A question for the Cyclists.

I've seen people get done for riding on the pavement, crossing red lights etc

There are cycle police in the city on black and white mountain bikes. I will only ever bump up onto the pavement if I am going to get off but don't feel I can do it safely in the road or obstruction ahead such as a bus that i cant get past I will bump up to go around it rather than say squeezing between a lorry and a bus or anything else that is large.
 
I never knew it was illegal to ride on the pavements. I walk along a busy main road everyday with my toddler and most cyclists are careful. The only problem is that they are totally silent, so you never hear them coming up behind you. We're quite close to the local police station and see coppers all the time and I've never seen them stop a cyclist.

It does annoy me that there is a cycle lane (albeit quite a slim one) right next to the pavement, though!
 
I cycle on the road without fail. Why would I want to ride somewhere with more obstacles, where I can't ride as fast, where cars at junctions aren't looking out for me and pedestrians could cut me up at any point?

If you want to be treated like you belong on the road, act like it.

I do circa 100m a week commuting on a busy A road crossing the M6 (@ J21 if you know the area) and apart from being hit once at that very junction by some silly cow in a merc coming down the slip road too fast I've never really had any problems.
 
[Damien];20074517 said:
I do circa 100m a week commuting on a busy A road crossing the M6 (@ J21 if you know the area) and apart from being hit once at that very junction by some silly cow in a merc coming down the slip road too fast I've never really had any problems.
Click to expand...

lol, so apart from being knocked off your bike and nearly run over, it's been fine?
 
eXist said:
nice 1, quoting a law almost 200 yrs old, whilst technically i bow to you as it is illegal, your gonna struggle to get a policeman pulling you and quoting that law to give you the fixed penalty notice ...
Click to expand...

So the age of a law is what you use to dictate whether you bother to follow it then:confused: So how many murders and rapes have you committed then :rolleyes:
 
Iv ridden on pavements before when iv needed too. But if i feel its too dangerous on the road at that certain point dues to heavy traffic or roadworks and the paths are buzy then ill always dismount and walk till its clear again.
 
loltim said:
lol, so apart from being knocked off your bike and nearly run over, it's been fine?
Click to expand...

Exactly! ;)

But yeah, I know I'm taking my life in my hands a bit crossing a motorway junction on a push bike but most drivers give me a lot of room. That incident could have been partially avoided by me taking the lane a bit more and not taking the wide route round the roundabout. I don't make that mistake any more, even if it does mean drivers can't get round me as easily.
 
steve-h said:
I instantly thought that, but then I realised roads have probably changed a lot since then - maybe it needs updating.
Click to expand...

All very well but many of our busiest and most congested roads are in towns and cities with narrow Victorian planned roads and even narrower paths. The law is fine as it is; what needs to change is the "me, me, me" attitude of both cyclists and motorists and that can only be done through education and a bit of social engineering.
 
I cycle to manchester picadilly station along the A6 quite often i'm fine on the road up until the final stretch (manchester apollo theatre -> the station for anyone who knows the area) this point the road gets thinner and its the only stretch of the a6 without speed cameras so people decide that its a good point to do 50+ when its a 30 limit, so i tend to mount the pavement there for my own safety

very rarely are their any pedestrians in this stretch so i don't feel like im endangering anyone
 
eXist said:
nice 1, quoting a law almost 200 yrs old, whilst technically i bow to you as it is illegal, your gonna struggle to get a policeman pulling you and quoting that law to give you the fixed penalty notice ...
Click to expand...

I was fined 2 years ago (30 quid) for riding on the path, seems a bit ridiculous as it was very quiet and i wasn't exactly going a million miles an hour but they do still enforce it.
 
Nearly 30 miles a day on average all on the road. If you ride with confidence you shouldn't be a nuisance to cars. I go with the speed of traffic mostly,sitting just under 30 on the flat. In the City that's fine and on faster roads I'll look behind me quite often and move over a little to let a hesitant driver pass.

I did nearly get knocked off 3 times alone yesterday though. One was me going 30 and a bus dropping halfway round a corner and I had a car alongside me...my fault really. The other was a guy pulling straight out from a row of parked cars. The. A new driver who didn't want to merge infront of me...she just got slower and slower...as I was slowing to let her in anyway.
 
If a car is pulling out from a side road into stationary traffic and the gap to filter through is too small then I'll hop onto the pavement to get around the car. So technically I'll ride on the pavement for what, a couple of metres if that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom