Cyclists have made my home city too stressful to live in any more

[valianttortoise]

Cycling on the pavement (on e-bikes, racing bikes, whatever) at speed, silently, no lights often, no pausing for pedestrians to cross at zebra crossings or even green men. An e-bike nearly hit me yesterday while a policeman was literally standing there watching (outside a government building in case you're wondering where on earth I saw a live one) and he did nothing, just looked at me like "wow that was close!"

I can't handle it any more it's miserable. I can't drive so it's not a car thing it's a pedestrian safety thing.

I also think seeing that it's fine to do this, in balaclavas often, is sending a message that crime and bad behaviour in general are ok. No one will stop you.

Some men (boys? hard to tell in balaclavas) on e-bikes provided by the council took an angle grinder into a busy central square last week and just calmly cut out bicycles from stands to steal them (obviously a crime I feel conflicted about in itself but how long until they realise they can just mug pedestrians at knifepoint? It was 3pm, bright sunshine).

I find it kind of hard to believe what we're just supposed to live with now. No safe spaces for walking - forget about it if you're visually impaired.

If you live somewhere with no antisocial cyclists where is it please as I'd like to join you.

What utter nonsense, making excuses for inconsiderate people, thugs and criminals, who only care about themselves !

@LameBorzoi I imagine that you’re considerate towards pedestrians if you need to cycle on the pavements though and use basic manners like saying “to your right/left” when passing them and not suddenly cutting in front of them.

That’s what often happens where I live and it’s so frustrating- especially as we do have proper cycle lanes running alongside the pavements. Personally, I prefer to use the cycle lanes anyway as you can get up a good speed!

They shouldn’t be on the pavements at all unless they are dual cycle paths

Cyclists should not be telling pedestrians to move out of the way.
That's for cyclists to do

@BrownTroutBluesAgain Yes, I know that what’s supposed to happen, I was just giving some examples of what people could do if they really feel that they need to be on the pavement on a certain street.

Cyclists or e-scooter riders not indicating that they’re right behind you can be horrible, I’ve jumped out of my skin on several occasions. Same with runners who obviously can be on the pavement-but running up behind a pedestrian without warning is a pain, especially when they’re walking a dog!

Agree
I understand your comment was a kind and inclusive one
I just don’t want cyclists thinking it’s ok to tell people to just get out of the way when it’s them that should be doing that
💐

@BrownTroutBluesAgain Oh I do give cyclists the evil eye if they pass me on the pavement. 😂

To be fair to cyclists, they are running the gauntlet every time they go out. We have cycle lanes (Edinburgh), but they are so badly designed. You get a short stretch of cycle lane (sometimes shielded by a lane of parked cars so motorists can’t actually see you) and suddenly it ends and you’re spat out right into a bus lane and busy traffic. Then there are the cars and vans that continually park in them making them impassable. Not to mention the huge number of balaclava clad idiots on e-bikes and scooters who are quite simply a danger to everyone. I wouldn’t cycle on the roads either.

.
it was the best I could find 😆

Dog walkers are notorious for having no spatial awareness combined with maximising space consumption. It would be good if everyone could try THINKING about what is going on around them and being a bit considerate of others, that would significantly improve quality of life.

Do you know how many car drivers kill and injure every day?? You need to get some perspective.

Im wondering where you live? Completely different where we live

I imagine people felt the same when cars started taking over our streets, about 100 years ago, never to leave. The only difference being, these annoying cyclists aren't actually killing people in their millions.

Locally an old lady crossing the road was killed by a car. It didn't make the local news. Because she is dead she can't go online and complain about cars, whereas people who've had near misses and minor collisions with bikes can. Not excusing bad cycling, but it's much safer for pedestrians than cars.

@asrl78 Yes, that’s def. a point. But we certainly can’t get out of the way quickly if someone coming up behind us and wanting to pass doesn’t indicate that they’re there!

As a teenager, I used to cycle everywhere, including behind my school on a shared path by a stream. We were always told to let pedestrians know that we were there…I once witnessed a classmate fail to do this and try to pass someone at a narrow section…I watched his slow motion topple sideways into the stream. 😂

Anyone else have lime bikes parked everywhere?

No just cars

Surely part of the problem is people being too lazy to organise and cook their own food so they use an app to arrange for someone to deliver (usually a very unhealthy) meal to their door. And the fact that these drivers are paid a shockingly low wage so they are trying to deliver as quickly as possible. It's a society issue not just the individuals on e scooters

They are a complete menace. People just leave them on the pavement wherever they like - they aren't in special bays. They are everywhere. School kids use them to go to school even though they are officially too young. They weigh a tonne too.

Better than taking up thousands of acres of public land for car parking.

Cars are a million times worse for cluttering up the place.

Far heavier and more deadly, too!

There is this false notion that cyclists are not using the road in the proper way, like they are playing on some big toy and only the car is the proper way to use the road. Why can't the cyclist use the road and take the lane if it's unsafe to overtake. In a thread about cyclists using pavements, they get criticised for using roads.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y38zdle17o

already happened in Oxford, though this was a “legal” cyclist found not to be at blame. The pedestrian was an acquaintance of my mother. Shared paths can be lethal.

It's tragic, and I loathe shared paths, but cyclists are still far less dangerous than cars are to pedestrians and cyclists.

It is illegal for cars to park on the pavement but huge electric bikes are left all over the place. There is huge controversy about them. It is fair to say a lot of people are not happy.

I'll take the evil eye over cars trying to side swipe me.

People go on and on about this, but it's mostly the fact that they exist that offends people. It's rare that they are actually in the way, and it's nothing compared to cars parked across footpaths / in bike lanes / at corners / cluttering up streets etc etc. We are just used to everything revolving around cars, which is not a good thing.