I almost hit a child today & it's shaken me up (video). I Think I'll drive to work tomorrow.

[mjr]

Putting it simply cycle paths, segregated or not are not good for going quickly if there's anyone else about. I have a few nice off road tracks round here (parts of the C2C and Hadrians routes) and early in the morning with noone about I can go quickly down them, but as soon as there's anyone around I slow right down.

Is there anyone who you feel people riding bikes do have priority over? Do you have your manservant walking in front of your bike waving a red flag?

I have no problems riding fairly fast on paths, while still riding so I can stop within what I can see and reasonably expect to be clear - however, the paths are a lot better than that one in the video, which looks too narrow to use safely at much speed, with poor visibility to both sides: cars parked on one side - trees, benches and posts on the other. I can't believe that one's safe to 12mph or whatever the minimum design speed is supposed to be now.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Really well dealt with, doubt I would have been so calm and due to crappy brakes there is no way I would have stopped as quickly as you did, I really wouldn't beat yourself up about it

Or worse, braking so suddenly that you haven't time to unclip, so you then have a clipless moment..... Landing directly on the kid!

I shouldn't jest, I know, sorry.

I'm probably wrong but did anyone think the child looked cowed? He seems very meek and wary, almost as if he expected a whack.

I think when he realised, he expected to be hit, I know I would have, but afterwards, I think he was just a bit stunned as others have said and probably felt a bit stupid to boot!

I can't see the vid from here so I'm commenting in gereralities.

Putting it simply cycle paths, segregated or not are not good for going quickly if there's anyone else about. I have a few nice off road tracks round here (parts of the C2C and Hadrians routes) and early in the morning with noone about I can go quickly down them, but as soon as there's anyone around I slow right down. Yes it's annoying to have to build up the pace again, but these are not high speed arterial routes, that's what roads are for.

Yeah I can have some nice speedy runs on paths when nobody is about (or at locations where you wouldn't reasonably expect anyone as others have said) it is like my own personal race track, but add pedestrians and it is different.

As an aside, people go on about having to slow down on tracks and what a pain it is, yah de yah de yah, but, on roads, you have to slow and often have to stop at junctions and lights anyway, so it is 6 and half a dozen to me.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

As an aside, people go on about having to slow down on tracks and what a pain it is, yah de yah de yah, but, on roads, you have to slow and often have to stop at junctions and lights anyway, so it is 6 and half a dozen to me.

Meh, paths tend to have extra junctions you need to give way to cross, driveways, crossings. Round this way they are interrupted everywhere the road would be and half a dozen times more to boot. Plus nowhere near as smooth or as flat most of the time. Hateful things. I'm yet to make progress on a path to anywhere near the degree I can on the road.

 

[Phil Fouracre]

Interesting! A lot of comments very similar to those thrown at cyclists by car drivers. Not sure it proves anything other than, that people do stupid things, don't anticipate, make any allowance for etc etc. Yes, we are much more vulnerable to damage by vehicles, but, it's not a great leap to equate this to a large adult belting along a 'shared use' path and almost taking out a kid. Way too fast for the conditions, no anticipation that with adults both sides of the track the lad could well move across. Enough said.......

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Meh, paths tend to have extra junctions you need to give way to cross, driveways, crossings. Round this way they are interrupted everywhere the road would be and half a dozen times more to boot. Plus nowhere near as smooth or as flat most of the time. Hateful things. I'm yet to make progress on a path to anywhere near the degree I can on the road.

Meh, here the paths are largely old railway tracks (tarmaced), so it is no problem. In fact, it occurs to me that by the time you have waited at lights, etc on the road, the time probably equals itself out.... In fact, often if the track is empty I would wager our paths are quicker than the road. Even the canal paths are probably comparable to the backroads that are full of cars, junctions, traffic lights, etc etc.

Not all cycletracks are born equal though of course and I vaguely dislike the canal tracks with their surface of tiny stones as a pose to the normal tarmac ones, but, they certainly are still ok, and the problem are my tires, not the track itself and the potential need to have drainage of the canal if it floods ayway.

It is all a question of geography here as for several miles, there are only one or two roads and at one point there is only one, the A82 (which I am NOT cycling on during the day, I don't care what anyone says, it is practically a motorway in all but name), so having a quality path makes perfect sense. Its just a pity there aren't more of them.

 

[Sara_H]

We've been for a walk on the Monsal Trail today (disused railway line - shared use for walkers, cyclists, scooterers, horse riders). Was quite shocked how fast and close some of the cyclists went whizzing by, totally inappropriate for the conditions.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I really will have to time all of this to see what is actually quicker some time!!


Up here, I think the whole cycling thing has still to come like it has in London and the south east, and combined with the smaller population (there are more people in London than in the whole of Scotland alone), there are a lot less people clogging up the paths anyway, so it generally is a lot nicer!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

The main reason I think why I tend to be a bit protective of my local ones at least, is that I was reading a book a few years back now about a guy who was cycling about and climbing the highest peaks in each British county or something daft like that.

He had to cycle on my local bit at one point, and basically slagged a certain location that I know, saying how awful it all was, etc etc, conveniently forgetting to mention one or two vital points about why it is the way it is (maybe he cycled through with his eyes shut, it is pretty obvious why it is the way it is!!), and then went on to deride the whole path, yet again, forgetting to mention a few major points just because..... I don't know, maybe he was having a bad hair day or something.

People will read that, beleive it, take to the roads, p*ss the local drivers off, and guess who will get it in the neck long after he has danced back to Twattsville?
Yep, muggins here.....

Thanks!

Doug, not still irked at all..... That said, the less people like him on the paths, the more I can have it to myself!! So, yeah, go away and leave me alone. Daffodil Off!!

 

[coco69]

I think you did a great job missing the kid and a great job in reassuring him

 

[Levo-Lon]

You done ok bud and a perfect controlled stop.

Thought this was a good effort too people let kids run free

View: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iOJ_zvqqF8

 

[Katherine]

Children behave very unpredictably, especially on scooters!
Well done for stopping and for reassuring the child.
You just have to go slower when there are people about.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

You done ok bud and a perfect controlled stop.

Thought this was a good effort too people let kids run free

View: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iOJ_zvqqF8

With that one, it is a blessing that the parent didn't go ballistic as I imagine could happen.

 

[mjr]

Meh, paths tend to have extra junctions you need to give way to cross, driveways, crossings. Round this way they are interrupted everywhere the road would be and half a dozen times more to boot. Plus nowhere near as smooth or as flat most of the time. Hateful things. I'm yet to make progress on a path to anywhere near the degree I can on the road.

Yes, design and construction quality are crucial. West Norfolk has some good ones, OK width, smooth surfaces and priority at road crossings with good visibility, but we've also some horrors of narrow hand-laid washboard tarmac densely packed with blind driveway and over-the-shoulder side road junctions which are OK for small children going very slowly but not really safe for most people.

I've tested a nearby stretch at night and I can go about 10% faster on the A10 than on the best bit of the cycleway next to it which I think is because the road is smoother, worn by heavy vehicles more than the cycleway. However, in the daytime, I'd want to go about 100% faster than I usually ride because I'd have motor vehicles up my chuff for most of the ride, which isn't as fun.

The times I have used the road, recently because of ice on the untreated cycleway and once because police had closed it to deal with a car crash that had overfilled, were unpleasant abuse- filled experiences. It's not because of the cycleway because I used to ride there before the cycleway was built and there was abuse then too.

 

[benb]

You done ok bud and a perfect controlled stop.

Thought this was a good effort too people let kids run free

View: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iOJ_zvqqF8

Here's a tip: always aim behind them if you can. They are much more likely to keep going than to double back.
Glad no one was hurt.

 

[Dan B]

Here's a tip: always aim behind them if you can. They are much more likely to keep going than to double back.

Very good tip. I do this all the time when I'm skating and don't have the same stopping power as a bicycle does