Cycling on pavements.

[palinurus]

You know the roads are getting dangerous when buses take to the pavements.

 

[classic33]

You know the roads are getting dangerous when buses take to the pavements.

Nice one. There's always one
However at the time he was on a bike, not a bus, on the pavement.

 

[garrilla]

In general I don't like pavement cycling. Its especially frustrating to see cyclists with full-on safety gear ride on the pavement, it suggest to me that they thought a lot about themselves and nothing about others. I realise that some people are frightened of the roads, but by riding on the pavement all they tend to be do is displacing their fear to more vunerable pedestrians.

However, I might be a hypocrit. I do ride on the pavement when I take my daughter to school. We ride on the road on the back roads, but she's only 5 and there is no way that I'd let here ride on a main road. We do always prioritise pedestrians though and we're never going faster that 6mph.

 

[mangaman]

Below is a link to a blog by a commuter new to the game. Although you can see that he is drawn to cycling for the benefits, which he states throughout the post, he admits that he cycles on the pavements because the roads are (quite rightly perhaps) seen as the domain of the motorist.

http://kormmandos.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/my-foldable-bicycle-dahon-vitesse-d7/

Sorry chap, but a crap, one paragraph blog by one person in Malaysia, who cycles on the pavement to work, doesn't mean it's right.

(btw - his whole commute is only 5 miles and his average spped is 5 mph - I could walk it at that speed if I were brisk)

It means

a) he shouldn't be on a bike without some basic training.
nothing in this country

Roads may be seen as the domain of the motorist, but they are not.

 

[Norm]

Bicycles aren't just road vehicles. They're far more than that.

Hmmm.... yes, I agree, but is there not a danger that by allowing cycling on any pavement, that will just give more ammunition to the "get bikes off the roads" lobby?

 

[Norm]

Aye, with restrictions on speed, I think it would be a good thing to allow the less confident cyclists to use pavements without concerns for the legalities.

 

[chap]

Sorry chap, but a crap, one paragraph blog by one person in Malaysia, who cycles on the pavement to work, doesn't mean it's right.

(btw - his whole commute is only 5 miles and his average spped is 5 mph - I could walk it at that speed if I were brisk)

It means

a) he shouldn't be on a bike without some basic training.
nothing in this country

Roads may be seen as the domain of the motorist, but they are not.

My reply shows more consideration to your post than you were bothered to apply to a single sentence of mine. However, you are entitled to your opinion, regardless. Happy Cycling.

 

[marinyork]

And I'm not saying any pavement, as some wouldn't be suitable. I do think though that it's entirely possible to enable cyclists to get from pretty much anywhere to anywhere using a combination of quieter roads and suitable pavements for shared use.

I'm all for miles of pavement to be opened up to shared use - 1% of pavements round here. From a practicality perspective I'd have thought that even if everything on my wish list got made shared use, a 20 mph default urban limit is far more useful. It'd make many miles of middle category roads much less threatening for pedestrian and cyclists.

 

[chap]

I'm all for miles of pavement to be opened up to shared use - 1% of pavements round here. From a practicality perspective I'd have thought that even if everything on my wish list got made shared use, a 20 mph default urban limit is far more useful. It'd make many miles of middle category roads much less threatening for pedestrian and cyclists.

I agree entirely, although it is how well that this is enforced that counts. Many 30mph roads are drag strips for wayward teens and cretinous adults.

 

[mangaman]

My reply shows more consideration to your post than you were bothered to apply to a single sentence of mine. However, you are entitled to your opinion, regardless. Happy Cycling.

Sorry to have caused offense. It wasn't meant at all.

My post does look a lot more gratuitously aggressive than intended in the cold light of day. When I wrote it I thought a bit of humour would come across, which when reading it again - is far from the case

Happy cycling to you too.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

And no one is condoning reckless pavement riding. Its just that we need to keep this in some kind of context; I see pavement riding every day, many times, and the number of instances I see of dangerous pavement riding approaches zero.

Using that same context, I see plenty of LGV's and HGV's on the road every single day but I've never seen a cyclist go under one & only a tiny handful of the cycling population die under them every year anyway, so why all the fuss about that?

not a lot of examples doesn't always mean not a lot of a problem.

context is fine in a discussion on a pro cycling forum but unfortunately this is a very public demonstration of 'bad' cycling that is actually illegal and the negativity and bad press it gives us may well be far in excess of the real life damage that it does, but it gives certain types of driver carte blanche to launch into violent and verbal tirades against all of us.

I've been driven into and had abuse screamed at me as a f*****g red light jumping pavement riding c**t. (whilst sat waiting at a red light on the road!) No doubt a driver with a tiny penis and even smaller brain but it was the instant excuse used for deliberately swiping me with his car and screaming out of his window. It is always something that is mentioned when people talk about the ills of cycling and is a regular in what nasty abuse I do get.
like it or not, it is a big deal and it has a disproportionate effect on the perception of all cyclists.

 

[chap]

Sorry to have caused offense. It wasn't meant at all.

My post does look a lot more gratuitously aggressive than intended in the cold light of day. When I wrote it I thought a bit of humour would come across, which when reading it again - is far from the case

Happy cycling to you too.

No offence taken, we're all on the same side; it's a velocipedic love-in here!

​

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

A loon went hurtling between peds on a BMX and off down the pavement this morning.

Prompting me to be sternly told "WALK!" by one of the near-victims, across a Toucan =/

Dunno what I had to do with it, other than daring to be on a bicycle??

 

[mangaman]

No offence taken, we're all on the same side; it's a velocipedic love-in here!

​

Cool I agree - although I'm not sure about your boxing smiley (4th one). Do you want a fight or something?

 

[chap]

Cool I agree - although I'm not sure about your boxing smiley (4th one). Do you want a fight or something?

Nope, save that for the commuting motorists to do among their-selves