they would be ). Another youngish man told me I should just get out of the way.
The entitlement of some cyclists takes my breath away.

My walk to school with the kids regularly has cyclists on the pavement. We move to the side a wee bit as we're walking. They say thanks. I say no worries. Simple. Its not ideal but nor is the cycling infrastructure of this country. Its an imperfect world. You may find them annoying but they are very rarely lethal.

@Femaleassassin no I don't actually want to push a cyclist into oncoming traffic. It does hugely piss me off though when I have to step into the busy road with my dogs whilst out running because a cyclist is using the very narrow footpath instead of the perfectly adequate road right next to it.

We do have cycle paths where I live, but they end just before a very narrow footpath and I have never seen a cyclist take to the road there.

To be fair, I have never seen a middle aged man in Lycra cycling on the pavement. 😄