Disgusting excuse of a cyclist 🤷‍♂️

[All uphill]

It sounds like both need a bit of anger management training, but he was definitely in the more vulnerable position.



Why? She was in a 1 tonne vehicle with solid windows and honking her horn at a vulnerable, if possibly annoying road user. She was unlikely to experience any negative repercussions.

I suspect neither the cyclist nor the motorist have any recollection of this event (if they ever existed outside the OPs imagination), and yet here we are still discussing it.

You have to love social media.

 

[winjim]

The stuff they use to bulk up cheap coffee.

Chivalry is the change from colonialism to equality.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I thought it was a pejorative term for a loutish person who wears cheap sports gear and behaves in an unsophisticated and antisocial manner.

 

[Drago]

I thought it was a pejorative term for a loutish person who wears cheap sports gear and behaves in an unsophisticated and antisocial manner.

Nah. That's Ant and Dec.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Here's an example of why I'm not as dogmatic about pavement riding as @Drago This is Frant Rd, to the S of Tunbridge Wells.

It's a stiffish hill about 600m long with an average gradient of 6% and a max of 10%. Being an old fart that's crawling speed for me (no faster than 15km/h, down to below 10 on the steepest bit). I don't know what the speed limit is on that stretch, I think it's national speed limit (60mph) but there may be a 50 limit on there possibly. Anyway, it's quite straight and wide so vehicles are going at quite a lick. Even a considerate pass can have quite a slipstream/wind impact. It's also narrow enough for a driver to decide to do a close pass if there are oncoming vehicles. They shouldn't, but they do.

So I hop onto the pavement. It's not a cycle path, it's a footway. I'm now being naughty and irresponsible. But I first do an extensive risk assessment. I get out my clip-board. Can I see a person using this footway? Nope. Have I ever seen a person using this footway? No, never. If I did see a person would I, travelling at about 12km/h, be able to take evasive action/dismount before colliding with them? I think so. Are there any driveways or entrances, concealed or otherwise? Again, no.

I don't like that stretch of road, but it's a useful link on a number of my routes, so I do use it. And yes, I ride on the footway. It's a bit crap but it's no worse than a lot of dedicated cycle paths.

I'm not advocating hurtling through housing estates on the footpath on a bike. In fact, I'm not advocating anything. I don't really give a damn how other people ride when I'm not there. Just saying that I can and do choose the footway sometimes. Uphill busy/fast-ish roads are one such. In fact I did a couple of hundred metres like that at the weekend (but it's not as good an example as Frant Rd)

In the unlikely event that PC plod did see me and decided to give me a FPN I'd explain my reasoning, and if that did not sway their opinion I'd take it on the chin and pay up. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

 

[Drago]

Why not walk on the footway instead? If youre reduced to using it then why the insistence on cycling? It's not a substitute road for the unfit or easily startled.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Why not walk on the footway instead? If youre reduced to using it then why the insistence on cycling? It's not a substitute road for the unfit or easily startled.

Why not walk on the footway? Because I don't want to and see no reason to.

It may not have been put there as a substitute road, but that's how I choose to use it.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Why not walk on the footway? Because I don't want to and see no reason to.

It may not have been put there as a substitute road, but that's how I choose to use it.

I would approve of you using a deserted footpath for cycling after a proper check about people that you might even inconvenience

I even do the same on the road past our estate - there is about 100 yards from our road to the cyclepath
officially to get to it I should turn right onto an often busy road with sight lines often blocked by cars parked on teh grass verge
then, one on the road - then I need to signal and turn right onto the star tof teh cycle path
and at a point where car drivers to not expect to encounter someone moving across "their" bit of road

I regard it as being safer to tootle slowly down the pavement for 100 yards that use the road and doing 2 right turns


Clearly - any walkers or dogs or anything I encounter in this bit has absolute right of way and it is MY problem to get out of their way

same applies for any bit where cyclists are officially not supposed to be - it is the cyclist's problems to get out of the way
and I reckon if all cyclist thought that way then a lot fo the anti-cyclist carp on the internet would start to disappear

 

[HMS_Dave]

There's pavements on the stretch of the A51 that lead to nowhere and i've never seen a pedestrian use them in 40 years. I believe they were probably used extensively in a time gone by to serve Labourers going to the farms. Not sure. But still, i'd never cycle on the A51 on the road or pavement or even use it as a pedestrian. There is little difference between parts of that road and a Motorway. Thankfully, i don't have to use it.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The weirdest/most horrible bit of pedestrian infrastructure I've used (and yes I did dismount for this one!) was the M11 junction at Birchanger Green near Bishops Stortford. Its a big traffic light controlled roundabout but there are some footpaths that enable you to cross the slip roads when the lights are favourable. Judging from the state of the paths they were not well used. For good reason, it was utterly terrifying. I think maybe workers at the motorway services may use them occasionally.

Theres a footbridge over the M11 about 1km away that I was intending to use, but I got lost.

I suppose as the roundabout is actually an A road, I could theoretically have ridden across. But I'd just finished an audax and I was knackered.

 

[Brandane]

Here's an example of why I'm not as dogmatic about pavement riding as @Drago This is Frant Rd, to the S of Tunbridge Wells.

View attachment 802649
It's a stiffish hill about 600m long with an average gradient of 6% and a max of 10%. Being an old fart that's crawling speed for me (no faster than 15km/h, down to below 10 on the steepest bit). I don't know what the speed limit is on that stretch, I think it's national speed limit (60mph) but there may be a 50 limit on there possibly. Anyway, it's quite straight and wide so vehicles are going at quite a lick. Even a considerate pass can have quite a slipstream/wind impact. It's also narrow enough for a driver to decide to do a close pass if there are oncoming vehicles. They shouldn't, but they do.

So I hop onto the pavement. It's not a cycle path, it's a footway. I'm now being naughty and irresponsible. But I first do an extensive risk assessment. I get out my clip-board. Can I see a person using this footway? Nope. Have I ever seen a person using this footway? No, never. If I did see a person would I, travelling at about 12km/h, be able to take evasive action/dismount before colliding with them? I think so. Are there any driveways or entrances, concealed or otherwise? Again, no.

I don't like that stretch of road, but it's a useful link on a number of my routes, so I do use it. And yes, I ride on the footway. It's a bit crap but it's no worse than a lot of dedicated cycle paths.

I'm not advocating hurtling through housing estates on the footpath on a bike. In fact, I'm not advocating anything. I don't really give a damn how other people ride when I'm not there. Just saying that I can and do choose the footway sometimes. Uphill busy/fast-ish roads are one such. In fact I did a couple of hundred metres like that at the weekend (but it's not as good an example as Frant Rd)

In the unlikely event that PC plod did see me and decided to give me a FPN I'd explain my reasoning, and if that did not sway their opinion I'd take it on the chin and pay up. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

How dare you use common sense, Mr Trousers!
Next you'll be admitting to turning left on a red traffic light at 3am in the middle of nowhere without a vehicle or pedestrian for miles around.
Rules are rules! 😜

 

[freiston]

I'm with National Policing Lead for Cycling Assistant Chief Constable Mark Milsom on this

Personally, I think if a cyclist uses their noddle, acknowledges that pedestrians always take priority, and adjusts their speed/dismounts according to conditions to make things safe and not to cause people to feel intimidated or unsafe, then a little bit of pavement cycling is ok - though I do, on the whole, avoid it. There are also places where cycling is not prohibited but the pathway is not part of a highway, such as in some parks - but I suspect a fair few pedestrians presume that cycling is automatically illegal on all pathways unless there are signs to say shared use.

I do cycle the 50 or so yards of pavement from the nearest drop kerb to my home.

There are definitely some stretches of road where I routinely feel intimidated and unsafe through the actions of motorists.

Edit: I've just realised that the link I posted is 12 years old.

 

[Drago]

I'm with National Policing Lead for Cycling Assistant Chief Constable Mark Milsom on this

Good luck getting him to appear in court on your behalf.

Pavements are for people. Not cars. Not bicycles. Not duckbilled platipi. I don't understand why some folk struggle with the concept.

The laissez faire manner in which we treat the footway in the UK would earn you a good pistol whipping in most western European countries or even the US.

 

[Mike_P]

Good luck getting him to appear in court on your behalf.

Pavements are for people. Not cars. Not bicycles. Not duckbilled platipi. I don't understand why some folk struggle with the concept.

The laissez faire manner in which we treat the footway in the UK would earn you a good pistol whipping in most western European countries or even the US.

The police were directing non UCI cyclists to cycle on pavements during the 2019 UCIs. If the priority of highway users is kept to there should be no issue with cycling on pavements
Locally anyway some pavements are cycle paths as well but due to a complete lack of maintenance which bits are now is now invisible.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The laissez faire manner in which we treat the footway in the UK would earn you a good pistol whipping in most western European countries or even the US.

Not just the footway. The laissez-faire manner with which pedestrian lights are treated in this country would give your average Berliner a fit of the vapours. People strolling out against the red man willy-nilly.

In the US these days I expect there are ICE agents licensed to use deadly force to enforce the jaywalking laws. In my years living in New York I used to respect the lights, but that was just because I didn't want to get run over.

Mind you the average Neapolitan would be puzzled why anyone was taking any notice of them at all.