Average speed versus cycle lanes

[Cab]

No-one has ever told me I should be on the cycle path. And I've never noticed any different behaviour from drivers when I'm on a road which has a cycle path.

The likelyhood of getting aggro from a motorist for not being on a cycle path rises with the number of cyclists visibly using the facility; if you're doing 20mph on the road and the motorists can see a dozen cyclists on the cycle path doing 12mph, then you can bet that someone will yell out at you.

Or, in other words, a poorly utilised and largely invisible facility will simply not register. A well used facility that is insufficient for your needs but which is swarming with school children will register, and you're then just an objectionable cyclist who has chosen to be in his way out of complete bloody mindedness.

 

[jonesy]

Yeah, sorry, I meant cycling.

Is it really a lot though? It seems a lot on here because every time someone gets told to get off the road they post it on here. If we all posted every time a car passed us without saying anything then things would look slightly different.

My reality is that in 4 years of daily commuting I've only had one driver tell me to "get out of the way because you don't pay road tax". And there wasn't a cycle path in sight. I'd suggest that those drivers will hate you whether there is a path there or not and want you off the road, and if there is then it's just something that they can point you at.

No-one has ever told me I should be on the cycle path. And I've never noticed any different behaviour from drivers when I'm on a road which has a cycle path.

I think I'll try a poll...

I think that, as discussed in the poll thread, it is very location specific. There are plenty of useless pavement paths in Oxford that are ignored by everyone without comment, because there are so many cyclists using the road that the uselessness of the path is evident to all.

On the other hand, every day on my commute I use a heavily trafficked road in a place where there is a fairly low level of cycling. The visible presence of a cycle path on the pavement acts as a constant irritant to drivers who can't understand why the few cyclists mostly use the road rather than the (obviously expensively provided) cycle path, which surely is what cyclists want... Overt hassling only occurs occasionally, but I see this as the tip of an iceberg, as only a miniority of drivers will be agressive enough to shout, or do V signs etc. But that doesn't mean there aren't a lot more drivers quietly fuming about those selfish cyclists in their way, and personally I'd rather their attention was on driving and passing safely. I know from comments overheard at work that there are a lot of drivers who find it very irritating that cyclists don't use the path. So, at that location at least, and others like it, the only effect the 'cycle path' has had has been to worsen relations between drivers and cyclists.

That isn't to say that I am opposed to adjacent cycle paths in principle, but an awful lot of the ones we have, pavement conversions in particular, have IMHO contributed more problems that they've solved.

 

[Arch]

I'm coming round to the idea of wide pavements being marked as shared use. If drivers have consideration for cyclists and vice versa, and cyclists have consideration for pedestrians, then we can all get on better and a lot more safely.

That's the tricky 'if'. I assume the reason pavements are generally No Cycling is that you have to legislate for the daftest most inconsiderate people. You and I could probably share almost any pavement (bar the very narrowest and busiest) without danger or conflict, and keep our speed down, but the minute you get anyone zipping and weaving along, pedestrians get, understandably, nervous and peeved. So unless you can trust everyone to be considerate, you get aggro - even if you are actually perfectly responsible..

I've no doubt some paths and lanes do encourage some newbies, and indeed, some are very useful/more pleasant/more direct than the roads, even for those of us with more experience. It's a case of using the best way, and of other people understanding that we have a right to choose.

I'm sure I have had "get on the pavement/cyclepath" shouted at me a couple of times, although I don't remember exactly, and I think at least once, there wasn't a cyclepath to get on to....