People riding bikes on the pavement

[perseus]

FACT: Ten times as many motorists drive cars on pavements as cyclists cycle on them.

It is easy to work out why. It is not so easy to pick a car up!

 

[London Calling]

As long as you use common sense and follow the highway code you'll be safe.

As a cyclist I agree about the pavement thing and that all cyclists should stop at red lights. Actually had another cyclist behind me moan at me for stopping at a red light at the The Drive/Cromwell Road traffic lights the other day (he couldn't get round me due to a bus).

Can't agree here. I follow the code etc, but the number of near misses I have had from bad driving is unbelievable, when I used to cycle from Hackney to Wood Green. I used to experience a bad piece of dangerous driving every other day. And a close call which would have injured an inexperienced cyclist once a week.

Some of the incidents really would make the average car driver embarressed and probably believe you were making it up.

It is for these reasons that some people cycle on pavements.

More people should and need to cycle, yes they need to follow the highway code but car drivers etc need to follow that same code and respect other users especially cyclists who are on that road but with no protection!

I always wonder how many drivers now on the road would now actually pass their driving test?

And by the way what does also get to me and other cyclists is the number of pedestrians who seem to blantantly ignore the (pavement) cycle lanes and some think its funny walking down the middle of them?

But there is no excuse for that prick!

I remember a similar prick clipping my heel, I gave him the mouthful, I got the "violence being threatened". He had no sense that he was in the wrong.

LC

 

[bhaexpress]

FACT: Ten times as many motorists drive cars on pavements as cyclists cycle on them.

It is easy to work out why. It is not so easy to pick a car up!

Where did you get that 'Fact' from ? Anyway, Car drivers will say they pay road tax and cyclists don't. Car drivers are also legally bound to have insurance.

 

[Statto]

Can i just add to what I posted earlier on by saying that I think car drivers are no angels when it comes to this sort of thing. The amount of times ive ridden my bike down quiet country lanes and have nearly been bashed into coz the drivers get really close to you. It could put people off I suppose.

 

[perseus]

Where did you get that 'Fact' from ? Anyway, Car drivers will say they pay road tax and cyclists don't. Car drivers are also legally bound to have insurance.

How do you think cars get to park on the pavement, by magic

 

[Easy 10]

I think I'll take a cricket stump out with me when I go walking. Any cyclists that come humming inches past me on the path is liable to have a stump rammed through their front spokes.

I feel good just thinking about that.

 

[simonsimon]

Quoted by seagull stew

" think the problem is that because we are all being encouraged to cycle as much as possible these days because it helps the environment, keeps us fit and healthy etc; alot of cyclists now have a "moral high ground" complex and this leads to arrogance among a minority of them."

This"moral high ground" should be tested by bringing in a £100 a year CYCLE TAX, and the money raised should be used to finance PUBLIC TRANSPORT.

This would show how HIGH their ecological morals really are.

 

[chez]

Difficult one really. Im a cyclist and I use the road, Cycle Lanes and if Im honest the promenade as well. As yet I havent had any accidents but I think it is in no small way helped by the fact that I am also a very experienced driver and can normally pick out a shit or erratic driver and take evasive action when needed. A child on the other hand does not have this experience, because of this I believe the roads are far too dangerous for kids to be cycling on. The cycle profichancy (sp?) test, if it is still in existance is nowhere near adequate enough to protect kids from bad drivers.

Does this make any sence at all ? Coz reading it back it just looks like a load of bollocks!!

 

[bhaexpress]

How do you think cars get to park on the pavement, by magic

I realise that you may be a bit slow at times but there's a world of difference between parking on a pavement and riding a bike on one. As it is recently I was nearly hit by a cyclist using a mobile. I agree that motorists are not perfect but as I say, if you feel its unsafe to ride get off and walk or else use public transport. Pavements are for those on foot.

 

[perseus]

I realise that you may be a bit slow at times but there's a world of difference between parking on a pavement and riding a bike on one. As it is recently I was nearly hit by a cyclist using a mobile. I agree that motorists are not perfect but as I say, if you feel its unsafe to ride get off and walk or else use public transport. Pavements are for those on foot.

Cars are a f*** sight bigger!

It is five times as dangerous per mile travelled to cycle than to go by car, for the almost sole reason that cars run down cyclists.

It is even more dangerous to walk per mile travelled as well, because motor vehicles run over and squash pedestrians as well, and sometimes the pedestrian is dead.

The logical answer is to get armed and dangerous and get in the car: it is safest for you, not for everybody else though.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

It is dead flat in Grimmmsby so a lot of people use pushbikes to get to work, a lot of them using the pavements instead of being in the road. The exception to this is when you get two cyclists having a conversation with each other whilst pedalling two abreast oblivious to the traffic behind them. They all have a death wish when finishing work at the factories at 10 p.m. Virtually nobody has any lights on their bikes and they expect other road users to see them in the dark.

 

[London Calling]

I tell you what. I am a 40% tax earner so I pay a lot more frigging tax than more car drivers. Plus my Council Tax is pretty steep as well. So I want safe roads for cyclist , car drivers et al.


Guess what the majority of roads in Brighton and all roads in Hackney (where I live ) are Local Authority managed and paid for by residents. So Road Tax is completely irelevant here.

We shouild be encouraging cycling easliy the most sustainable transport, so lets not talk bollocks about a tax on cyclist that could never be enforced.

People get the hump here about this incident and so I. But the deaths on our roads due to bad car, lorry and bus driving are the real issue and many times worse.

Something like a cyclist a day gets knock their bike in London alone and suffer major injuries and/or death.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Grown-ups on bikes revert to being little kids on bikes in town. They assume normal rules of the road don't apply to them. A firm boot through the spokes normally shows them the error of their ways

 

[cheese sarnie]

I think London Calling hit the nail on the head. What is the point in getting up in arms over people cycling on pavements when far, far more deaths/accidents are caused by wreckless driving. What about if it's pissing down with rain and wind is blowing everywhere? Do you expect a cyclist to just brave it along with some of the absolute morons driving cars on the road?

Grown-ups on bikes revert to being little kids on bikes in town. They assume normal rules of the road don't apply to them. A firm boot through the spokes normally shows them the error of their ways

Do that to me and I'll get off my bike and kick ten shades of shit out of you

 

[Ned]

I am both a car driver and a cyclist so I pay for the use of the roads and it also galls me when other cyclists ride on the pavement that is not marked as a cyclepath (other than to access an area beyond the pavement). But then today I was using a cycle lane marked on a pavement and got abused for nearly hitting someone who decided that they were going to use it for pedestrian purposes and I was the one in the wrong. Even though where I halted in my emergency stop, to avoid this prat, was just over the two foot long symbol of a cycle on the lane.

 

[clapham_gull]

I think the problem is that because we are all being encouraged to cycle as much as possible these days because it helps the environment, keeps us fit and healthy etc; alot of cyclists now have a "moral high ground" complex and this leads to arrogance among a minority of them.

This problem is becoming so bad in London that you simply cannot walk on a pavement, or especially the Thames pathway without having to look behind you when you change direction.

I don't have a problem with cyclists using the pavements as long as they respect that it is there for pedestrians first and foremost and act responsibly rather than just plough through a crowd ringing their bell and expecting pedestrians to get out of their way.

Unfortunately, the minority are spoiling it for the majority of cyclists who are responsible and therefore in my opinion, cyclists should not be allowed on the pavement.

I couldn't agree more. I'm a self confessed car hating pedristrian who gets most grief from cyclists in London.

The worst thing ? Jumping red lights on pedestrian crossings, f*cking dangerous thing to do. I saw an elderly person almost run over because they assumed that the lights had changed since cyclists just went through. They hesitated and then the lights changed.

God it winds me up. I've been told so many times to f*ck off when I politely reminded a cyclist that the lights are quite clearly red.

I'm all for cycle lanes as long as they are clearly marked as such.

There's an almost invisible one on Tottenham court road that just appears out of nowhere.

I accidently walked onto one just to have a cyclist just run straight into me (with ample time to stop) and I got called a wanker in the process.

That my friend makes you just as bad as the motorists that you have such a problem with.

 

[Beach Hut]

I passed the aftermath of a cyclist killed by a bus just outside Kings Cross Thameslink - not nice.

 

[clapham_gull]

There are so many areas of London that would be so much better if they were simply pedestranised.

Oxford Street for starters.

Of course more people cycling would be better for the health of the nation, but has the government considered encouraging people to perhaps walk a little bit more as well

 

[British Bulldog]

First time I let my nipper cycle home from footie training on his own I told him to use the pavement at one certain spot because I considered the road dangerous. I actually stood there and watched to make sure he done as he was told, And he did.

Trouble was a Wa**er of a motorist came flying out of his drive without looking and nearly had the lad off his bike. Cheeky c**t then got out his car & started having a go at the boy.

Big mistake.