Bicycles and scooters on pavements and shared walking spaces

[PerhapsPerhapsMaybe]

AIBU to think that scooters and bicycles on pavements is out of control and it’s time there were laws to protects pedestrians

There are laws but more people just ignore them now. It’s worse since the introduction of E Bikes. I’m not sure if that’s causation or coincidence.

it was never this bad with the Santander bikes.
a few times in the last week ive had near misses - was nearly been taken down by a teenager racing straight at me on a crowded pavement - other people were more shocked than I was actually. I just hopped out of the way and considered myself lucky. It was only later I thought about potential injuries if he’d hit me.

I know the lime bikes now have a registration number but it’s miniscule and frankly they’re often nicked - you can tell by the sound they make.

personally I think they should ban them until they’ve had a chance to review them for safety.

Oh forgot to add, loads of very young kids on scooters here. I just stand still and that tends to focus them a bit so they slow down or stop then go around. If they look like they’re going to collide I just put my hand out to stop them. Parents are normally mortified when they realise their kid is about to crash in to an old lady but then they are on their phones and not really watching their kids.

I am amazed there hasn’t been a serious accident here yet. All that said, while they’re a pain in the backside. They’re not a threat to life and limb like lime bikes are. Those things are shockingly heavy. Would be interesting to know user injury stats. Bet it’s high.

Runners annoy me more than cyclists. Unless it is a running track or there is somehow a designated speed limit, you don't have any more right than someone moving more slowly.

No, but people ought to be aware if they’re blocking someone else’s way. If I’m walking in a group I usually have half an eye open for anyone who wants to get past.

I was hurrying to catch a train yesterday (unexpected emergency, not because I was late) & while changing tubes had to get through people walking slowly next to each other while pulling huge cases & staring at their phones.

Of course everyone has the same rights to move - at whatever speed they want - along a pavement. Including a runner.

But when people are selfishly walking across the breadth of a pavement, and unaware of those coming towards them, or those behind them, that is not fair.

They have the right to saunter, but not the right to occupy the full breadth of the pavement, thus requiring others to step into the gutter or the road.

Fatalities by Road User Type (2025 Provisional Data)
Car occupants: 638 deaths (~41% of total fatalities)
Motorcyclists: 384 deaths (~25% of total fatalities)
Pedestrians: 372 deaths (~24% of total fatalities)
Pedal cyclists: 81 deaths (~5% of total fatalities)
Bus, coach, LGV, and HGV occupants / other: 80 deaths (~5% of total fatalities)

How do you come to the conclusion most road deaths aren’t by private car?

or that most don’t involve pedestrians 24% is higher for pedestrians than your high figure of HGVs coaches buses etc?

I said, I never mentioned bicycles

i could clearly see you had written it

Why would you do that?

How many of those "cars" aren't domestic cars, but are commercial, i.e. taxis?

You're also misusing the statistics by using "Occupants". What about the deaths caused by, say, lorries, where others have been killed caused by the lorry?

There is much more risk of injury or death to a cyclist on the road with cars than a pedestrian on a pavement with cyclists.

And this not the point I’m making.

I want to be safe on the pavements.

Not the endless cars and bicycles whataboutery.

Tell that to my friend who received life-changing injuries from a broken spine after being hit by a hit-and-run cyclist cycling on the pavement.

Car drivers are appalling to cyclists & pedestrians, but the pavement is for pedestrians. There is a pavement so that pedestrians can walk safely. They shouldn't be required to share the risk of cyclists.

Well I walk faster than some runners do, so what happens then? Am I allowed to overtake the slower runners?

But it's not whataboutery. Vehicles parking (and driving!) on pavements is a much bigger issue than cyclists.

I agree that e-bikes are a scourge in London (well their riders are). But outside London the far bigger issue is vehicles. I have no idea why councils refuse to use their new powers to do anything about it.

I did read the other day that since e-bikes were introduced in the Netherlands where they customarily don't wear helmets, the rate of injuries including head injuries has risen a lot.

I have never tried a Lime bike because as you say they look really heavy. The Boris bikes do as well though.

I haven’t misused the stats, I’ve brought the stats up and am asking you the questions?

how many of the cars are private cars and not taxis? You tell, you made the statements / so you must have the answer? Where did you get the further breakdown from, separating cars and taxis - I couldn’t find the answer

pedestrian at 24% are a different category to car occupants at 41%, I’d not mentioned car occupants or 41%

It’s classic whataboutery.

There no moving vehicles on the pavements where I live and u have not noticed them in London.

There are however dozens of badly mannered, dangerous, inconsiderate cyclists.

I don’t think the lime bikes really count as cycles as they are power assisted and extremely heavy. I know of two people personally who have broken lower limbs when they dropped the bike by accident and both said that the docs and nurses in A&E said it’s increasing.

not against power assisted bikes in general - much cleaner and quieter than mopeds which is what delivery drivers used to use here.

not sure what the solution is really, especially as it’s virtually impossible to trace bad riders.

not sure what the solution is really, especially as it’s virtually impossible to trace bad riders.

all lime bike users can be traced, through location and credit/debit card

In theory yes. There are quite a lot of teenagers riding ones they’ve broken in to in these parts (and this is one of the ‘naice’ areas).
I don’t think it’s people with debit/credit cards deliberately targeting people on the pavement.
I know some boroughs have banned them already.

It's not what aboutery, because the two things are linked (until there are separate useable spaces for bikes ).

As a pedestrian, at some point you have to cross the road, at which point you are at risk of injury or death by car.

If you ban bikes from pavements, the need to make those journeys does not go away. So those people on bikes either ride on the road ( increasing the risk of car vs bike, which is nastier than bike vs pedestrian ) or they drive a car instead ( adding one more car clogging up the roads and increasing risk to both pedestrians and cyclists ).

It's not that injuries from bikes don't happen. It's that those type of injuries occur all the time in collisions with cars, but we just accept them. They are rare with bikes, and far more likely with cars.

I’m not engaging with this anymore.

As a pedestrian you treat crossing a road very differently to walking on a pavement. You expect cars and other vehicles on a road, you don't on a pavement.

Shall we do the same for cars given safety record