It's ok to cycle on the pavement if.......

[Arjimlad]

I cycle my daughter to nursery once a week with her on the bike seat.

Rather than turn right from a side street onto a very busy road, then wait in the very busy road indicating right to turn into nursery, I cycle slowly & carefully along 100yds of pavement. If the road is quiet I will brave it.

Nowt wrong with that I hope..

On the other hand I get rather bored of adult pavement cyclists annoying pedestrians, when the road is perfectly OK to use.

 

[cd365]

@User every thing I say is just giving my view. People can like it or dislike it, that is their opinion. There are lots of opinions on lots of forums I have read and disagreed with, but that is the beauty of a public forum like CC, we get to air our opinions!

 

[raleighnut]

I cycle my daughter to nursery once a week with her on the bike seat.

Rather than turn right from a side street onto a very busy road, then wait in the very busy road indicating right to turn into nursery, I cycle slowly & carefully along 100yds of pavement. If the road is quiet I will brave it.

Nowt wrong with that I hope..

On the other hand I get rather bored of adult pavement cyclists annoying pedestrians, when the road is perfectly OK to use.

Quite right too, a child in a seat is so high in the air that any impact you could shrug off could be catastrophic for her

 

[spen666]

I'm talking about a shared tow path with bikes going up and down and lots of markings saying this is a public bridleway/bike path. My son is in a wheelchair, and we have never used his disability as an excuse for anything. If you can't hear the bikes bells/cyclists/horses/riders warning you and you do not have a hearing aid that people can see then it's on you to be acutely aware of your surroundings and do the simple, non-difficult thing of walking to the side of the path, or alternatively do as a lot of the blind do and have something clearly marking you as deaf a badge or sticker on your back would do it. I will always slow down or even stop when I come across people on the path, a 17 year old hoodie barrelling down and ringing his bell probably won't, anyone with a small amount of common sense and self preservation should know this, deaf or not.

Talk about changing the position. You called people who didn't hear you whilst you are trying to MrToad on a bike, stupid.
You also to get that pedestrians have priority on a shared use path like a bridleway or towpath.

 

[Learnincurve]

I re-read my initial post, and I'm not going mad, I'm clearly talking about two separate things, pedestrians on a pavement and then my experiences on the tow path. I absolutely maintain that pedestrians always always have right of way on the pavement and you should get off and walk if it's anything but quiet, and you should only be on there in the first place if it would be too dangerous for you to cycle on the road.

Tow paths are shared and everyone has an equal right to be there, and this goes both ways, I have no problem slowing down when there are people ahead of me and we need to cross paths, but those same people need to be aware that bikes are going to be on there as well. It wasn't the deaf today, it was people with full hearing, and they only moved when I was forced to come to a complete stop behind them and say "watch yourselves" and pointedly wheel my bike past them and that was after the bell was rung and I already said "excuse me". One of them even muttered "why didn't you ring your bell" to which I replied "I did. Twice"

A special mention must also go to the chap who was walking along the pavement with a lady as I was on a bike path along a main road, he decided that as the pavement had narrowed into a single lane he would step out into the bike path missing me by about an inch. I went "oooh sh!!!t" and he went "wot!?"

 

[summerdays]

It wasn't the deaf today, it was people with full hearing, and they only moved when I was forced to come to a complete stop behind them and say "watch yourselves" and pointedly wheel my bike past them and that was after the bell was rung and I already said "excuse me".

Actually I've found that it's a good practice of my slow cycling skills, and the other thing is to look very interested in their conversation, all of a sudden they would rather let you by

 

[spen666]

.....

Tow paths are shared and everyone has an equal right to be there, and this goes both ways....

I'm afraid this is only true in your mind. The British Waterways Website makes it clear that pedestrians have priority

Give way to others on the towpath and warn them
of your approach. Pedestrians have priority

No wonder you have problems

 

[Learnincurve]

@spen666 I absolutely stand my my statement of we have equal right to be there, it's how you behave that's the issue. It's a grey area, clearly no one has a right to crash into pedestrians be they on a horse or a bike and that's how most people interpret "pedestrian's have priority", and I always slow down when I come behind them and go round them at walking pace once I know they know I'm there, but a pedestrian or group of pedestrians who ignore you and carry on walking very slowly is far more anti-social than me on my bike. What makes this behaviour so monumentally stupid is that not everyone behaves like me.

I've been walking that path far longer than I've been riding on it. There are several types of bike riders on the path; people who potter along looking at the pretty swans and ducks like me, we don't mind slowing or giving way. People who deeply care about their stats and pace, they get really annoyed with anything that slows them down, and lastly youths on cheap mountain bikes going hell for leather, not really paying attention and weaving round people.

I can only control my behaviour, it's up to pedestrians to have a sense of self preservation when it comes to the people who don't really care if they fall into the canal or not. This is what's wrong with modern Britain, people are using "heath and safety and the law will save us!" as some sort of protective security blanket and think it excuses them from using common sense, youth biker cares not one jot for what someone wrote on a bit of paper, he's going to do what he wants regardless.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

If people are allowed to use fast heavy mobility scooters on the pavement why can't considerate cyclists use that space too, if they feel a compelling need to do so?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

[QUOTE 3130062, member: 45"]Interestingly, the Greenway Code also advises against wearing headphones on the towpath.[/QUOTE]
The sound leakage annoys fishing types?

 

[spen666]

If people are allowed to use fast heavy mobility scooters on the pavement why can't considerate cyclists use that space too, if they feel a compelling need to do so?

Because the law prevents it?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Tow paths are shared and everyone has an equal right to be there

As a general statement of fact this is wrong. Cyclists have NO legal right to ride on towpaths but may be permitted to do so.

 

[Learnincurve]

As a general statement of fact this is wrong. Cyclists have NO legal right to ride on towpaths but may be permitted to do so.

I may not have mentioned that our tow path is part of the Trans Pennine Trail and the canal trust actively encourages cyclists. In fact they travel up and down the path on bikes themselves.

I really genuinely don't understand why a few people here have problems with people riding on something clearly marked on maps and real life as a cycle path, at one point it even splits on to a wide nicely surfaced bit especially for us. Is it that people think you are a lesser cyclist if you don't ride on the road?

 

[Kookas]

Because the law prevents it?

True, but the law can be changed.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Because the law prevents it?

The law prohibits.

Prohibits=/=Prevents