snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
Unfortunately this mutual understanding is sadly lacking in the UK.
Use the cycle path!!
- Thread starter RobWard
- Start date
- Status
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classic33
Leg End Member
Exactly what it says.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
As this has been mentioned again as if I accepted it, I'll explicitly reject it:
I'm back on the road if the cycle track's really busy with walkers but a group every few hundred yards isn't busy. I don't often have to slow to walking pace and I'm next to a major A road, so sorry but I'm suspecting your bell is a wimpy pinger or the track isn't wide enough for safe overtaking at speed or cyclists are rare enough there that people forget what a bike bell is or they forget that cycles might actually use the cycle tracks or something.
EnPassant
Remember Remember some date in November Member
- Location
- Gloucester
I'm not disagreeing with you Steve.
But further up somebody said that it doesn't appear to be the same in Denmark (or other places) as it is in the UK. I don't have 15 recent years experience here (and none in Denmark) but I have found in my current 2 years or so that cycle/shared paths are more of a frustration than an aid. Thus my current preference is to avoid them if I'm trying to get anywhere faster on the bike than I could walk it.
What I have learned so far from this thread is only re-enforcing that view.
glasgowcyclist
Charming but somewhat feckless
- Location
- Scotland
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Forget bells or shouting what you need is really squealy brakes, don't half shift them off the cycleway fast. the 'band brake' on the back of my trike is surprisingly loud when it has got wet.The post you quoted says "I'm down to walking pace". At the risk of that very same sarcasm myself, I use brakes for this.
@briantrumpet stated that peds walk the entire width of shared space and slow you down.
@mjr stated you could use a bell to tell them you were there.
I replied that in my opinion you could do that, but you would still have to slow down, for the reasons stated in that post.
Thus, the thrust of my point is that if you are slowed to walking pace by enough peds, you are better off, as @briantrumpet is saying in the first place, using the road.
Now, if I happen to be on a shared use path, I will slow to the pace of the peds (using brakes), I will let them know I am there (with a bell or a shout), and firmly believe that we should all take care for the most vulnerable in each situation, with vulnerable for modes of transport being those moving the slowest, so cars on road slow for bikes, and bikes on shared use slow for peds.
EnPassant
Remember Remember some date in November Member
- Location
- Gloucester
You have more experience than I. But short of getting an air horn, which is ludicrous and scary and projects a view of impetuous cycling I detest I cannot say that a bell or a shout is sufficient to clear a path of pedestrians in time for me to maintain a speed greater than they are walking at.
They don't expect it, they have to turn and see where the sound came from, then decide what course of action to take to get out of the way. If there's a group it's worse still, as they have to determine which one moves out of the way, and in which direction; by the time they did this you're completely on top of them. Once a mile? ok, once every few hundred yards/metres and I prefer to use the road.
I will say again though that I am on this site to learn, and I hear what you are saying, as I did with Steve.
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
Which design changes are you referring to?
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Your post reflects my sentiments from Saturday's ride. Having fitted new blocks and failing to dodge the showers, they were getting used to the rim in a squealing complaining sort of way, and my mind turned to the effectiveness/merit of an electronic 'bell'/horn which rather than ringing, pinging or honking, emitted a quality squeal. The walkers on the shared traffic free (Exe Estuary) cycle path were quick to realise my presence behind them (quicker than any pleasant 'good morning' hail) and I passed quickly yet safely, without surprising them close up.
Pedestrians do not deliberately spread out on shared paths to obstruct cyclists, they spread out to walk alongside one another because that's a social thing to do. They're being sociable, rather the same as cyclists riding two abreast, when safe/reasonable so to do.
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mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Not more than three or four abreast, else the people on each end struggle to hear each other unless shouting. It seems more natural to form into a teardrop or peloton shape after that. When I've seen five or so in one group walking line abreast, it was deliberately to obstruct cyclists because the fools didn't realise it was a legal cycle route (technically a bollarded road, but looks like a cycle track).
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Blackwall Tunnel approach from the North. I'll see if I can find a streetview image of it.
Here you go
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5...4!1sJd8NNx-iTkjQ2KgY8Uh25w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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Racing roadkill
Guru
I don't like fixing punctures when there is dog Sh1te and broken glass / idiot child on a scooter they can't control all over my tyres.
dim
Guest
- Location
- Cambridge UK
some cycling paths have potholes as big as toilet seats and 6 inches deep, and the council is not fixing them. You have to cycle at 5 miles an hour on these, and you need one of these if you want to go faster:
- Status
