Cycle Lanes - for cyclists?

[RoyPSB]

Am I missing something?

Out for my weekend ride this morning, going along nicely in a cycle lane, with only a grass verge at the side - no pavement. A few hundred yards ahead I can see a jogger running towards me, in the cycle lane. I assume they will get out of my way as I get closer and just go on the grass verge until I pass. The closer I got, I realised she was not going to get out of the way. When we were just a matter of yards apart, I moved out of the cycle lane - or we would have collided cos she was going nowhere!

No big deal, you might say. But that was one dangerous game of chicken she was playing. As far as I'm concerned she was well out of order and deserved the expletive she received. Or, am I missing some bizarre rule or standard of etiquette?

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

Well, to be honest, I think you're being a bit like the drivers who complain about cyclists "riding in the middle of the f*****g road" or who can't be bothered to move to the next (empty) lane to pass a cyclist safely.

 

[HLaB]

+1 Calm down and take the excuse not to use the farcility

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Cool - bloke on a bike swearing at a woman.

 

[Cyclopathic]

I think if it didn't cause a problem at the time and you avoided her without any trouble then it doesn't matter. Personally I'd like to see us all working towards sensibly shared space where apropriate and less emphasis on cars as the most important thing on the roads.

Having said that though I am ready to kill the next person I find parking in a cycle lane so my own tollerance isn't all it could be.

 

[marinyork]

If there was no pavement, I would actively expect a pedestrian to be using to be using the road.

There is a slightly more nuanced debate to be had than particularly spokeydokey or MrHappycyclist has had on the matter about it though, but it doesn't change the debate much.

 

[gaz]

I often get people walking in a cycle lane on a particular road as there isn't a pavement. If the cycle lane wasn't there, i wouldn't expect them to move out of the way. I would move out to go around them safely. Just as you should have done (sooner).

We need to share the road and look out for people more vulnerable than ourselves.

 

[Norm]

Was this an on-road cycle lane or an entirely separate cycle path?

 

[Theseus]

I would also ask it it was an existing bit of path that someone had designated a cycle route or was it a path that had been built and provided for the exclusive use of cyclists. Not many of the latter around.

 

[RoyPSB]

An

Was this an on-road cycle lane or an entirely separate cycle path?

On-road cycle lane with a flat grass verge next to it, which she could have should have got onto when she saw me approaching.

No too much empathy juding by some of these replies - I find that quite surprising. Swearing at a woman? - no swearing at someone who was most certainly in the wrong.

 

[potsy]

Was there a pavement for her to use?
If not then she was doing the sensible thing and running towards oncoming traffic where she can see it coming.
How much did it inconvenience you to move over a couple of feet?
You say yourself that you saw her a few hundred yards away so had plenty of time to plan your move

 

[Crackle]

Whether she was in the wrong is moot. Deliberately playing chicken is just silly, go around. If there wasn't a pavement there, she would have no choice but to run in the road, pedestrians have priority, always. I'd prefer to share the roads with runners than cars.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

There is a slightly more nuanced debate to be had than particularly spokeydokey or MrHappycyclist has had on the matter about it though, but it doesn't change the debate much.

 

[G-Zero]

An
On-road cycle lane with a flat grass verge next to it, which she could have should have got onto when she saw me approaching.

No too much empathy juding by some of these replies - I find that quite surprising. Swearing at a woman? - no swearing at someone who was most certainly in the wrong.

Empathy ? It's you that's in the wrong.

As a pedestrian, running along a carriageway that is designated cycle lane is safer for her than it would be for her to run in the car lane, especially if that would sandwich her between a bike and a car.
If there is no footpath provided for her use, then she has as much right as you to be on any part of that carriageway, the same as the law does not force you in to that cycle lane.

There is no reason for her to risk twisting an ankle on the grass verge, when all you had to do was a shoulder check and move wide.

If it had been her bloke, you may have been picking your backside up off the floor.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

An
someone who was most certainly in the wrong.

She was no more in the wrong for not using the unmetalled grass verge than a cyclists would be for not using a narrow, crap-filled, pot-hole riddled cycle lane.