To think cyclists should ride on the road, not on the pavement?

[AgeLikeWine]

Every day, I go walking along our local country roads, which are very popular with cyclists, and every day I am forced to walk on the road or in the weeds to maintain social distancing from cyclists who are riding on the pavement.

I’m not criticising proper cyclists; the Lycra brigade invariably ride on the road. I’m referring to families, couples and teenagers out for a bike ride who think they are entitled to use the pavements and force pedestrians to choose between getting run over by them or take the risk of stepping onto the road. Why don’t they ride where they are supposed to ride?

YABU = Cyclists should ride on the pavement and force pedestrians to get out of their way.

YANBU = All cyclists should ride on the road.

And yet you survived to tell the tale

@FrancisCrawford here is a standard 16" kids bike, for kids 5-7. It weighs 11.6kg (over 25.5lbs).

My 6 year old is only 18kg himself. Assuming as an adult you might be around 60kg or 9 1/2 stone, would you find it 'easy as pushing a doll's pram' to push a 40kg/6 stone bike for 15 minutes or more?

I’m fine with cyclists on the pavements, children in particular, but they need to give way to pedestrians.

I'm fine with it too, let's all just learn to get on

I've this past week bought a bike after 20 years of not cycling. I'm loving it and I'm happy on smaller or side roads to be on the road. But I'm nowhere near confident enough on some of the other roads around here. So I ride on the pavement. But I'm slow, and considerate and move to one side and get off my bike to let people pass me. Equally if people move to let me pass them I always give a smile and a thank you.
I'm getting more confident and will progress to more roads soon. But I see it as so long as I'm considerate to pedestrians then I don't see the harm. It's about being considerate of my surroundings and other people surely?

And here's the link. Even 'light' children's bikes are comparatively heavy, and only available to children whose parents have hundreds of pounds to spend on something they can will grow out of within 1-2 years. www.halfords.com/bikes/kids-bikes/apollo-roxie-kids-bike---16in-wheel-232686.html

Oh there are definitely cyclists who refuse to use cycle paths... we have a very well-marked wide split path near here, and I am forever having to stop myself hooting at the (usually lycra-clad) blokes cycling down the road, slowing down all the cars.

I also wonder if they realise that slowing down 10 or so cars behind them means those cars will emit far more noxious fumes than if they were driving at a more efficient speed, so cyclists actually indirectly cause more emissions?

If only it were a legal obligation to use cycle paths if they are available. Sadly it's not. (Highway code rule 63.)

(Caveat: there's an article in cycling weekly about the poor state or design of a lot of cycle paths which make it actually more dangerous for the cyclist to ride on them. So legal measures won't help until councils actually sort those problems out...)

This wide path near us is ideal for cyclists. I would judge a cyclist hard if they cycled on the dual carriageway next to it. The path isn't busy even during normal times, the road is though.
However I would also judge a cyclist who cycled through the town centre or whizzed along on a skinny footpath.
The problem is we don't have the space to widen most pavements for cyclists.

@FrancisCrawford it's like you don't want to understand. It is fully legal for children to cycle on the pavement, for good reason.
There's no way the average adult would want to push a 40-50kg weight, wheeled or not, along a pavement for 15 minutes when a safe, fast and perfectly legal alternative method of transport would be available instead. When was the last time you pushed even a normal weight adult bike? I don't cycle these days, but remember when my chain broke on the way home one day, and even to a fit adult, a 20 minute push was awkward, annoying and slow as you have to work around the pedals.
Like others say, the focus on hating cyclists is a huge loss, as we should be uniting to minimise car use, which is far more lethal, more polluting, uses up huge amount of space in our cities and towns and costs us all far more.

@Ohtherewearethen Unless said cyclist happens to have ET in their basket where exactly should they go everytime a motor vehicle is on the road?

It really depends, we're not set up to accommodate cyclists/cars/pedestrians in this country which is a great shame. In the village where I live the windy country roads have lots of blind corners and it's very narrow, so there are places where cycling is akin to a death trap. If I'm out with the kids I don't let them cycle on the road (I do, beside them) but we do have a rule that if someone is walking toward us we all get off and go single file past them. I really hope that things will improve so that we can all safely get about.

@megletthesecond that looks a great place to ride. We have nothing like that here!

This thread makes me feel pretty sad as a regular cyclist tbh. We really can’t win because nobody wants us to be able to cycle safely anywhere. If we’re on the road we’re slowing down traffic (and from experience it is dangerous because of impatient drivers). If we’re on shared paths we’re putting pedestrians in danger. If we use a bell on shared paths we’re rude and expect pedestrians to leap out of the way. But if we don’t use a bell we frighten people.

I agree there are many dangerous and inconsiderate cyclists out there but most of us just want to get somewhere safely and do our bit for the environment while we’re at it. More tolerance all round (from cyclists, pedestrians and drivers) is what’s needed.

I’m a cyclist, driver and pedestrian. There are selfish thoughtless people in all of those groups.
I’m a rule follower and always try to be considerate.
The main thing which annoys me most is the Lycra cyclists who cause traffic hold ups by cycling in the road when there are perfectly good cycle tracks in our area.

Moonbells - car fumes come out of cars, the less cars on the road the better for everyone

@YessicaHaircut - I think anyone who complains about cyclists being on a shared use path is going nowhere. That is exactly where cyclists should be. My argument is that cyclists should not cycle on pavements just because they don't feel safe enough on the roads. They also should not expect pedestrians to move out of their way by ringing their bells. There is no reason ever good enough to cycle on the pavement. If it was deemed as safe for cyclists to do so the Highway Code would be updated. If you aren't confident enough to cycle on the roads you don't just carry on regardless on the pavement, you don't cycle.

@YessicaHaircut

The law is absolutely clear. Cyclists are not allowed to ride on pavements. This is copied from the Highway Code :

Rule 64
You MUST NOT cycle on a pavement.

Laws HA 1835 sect 72 & R(S)A sect 129

Moonbells- what happens to that path at the roundabout? Does it continue?

Or to you have to first cross that side road, then navigate from the pavement onto the road to enter the roundabout?

That’s generally why i don’t use cycle paths. They stop, dump you on the road, make it difficult to cross side roads. Constant stopping and starting. Far safer to be on the road where vehicles exiting or using junctions should be looking for you and will wait for you to pass, rather than the cyclist having to give way every 100 m or so....

Ohtherewearethen - yes m'am!

Agelikewine - the law is absolutely clear, one must not drive through red lights, yet that is something I would see several times a day on my commute to work (pre-corona) which is gonna cause the most danger?

Or the law isn't fit for purpose, if the streets aren't safe for cyclists, Iet them on the pavement