Dual/Mixed use pavements

[addictfreak]

You cant win with some people, if your on the road you have the motorist shouting get on the pavement. If your on the pavement peds want you on the road!

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

You cant win with some people, if your on the road you have the motorist shouting get on the pavement. If your on the pavement peds want you on the road!

I often wonder what the overlap is between those two groups, if you see what I mean.

 

[Origamist]

That's the problem - for many people cyclists do inhabit a liminal space. It's the multifarious nature of provision and the built environment that partially nurtures this Janus-like confusion (lanes, paths, roads, tracks, routes, networks etc.)

 

[iendicott]

Alas, under English law it is up to the cyclist to remain in the part identified for cyclists, but there is no onus for the pedestrian to stay on the part 'designated' for peds. Peds can roam as they require all over a shared use farcility.

So what happens if a cyclist where to knock someone over who is acting like an idiot in the cycle lane ?

 

[BentMikey]

So what happens if a cyclist where to knock someone over who is acting like an idiot in the cycle lane ?

I'd be the first to tell the cyclist he is a James Blunt. Pedestrians should get time and space, and not any fear from us. We're the ones that bring danger to them, after all.

 

[iendicott]

I'd be the first to tell the cyclist he is a James Blunt. Pedestrians should get time and space, and not any fear from us. We're the ones that bring danger to them, after all.

So you could say the same for people who walk on the roads then, the car drivers is at fault if the person jumped out in front of them and the car mowed them down ?

 

[Arch]

I'd sound a cautious "not alas" for this bit of the law, as it goes.

Yeah, me too.

I'm usually on the road, but there are shared paths here that are useful, and nicer than the road (mainly along the riverside). If I choose to use them, I take the choice to watch out for peds, dogs etc and moderate my riding. If I'm in a dead hurry, I use the road.

That said, if someone challenged me when I was riding on a legitimate cycle path, I'd take great delight in putting them right....

 

[BentMikey]

So you could say the same for people who walk on the roads then, the car drivers is at fault if the person jumped out in front of them and the car mowed them down ?

You sound *exactly* like an impatient car driver complaining about those bloody cyclists who ride all over the road. Slow down, give more space and be more careful around pedestrians. It's very easy to predict that pedestrians will be unpredictable.

It's the public highway FFS.

 

[Bollo]

That's the problem - for many people cyclists do inhabit a liminal space. It's the multifarious nature of provision and the built environment that partially nurtures this Janus-like confusion (lanes, paths, roads, tracks, routes, networks etc.)

Wow!

I have a shared path through War Memorial Park in Basingstoke that avoids a tricksey right turn at some lights. It's also reasonably pleasant. Apart from that I give them a damn good ignoring.

When I am on a shared-use, I try to switch off 'Bollo the post apocalypse road-warrior' and remember I'm no longer the vulnerable one.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

So you could say the same for people who walk on the roads then, the car drivers is at fault if the person jumped out in front of them and the car mowed them down ?

There's a big difference between walking on the roads and jumping out in front of a car.

There's certain lanes round our way with no footpaths. I walk along these roads. I do not expect to get run down by a car when I am doing so.

If, on the other hand, I throw myself off the pavement in front of a car I have only myself to blame for the consequences.

 

[gavintc]

The shared use paths in the Meadows in Edinburgh are well delineated and you will be quickly told as a ped if you have strayed outside your area. Lots of students on bikes use the paths and most peds know to keep out.

 

[iendicott]

You sound *exactly* like an impatient car driver complaining about those bloody cyclists who ride all over the road. Slow down, give more space and be more careful around pedestrians. It's very easy to predict that pedestrians will be unpredictable.

It's the public highway FFS.

LOL .. Yes Sir, sorry sir

Impatient car drive LOL I am afraid that couldn't be more further from the truth.

 

[Amanda P]

I've just returned from a tour through Yorkshire, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway.

In all of these places except the first one, shared-use is very much the norm, both on roads and on pavements - including through what we would call "pedestrianized" shopping streets.

Cyclists move freely from roads to pavements and back again. The degree of respect among all road users, whether on foot, on a bike, in a car or in a pram, is remarkable to British eyes. Particularly striking is the fact that, even during a festival when the streets are heaving with beer-drinking pedestrians (some scarcely capable of walking), locals weave along among the pedestrians on their bikes - and no-one turns a hair! It's a complete non-event.

...and then I arrived back at Newcastle airport. With a bump, so to speak...

 

[Arch]

With an itinerary like that, I think I'd have been tempted not to come back....

 

[Origamist]

Wow!

Not sure if that was one for Pseuds Corner or the Plain English Campaign - but I think you get the gist?

I often like a bit of liminality...