To feel sad at how much worse life is for pedestrians than it was ten years ago

[Fragmentedbrain]

Cars (especially Ubers for some reason?!) no longer reliably stop

Consequences for drivers who hit a pedestrian are minor - you won't necessarily go to jail "the first time" you kill someone and you'll have your licence back within a decade (why not banned for life???)

Roadworks used to prioritise keeping a pedestrian walkway but now it's common for one side of the pavement just to be abruptly cut off, forcing a walk across the road through traffic

And don't even get me started on bicycles on the pavement, "shared spaces" (ie spaces for bullies to race at speed on their bikes while those on foot are expected to scatter). I was actually planning a holiday to Japan until a colleague told me how unsafe the pavements have become in the last few years because of this.

It's the world over as far as I can see (although if you live in an exception could you let me know so I can visit please??) and it just feels like a big part of the dehumanisation of public life and spaces :(

Lucky you. I can't go out the house without a cyclist clipping me or racing at me across a pavement. There are very many dangerous and anti social cyclists and it bothers me more day to day (this isn't a get out for bad drivers as above I'd happily make it much harder to be permitted to drive)

PP1 Cyclists are not that much better and I really don’t understand the ones that think people have eyes in the back of their head and assume you know they are there and choose not to ring a bell or say something to let people know they are there.

PP2 While cyclists who ding their bells at me to get out of the way annoy me when I am eg running along a canal towpath (and am not in their way anyway because I always keep well to the left), that's all.

Bingo!

I thought of this thread today when I encountered an entitled random man (cyclist) on the canal towpath. I was walking along and was about to turn off onto a road which leads off the towpath when I heard a ding ding ding behind me. I ignored it as I was seconds away from my turn-off. The ding ding ding came again so I turned and said I am about to turn off, just wait a second. Entitled man says you might had had headphones. No, you were just dinging me because you thought I should get out of the way. He told me I was an antisocial idiot.

All he had to do was say hello or good morning or bike behind and I would have turned and said I'm about to turn off. Admittedly the towpath was a bit narrow at that section but he literally had to wait seconds!

So yeah sometimes cyclists are a pain too!

But I still hate pavement parkers more. A lot more.

Yeah I know but the bell dinging is so imperious and it screams get out of my way.

Seriously, a cheery good morning or hello is much friendlier.

So, he rung his bell to alert you of his presence. You ignored him, so he assumed you hadn't heard, and rung his bell again. I'm struggling to see what he did wrong.

I wear hearing aids due to lifelong earing impediment. I can hear the dinging of a bell from some way behind me, but someone would have to be really close to me for me to hearing them say hello or similar. Completely different frequencies/wavelengths. Bells are so much better.

It's why emergency vehicles used to have bells and there is still, today, some scientific opinion that bells on emergency vehicles would be more effective than the wailing sirens, the latter being louder, but not travel as far due to frequency/wavelength!

I walk on canal towpaths a lot - a few miles every day, and I never "miss" hearing a cyclist behind me dinging their bell, meaning I can either walk to one side, or at least wave to them that I know they're there. However, if they speak/shout, they have to be a lot closer for me to hear them and/or realise that someone's behind me as other sounds are also amplified and either sound the same or conflict, i.e. kids shouting whilst playing, or people talking in a garden, etc.

I agree. It's why I always at least acknowledge someone dinging their bell and either just carry on until they can pass if it's narrow, or make it clear I know they're there so they can pass alongside me. Very rude and ignorant to completely ignore someone as they won't know if you've heard them or not.

And in addition, considering how many other road users car drivers injure and kill each year, every new driver should take a compulsory Bikeability course in order that they understand what busy roads are like for a vulnerable person trying to get about by cycling.
Perhaps this could include consideration of vulnerable road users of all kinds including pedestrians, scooter riders, mobility/disabled vehicles and even horses. Shame that new drivers don't spend a compulsory day with horses and their riders.
I think part of the driving test should include questions aimed at getting car drivers to understand how life is for other road users trying to get about when assaulted by huge, tank-like vehicles that are too powerful for most users and that they can reverse or manoeuvre in small spaces.
It would also be good to hand out sheets describing the damage done to the environment as a result of motor car manufacture and use with statistics and cost including the cost to families when their members are maimed and killed on the road, also encouragement to sometimes use other modes of transport.

See with my hearing i can't locate sound well. So if I get bells rung at me it makes me jump and I have to be looking round seeing where the noise has come from. I do get what you are saying though about actually hearing the bells rather than shouting out

I’m sorry to say that if you can’t go out at all without that happening then your the consistency in the scenario, I’d say you’re the problem.

Most cyclists actually care. Don’t get me wrong there are some idiots that ride bikes, but far worse car drivers.

It’s ignorant car drivers the majority of the same.

If you are finding it stressful to drive because you are worried you are going to hit a cyclist and it distracts you from driving properly, then it sounds like you are not very confident at driving? Which is really your issue, not the cyclists.

Interestingly, in addition to this, there was a study that highlighted cyclist who do not wear a helmet encounter less close passes due to drivers concerned if they hit them.

My experience is that car drivers are much more ignorant, arrogant and careless than cyclists and I am totally amazed at all the recent posts claiming that cyclists are the issue.

Yesterday for example I drove to the supermarket and was out for a couple of hours. In that time I experienced:

A car parked so close to my car I couldn’t get into my car and had to climb over the passenger seat (yes I was parked properly in my bay, there were plenty of parking spaces available, it was just laziness/incompetence on their part)

A car going through red lights across a very busy 4 way junction - extremely dangerous and could have caused a crash - no reason for this at all as the lights were clearly on red

Amazon driver parked in the middle of the road diagonally so no other cars could pass - there was space available on the side of the road.

Also yesterday morning, as a pedestrian, I saw a van drive so close past a cyclist that it caused the cyclist to yelp with surprise, and the van driver just shouted at him and then drove purposefully slowly in front of him obviously to annoy him, and oblivious to the problems he was causing to the rest of the drivers.

This is not unusual, every day I see truly awful driving. And you just know that the worst drivers are likely not even insured….

Another point - where I live has a 20mph limit which has been shown to significantly reduce pedestrian casualties. Many drivers hate it. When I am driving at around 20 (and there’s a lot of speed cameras around) I will often get drivers right up behind me and overtaking me. Yes 20mph does seem slow, but there are so many traffic lights and pedestrian crossings around here it really doesn’t make a huge amount of difference - the twats who overtake dangerously will usually be next to me at the next set of lights.