cycle trails in parks

[deano69]

i recently been to my local country park who have set out a cycle/mountain biking trail with its own colour coded arrows etc, but when me and my mate went through recently people walking with kids etc have complained for example one couple said excuse me slow down we have children here, this angered me as we were on the cycle trail which is also for horses which virtually are never seen luckily .........i said excuse me but this is the cycle track blue arrow, read the signs before opening your mouth with sarcastic comments .

I showed her that in fact she was walking the bike and horse trail or blue arrow trail and that yellow arrows were for walkers as is the purple arrow woodland and wildlife trails she said sorry but you were going far too fast past my kids....errrrrrr in the snow far too fast i don,t think so .

We then went round the trail and got back to the cafe for a coffee where there was a petition to stop cycling well i never signed it, as the local authorities were the ones who allowed the use of bikes and horses and even spent a fortune building the trails :?: confused ...............................

 

[lukesdad]

One of the problems of living in the SE its why I moved.

 

[montage]

Take a spatula for a slap and run on any such annoying people

 

[dellzeqq]

it's a park. Slow down.

 

[marzjennings]

It's great that parks create these trails for mountain bikers to use, but you've always got to ride with the thought that there could be a young child sitting in the middle of the trail around the next bend. Folks don't read signs or maps and will walk everywhere, it's why I don't like riding in these places.

If the trails are pretty new it'll take a while for everyone to get used to the trail rules and also most walkers would consider a trail open to horses and bikes a bridleway to which they 'normally' have a right to use.

It may be worth finding out whether a local bike shop or club is putting together a counter point to the petition you saw. If the council only hear from one side they can only act in their favour.

 

[xpc316e]

I have some sympathy with you, but dealing with the walkers in the manner in which you did cannot have helped one iota. A patient explanation of the situation as you saw it might have helped, and prevented another group of people adding their signatures to the petition.

 

[Fiona N]

I've used the trails at Bedgebury (?Kent, Sussex) a couple of times and I have some sympathy with both sides - the blue (I think it is) route overlaps with the paths people walk on so you can't blast around without care for the peds. But on the red route - dedicated mtb trail AFAIK - I'm not expecting to meet pedestrians except where the trail crossed the walking routes so I think there you'd have a case for the peds giving way should they wish to walk on the narrow muddy (every time I've been there) tracks.

I guess the main problem is that anywhere someone builds a bike path of any sort, and especially through nice terrain, the walkers will want to walk on it. It doesn't matter whether it's a bike path to avoid a busy road (which has pavements on both sides) or a nice bit of trail through woods to take cyclists off the 'footpaths', walkers think they have a right to walk on it and then complain when there are cyclists. I guess it's a no-win situation

 

[Intelligenthamster]

I sympathise, but it is difficult when paths overlap... without any dedicated cycle trails near me I mostly use the South Downs Way and bridleways, the Centurion Way is near me and a favourite winter ride- but is shared use for walkers and cyclists, therefore always crawling with toddlers, buggies and dogs.

A well-intentioned ring on the bell and keeping a close eye on unrestrained children or dogs usually goes down well, although occasionally peeps misinterpret the "ting" to mean Get Out Of My Way... what can you do?

Swinley Forest in Bracknell is a site that seems to have cracked it: the fireroads are for everybody and cyclists need to take care as there are pedestrians etc but there are also singletracks and an MTB area for cyclists only, plus walkers only paths... it seems to work because people stick to their "own" areas.

But there is always the professional complainer... sigh