Driver takes short cut over pedestrian & cyclist bridge

[captain nemo1701]

Apologies if this is posted elsewhere, but just seen this and it's a true WTF? moment. Imagine cycling over the bridge towards this numpty
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/watch-driver-avoid-road-bridge-8766871
(sorry, embedding not available).

I recall a few years ago cyclists were astonished to see a car crossing a cycling footbridge elsewhere in the UK. I also understand that a female Youtube user, I think who goes by the name of 'barbieonabike' (I may have that wrong), has repeatedly encountered motorcyclists who use another cycle/ped bridge in London as a short cut, despite barriers & signs otherwise.

Has anyone here had experience of a car or some other motor vehicle attempting to access a cycle path, other than on official business?. The Bristol Railway Path occasionally has council vehicles on it, but they need to repair the lights etc. I did once find a private car that had backed into it. It turned out that the access gate padlock down in Easton was broken, so he drove onto the path for some unknown reason.

 

[Lonestar]

I did yesterday coming out of Roupell Street.Cars couldn't get round due to the taxi demo thing so whizzed straight up the one way bit towards Blackfriars Road.Seen that more than once there.So it isn't only cyclists that do it although I try not to make the rules up as I go along,myself.

 

[subaqua]

temple mill lane bridge which is only buses and cycles has now started to be used by the new occupiers of the athletes village. because they can't be bothered to drive another few hundred yards

 

[ColinJ]

Has anyone here had experience of a car or some other motor vehicle attempting to access a cycle path, other than on official business?

Yes!

A 10-30%, narrow, cobbled path, marked as a footpath/cyclepath/Unsuitable for motors/No Through Road - No Problem!

 

[cyberknight]

They can blame their sat nav

 

[Saluki]

Yes!

A 10-30%, narrow, cobbled path, marked as a footpath/cyclepath/Unsuitable for motors/No Through Road - No Problem!

Just curious, so please don't yell at me, but is "Unsuitable for Motors" an advisory or does it actually mean "Go away, you can't use this road, numpty". There isn't a sign saying 'No motor vehicles' as we see along the Marriotts Way.

 

[ColinJ]

They can blame their sat nav

They DO blame the SatNavs!

We have so many people trying to drive up and down farm tracks, footpaths and bridleways round here that local residents have taken to erecting their own warning signs ...

 

[Milkfloat]

Just curious, so please don't yell at me, but is "Unsuitable for Motors" an advisory or does it actually mean "Go away, you can't use this road, numpty". There isn't a sign saying 'No motor vehicles' as we see along the Marriotts Way.

It is an advisory sign - not legal.

 

[ColinJ]

Just curious, so please don't yell at me, but is "Unsuitable for Motors" an advisory or does it actually mean "Go away, you can't use this road, numpty". There isn't a sign saying 'No motor vehicles' as we see along the Marriotts Way.

I wondered about that myself. It isn't even suitable for bikes really, despite being part of the Pennine Cycleway!

If there isn't already a legal prohibition on driving up or down then the council should pass a by-law and then erect a suitable sign.

The driver of the car that I photographed drove right up to where the collapsed retaining wall was and sat there for about 2 minutes before deciding that he would have to reverse all the way back down again! Even if the wall had been intact, the path is too narrow higher up.

I saw a motorcyclist manage it once but that was pretty unsafe because he shot across the pavement at the top and straight out into the road above!

 

[mjr]

http://road.cc/content/news/73157-motorist-takes-wrong-turn-cambridge-railway-cycle-bridge was the one I thought of.

No need to pass a by law. Just update the traffic regulation orders, but maybe even that isn't needed because it's already signed No Through Road.

 

[summerdays]

I've met a car trying to use the path to get to the MOD (via the playing field side) and realising there was a bollard in the way had to reverse from the pylon. Also the same path but the old stretch running behind the MOD I met what I believe to be someone from the farm using the path to get to the other side of the MOD once.

Other than that it's usually just parking blocking the entrance to a path normally.

 

[Sandra6]

Not quite the same thing but yesterday I was passed by a lad on a motorbike shortcutting over the pedestrian entrance to the retail park, and this morning I stopped to let a biker u turn but he then decided to ride down the pavement instead

 

[Colin_P]

Seems legit.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I used to see this a lot in The Quarry park in Shrewsbury when I was running the rickshaw. The park is usually not open to any vehicles except cycles and whatever the wardens/gardeners need to bring in to complete their work, however if the gates at the Welsh Bridge end were left open for any reason it would only be about 20 minutes to half an hour before you'd get people just driving in for a leisurely tour round the park. (I later got asked to help out by locking the gate if I noticed it had been left open. Of course I usually only noticed once an unauthorized vehicle was already in the park.)

On a related note, my route to work takes in a lane which is a bridleway only for its middle section (the River Tern crossing is an elderly singletrack bridge unsuitable for motor traffic) and I occasionally come across people who have followed their sat-nav past three no through road signs and are looking perplexed at the concrete block which guards the bridge.

 

[captain nemo1701]

I've met a car trying to use the path to get to the MOD (via the playing field side) and realising there was a bollard in the way had to reverse from the pylon. Also the same path but the old stretch running behind the MOD I met what I believe to be someone from the farm using the path to get to the other side of the MOD once.

Other than that it's usually just parking blocking the entrance to a path normally.

Ironically on my way home tonight after starting this thread, I encountered some numpties with a scooter on the Railway Path. I heard a some years ago on the Bristol Cycling Campaign website that some guy up near the Bristol MOD claimed some legal access to his property via the (then) new cyclepath and that he could drive his car on the path. Don't know what the outcome was, I think he was being challenged to produce property deeds to support his claim or something (maybe someone here knows what happened). Anyway, this translated into cyclists darting for cover when this bloke went for a drive.