Get Off The Pavement!
Every now and then the local or national papers here will go off on a rant about cyclists with no respect for the law riding on the pavement (sidewalk), terrorising innocent pedestrians.
I’m troubled by this, because I think they’ve got a point.
No, I have no problem with considerate, just-above-a-walking-pace cycling (which is actually illegal in the UK). What really gets me is the people who ride like they’re in some sort of race. We get them here, mostly on the pavement that runs along the sea front, which can get pretty busy at times, and in places is quite narrow.
So on last Saturday morning I almost got run down by a pair of these while I was passing Cullercoats harbour. These guys were really tanking it - the first one startled me, and I shouted at the second to stop. I got a mouth full of abuse in reply.
No, I didn’t get a picture of these two-wheeled terrors, they were away before I could even get my camera out of my pocket, but here’s where it happened:
That pavement’s probably about 8ft wide, but because of the bin and the bollards, its effective width is probably about 5-6ft. The road has a pedestrian island in the middle to make it a pinch point for anyone on a bike, and some hatching to make drivers feel more secure about their speed.
Anyway, here’s my real problem with this sort of riding like a loon on the pavement behaviour:
It really is just a tiny minority of schmucks who ride like this, with no respect for anyone around them and acting like they’re in their own private race on their own private pavement. But it’s the rest of us that get tarred with the same brush - there are a whole host of the lunatic fringe with their green-ink pens poised ready to write to the papers, their MPs, or heaven forbid, blogs, and tell their friends / neighbours / anyone around about how all cyclists are a menace to society / ought to be banned / licensed / taxed / insured / strung-up.
The plain fact is that just as bikes and motorised vehicles don’t mix terribly well (it’s the momentum factor), neither do bikes and pedestrians. The sooner we get great bike trails that go everywhere, the better.
I don’t know the people involved, but I would be willing to wager that if there was a proper fully-segregated and protected cycle lane they would be on it. The pavement falls into the category of fully segregated and protected, so that is probably why they were there.
I’ve ridden upon pavements myself when caraholics have suceeded in making a perfectly good road dangerous. I try not to be rude about it, but better rude than dead.
Sometimes i’m too chickenshit to ride certain roads at certain times… it really would take some heavy doses of pharmaceuticals to get me on them and not have PTSD after.
I’m not trying to make excuses for it, but i’d guess a lot of “recreational” bicycle riders who are car owners think bicycles are for the sidewalk - so that is where they’ll race. Even though this is hypocrisy.
Consider, in the minds of a few bike riders that they are only giving it as good as they get(see unsafe passing by cars). One gets used to the flybys on their bike so why should those flyby drivers be treated differently once they exit their car and “become” pedestrians? Disenfranchise one group and the whole party goes to shit. I’m surprised you were so shocked… as a rider you should be used to the way things work in the real world.
Hey, at least they weren’t driving their car on the sidewalk.
Good to hear that you don’t have a problem with ‘just-above-a-walking-pace cycling (which is actually illegal in the UK)’.
It’s time some common sense guidlines were put in place in this country for cycling, like:
* If there is no cycle lane, then a bike may cycle on the pavement so long as 100% priority is given to pedestrians, and the the pace is no faster than just above walking
* A cyclist may cross the red lights at a pedestrian crossing, as long as 100% priority is given to pedestrians