Bl**dy pavement riding RLJ's...

[dondare]

Pedestrians have a higher accident rate per person per mile than cyclists. How so if the pavements are safer?

 

[summerdays]

I find it hard to believe that the majority of people here haven't at some time ridden on pavements.
This thread seems to be fixated with commuting and being brave enough to ride on the roads, well I see lots of cyclists who don't have the confidence to ride on the roads as roads are a scary place for the inexperienced.
When I cycle alone I never use the pavements now, but when I first got back into cycling I used to for most of my journeys, and I make no bones about it, it was because I was frightened of the traffic.
Saying that when I am out with my two children we often use the pavements and we have done so since they learned to ride. I am weaning them onto the roads but but they don't have enough road sense yet to ride on the roads safely. I have seen many policeman over the years, on foot and on bikes and not one has suggested that what I am doing is wrong. We always give pedestrians the right of way and we are always courteous.
One of the problems I find is that we have cycle paths that suddenly stop when the path narrows and then restart 100m further along where the path is slightly wider so if it's clear you carry on using the pavement rather than dropping onto the road. If I were to see a parent with a eight year old on the pavement it wouldn't bother me in the least but I would hate to see the eight year old trying to navigate a busy road.
I think that it's easy to be elitist but not everyone who rides a bike is as hardcore or experienced as you lot. The way to get people off the pavements is to make the roads safer and less intimidating. We need a cycle lane either beside or on every arterial road.

And just to go totally off topic, I have never understood why some people sneer at cyclists who use cycle paths or cycle lanes.

I've said before that when I first returned to cycling I cycled on the pavement and gradually weaned myself onto the road. So I fully understand why anyone in that situation cycles on the pavement. However those type of people I would say tend to cycle politely on the pavement - or at least I did, slowly, giving way to pedestrians and getting off and walking if busy. I'm not saying that a pedestrian wouldn't still be annoyed by such a cyclist - worried they may bump into them. The pavement cyclists that give cyclists a really bad name are those who cycle too fast and look as if they should have the confidence to be cycling on the road.

As to whether an 8 year old can cycle on the road - for me its very dependant on the child's ability (both cycling and road sense), the type and amount of traffic on a road and partially size of bike - when my youngest was on a 20" bike or smaller I felt he didn't really feel he was tall enough to be seen by car drivers.