This really gets my goat - "Cyclists Dismount"

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Where's the "Motorists, get out and push" sign?

WHY should cyclists dismount? Are we not allowed out of "our" cycle lane...yes we bloody well are

Of course if we use the road legally we are "ignoring traffic signs" etc

 

[gaz]

That has to be a joke! I would kick that sign over if i saw it.

 

[Tommi]

I suppose you could follow the advise, dismount and walk in the carriageway. That's what the sign is advising, right?

 

[400bhp]

Such signage never read right to me - it reads more like a statement. Shouldn't it be "cyclists, dismount"?

Anyway, it's bollox.

Ignore and/or kick sign over.

 

[funnymummy]

Aha!
I had the same sort of sign/situation a few weeks ago - only I actualy got flagged down by a chappy in a hi-vis vest when it was obvious i wasn't going to get off!!
I very politely told him I was more then capable of riding a few feet along a road, he explained that they had to ask cyclists to dismount, because if they moved out the 'designated' cycle lane as it was closed & into traffic, and then subsquently had an accident that the council would be liable!
This was the same cycle lane that ends abrubtly about 25yrds further on forcing cyclist to then ride along the road with all the other traffic!!

 

[jefmcg]

Along the A316 in Richmond there was a cycle path on the footpath that has a "cyclist dismount" sign permanently at every cross street.

I've always assumed this was due to some funding provided for miles of cycle paths that had no criteria as to what was a cycle path.

(I've just looked in google street view, and can't find the signs, so maybe they've been removed)

 

[Red Light]

You're reading it wrong. It's an informational sign not an instructional one. I, and I suspect all cyclists dismount at the end of the journey. Quite why they feel the need to put up a sign to inform people of this is beyond me but there you go.

 

[ufkacbln]

I came across one of these some 15 years ago, and as I have never found a "Cyclists remount" sign, have never got back on the bike!


Seriously though....

It is an informational sign only and holds no weight in law. I once had a stroppy Police Constable Shaped Object tell me that I had disobeyed a "Cyclists Dismount", so I pointed out that it was informational. He told me that I was required to get off because he was instructing me as A Police Officer to do so (technically true), so I asked when I could get back on.... he asked if I was being funny, so I pointed out that there was no remount sigh, and that he had to state the point where I could remount, if I was acting on his instructions.

He randomly chose a point some hundred yards up the road.

On the way home I nipped in to the Police Station and a word with a desk officer at the station who promised they would speak to him

Following week, same place, he simply glared at me, but made no attempt to enforce his isgn

 

[Bman]

For the last year or two there has been some gas pip upgrades all around town. They are doing bit-by-bit

Anyway, the gasworks are never on roads. Always on the cycletracks (dedicated, not shared paths). Some of them there is still room for cyclists to get past, other times the whole track is closed leaving only the pavement for access. Each set there is a Cyclists dismount sign. and no prior warning.

If we have to get off and push (eg when roadworks are blocking the whole carrageway) why dont we get a "road closed" warning? Why do I have to turn the corner to be faced with a impassable barrier and told to get off and push! Could I not have found an alternative route?

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

For a long stretch of the A580 going towards Manchester, the council has paid lip service by designating the pavement as a shared use "facility". There is a "cyclists dismount" sign at every bus stop along the route; it really is a joke, but not a very funny one.

 

[fossyant]

Elf and safety and ar$e covering.

 

[Amanda P]

As usual, Cunobelin is right. Blue and white signs give advice or information, not instructions.

The dismount signs are advising you that you might like dismount.

Similarly, there may be blue and white P signs, advising drivers that they can, if they wish, park their cars.

Neither is under any obligation to do as the sign suggests.

(But it gets my goat too - them and the officious types who try to argue that they are instructions. Funny how the same people take so little notice of the red and white speed limit signs....)

 

[summerdays]

I think I'm blind to that sign and simply don't register it's existence. I'm sure I must see it occasionally but I can't remember any.

And in the case of Funnymummy I would definitely feel the need to walk in the road way in front of the council worker and then ask him how that was safer ... though in the above situation I would simply of joined the traffic if I had been filtering along in the cycle lane....

Thinking about this ... should we campaign to get all car drivers to be forced to carry one of those signs at all times in their cars... then when they felt the need to stop in the cycle lane to go and do their shopping they would be able to give us cyclists that extra bit of information enabling us to know we should be dismounting ... (or do the normal thing and just go round them! !).

 

[stowie]

From "Cycle Facility of the Month"

 

[benb]

Such signage never read right to me - it reads more like a statement. Shouldn't it be "cyclists, dismount"?

Yes, this!

"Cyclists dismount"

Why yes we do - at the end of our journey, thanks for noticing.