to think that adult cyclists who ride on pavements are selfish & irresponsible?

[Rafi]

I can understand it if there's a child on the back. But normally it seems to be some selfish idiot who thinks they can do what they want & never mind the pedestrians...

AIBU?

"Off on my bike now to work. I'll be riding up the A57 Mottram Moor pavement if any jobsworth needs to be tipped off."

Pan - sorry, I missed this this morning. Please can you tip me off with a bit more notice next time and I will definitely report you and ask for action to be taken.

BTW do you want me to actually call the police officer a "jobsworth" on your behalf or would you rather do it yourself face to face?

i love the way any time someone is breaking a law that they have taken it upon themselves to deem unnecessary, anyone who objects,reports or tries to stop them is a jobsworth.

Hear hear to what bloss said. I cycle to nursery and then work with my 2.4 year old. There are very few pavements, but for uphill sections I have been known to use them. When there are no pedestrians present, obviously.

What my driving instructor used to say: "the pavement is for pedestrians".

I had a new bike for my 13th birthday and was riding it on the pavement to get used to it and got stopped by two passing policeman. They seemed happy that I was just getting used to it and not planning to ride on the pavement in future! Although I did but wouldn't expect pedestrians to move out of my way or anything.

I was wondering when riding on the pavement is it ok to overtake people as long as you aren't going too fast?

Hope that's a joke, nappy ...

Cycle paths are sometimes no better as they cause total confusion about who has right of way.

There's a cycle path down Middle Meadow Walk in Edinburgh (where I walk every day) and most people seem to take this to mean that it is a) perfectly OK to use any other path in the meadows for fast cycling, despite the clear NO CYCLING signs, and b) that where the cyle lanes intersect with pedestrian paths, there is no need to slow down to avoid the pedestrians. Is pretty scary sometimes, I almost got hit yesterday.

I'm all in favour of better cycle paths etc but we live in densely populated cities that were never designed for anything like the volume of people who use the roads and pavements, and I think mixing bikes with pedestrians is just starting a whole new set of problems.

... it's also the fact that on the MMW path, the path slopes steeply downhill, so cyclists arrive at the bottom going very fast, to be met with no signage at all about what to do about crossing pedestrians. Easy enough for them to just try to bomb it through the crowd.

The more people get out on their bikes and use the roads, the safer cycling will become. People who cycle (I wouldn't term them 'cyclists')on pavements "because the roads are so dangerous these days" need to go on a cycling proficiency course to gain some confidence and know how. There are very few occasions when I would feel the need to go on the pavement for a short stretch - only when having to cross an A road for example. If you don't feel safe cycling on the road then don't - WALK! or plan a quieter route for goodness sake!

Message withdrawn

I ding my bell when on the local 'greenway' (shared walkers, cyclists, prams etc) precisely to warn people that I am coming so I don't make them jump. Some people seem grateful that I've alerted them, some seem affronted and some seem hard of hearing . I'll carry on dinging it regardless .

"How about: be respectful, take care, give pedestrians priority at all times, and use something that is already there that makes your journey with your children safer."

How about: follow the law?

That's why it's end of story. Not because it's my opinion. Because it's the law. And the law is there for a reason - to protect pedestrians from wheeled vehicles which move a great deal faster (and therefore have a much greater force on impact) than other pedestrians. In other words, for the same reasons that cars and horses are banned from pavements.

My objection is not to cyclists, or to mad cyclists, but to cyclists who think they are above the law. If you don't like the law, move to a country where you do like the law.

Again - if you are afraid of the roads then maybe the bicycle is not the mode of transport for you.

As a pedestrian I HATE bikes on pavements and I HATE mixed use pavement/cyclepaths, which is the norm round here.

However, when I am cycling I LOVE 'em - so much safer for cyclists.

YANBU. As a cyclist it annoys me as much as other cyclists who go through red lights because it makes people think all cyclists are crap when most of us are not. I wish these people wouldn't give us all such a bad name!

I think if you are going to be strict about this you should also penalise pedestrians who use cycle paths.

YANBU, but there are an awful lot of shared use paths which often pedestrians don't notice (I certainly didn't when not cycling). It is entirely reasonable and lawful for cyclists to use pavements when they are designated cycle lanes. It really doesn't justify pedestrians getting annoyed when there is a big gang of people standing around on a cycle part of a mixed use lane who object to a cyclist saying 'excuse me please' because, after all, its a pavement.

MIFLAW is the John Wayne of MN. It's the LAWWWW, or get outta mah town.

Do you really obey every single law of this country. Really, truly? Obv doubt that you would cop to speeding a single mile over the speed limit, right now, however, you're setting yourself up on a pretty high horse with that argument.

(I'm pretty sure that there is still a law that a pregnant woman can wee wherever she wants to - well there was when I did my A-levels, according to my gov&politics tutor)

I am a cylist and I would never ride on the pavement. I ride both road and mountain bikes and also used to commute to work on a busy section of dual carriageway ring road.

You need to be aware of your placement in the road. Unfortunately the tendency from many not confident cyclists when cars are whizzing past them is to get closer and closer to the verge - you need to do the exact opposite. You need to place yourself where a cars passenger wheel would be in the carriageway (if you look you can usually see the worn tarmac to show where this is). By not hiding yourself away you make traffic notice you and you make them think about how they overtake you. At junctions you need to take even more care to make suresure drivers have seen you, even if that is by putting yourself in the middle of the lane.

The only cyclists I expect to see on a pavement are young kids alone. Kids riding with their parents should be in the road, with their parent behind and slightly outside of them.

Oh and also, don't run red lights, it's dangerous.

It's wrong, but in the real world what can cyclists do? Where I live some of the roads are so bad you'd be crazy to cycle on them. As long as a cyclist is careful and courteous (and most are)I am ok with it.

We want more cyclists after all. There are too many cars as it is.

Btw I have no idea how to tell if a path is shared use. I suppose if I were a cyclist I'd have read about signs and things, but I'm not.

erm "suresure" is supposed to just be sure! don't know what happened there!

I think that's good advice about "By not hiding yourself away you make traffic notice you and you make them think about how they overtake you." because a car wouldn't attempt to drive next to another car and crowd them off the road, but drivers do that to cyclists

It's the most common thing inexperienced cyclists do wrong. It's an understandable reaction but it's not helpful.

Yes. Did you know that out of the 12 cyclists killed on london roads so far this year, 10 have them have been women. I am quoting my db so don't ask me to find this though. He was lecturing me on the need to cycle like a man rather than obeying the rules like a good girl.

Round me, shared use paths generally have a thick white line down the middle with a picture of a bike on half of them. That half is usually also at a different level with some sort of brick/different paving marking the change. There is also a blue sign with a picture of a bike.

Googled to see if I could find the stats, and found this, interesting, off topic tho

women obeying the law, more likely to be killed by lorries