Footpaths

bails87

Now obviously I don't ride on footpaths because it's wrong.
But what do you think of this: http://cheekytrails.co.uk/ethics.htm

I have a friend who rides on footpaths fairly often (i.e. some part of every local ride). He knows it's wrong but he always rides within his limits, makes sure he can stop in time when going round corners in case there's anyone walking, is polite and courteous when he sees other people on the path and moves out of the way to let them past if needs be.

As a result, he tells me, he's never had anyone tell him he shouldn't be riding there, the worst has been grumpy dog walkers not returning the cheery 'hello' he's given.

He'd rather not ride on footpaths but there's very little bridleway in the area, even though the countryside is covered in loads of wide (wide enough to drive down!!) footpaths. Most of the footpaths look like they're virtually never used anyway, and one time he bumped into another rider who had the same view. "If walkers don't use them, then why should we stay off them?"

So is

If someone says “bikes are not allowed on here” reply with “yes, I know, silly isn’t it?”

a reasonable viewpoint?

Or should bikes be lumped together with horses? Or even motocross bikes? Are we really that dangerous or damaging.

My friend doesn't think so.

Oxygen Thief

I love skidding to a hault in front of a granny with her two grandkids

bails87

skids are for kids

Father Faff

1) It's not illegal to ride on footpaths in Scotland
2) You can certainly ride on footpaths in England with the landowners permission
3) You can't be prosecuted for riding on a footpath in England

mudslinger

I'm in the same position as what bails refers to. There is very little in terms of local bridleways so is impossible to make any half decent routes without using footpaths. I really don't like using footpaths so find myself going out on the road bike a lot more. I've not done a local ride on the MTB this year & any MTB ride now involves going somewhere in the car.

The sensitive nature of this topic will no doubt prompt at least one person to get on their high horse - it did last time it was raised mentioning no names eh Dave!

tiny_pens

Father Faff wrote:

1) It's not illegal to ride on footpaths in Scotland
2) You can certainly ride on footpaths in England with the landowners permission
3) You can't be prosecuted for riding on a footpath in England

Not trying to attack your post but where has the information for the third point come from?

One way of looking at it is that without the right to roam activists and the ramblers association 'illegally' walking around in the countryside there wouldn't be as many footpaths as there are now so to criticise the same tactics in cyclists seems a little unfair.

mudslinger

You can be prosecuted if it can be proved that you have caused damage so in reality it is not going to happen.

supersonic

I sometimes ride on the footpath on busy A roads as it much safer. But only when there are no peds to run into.

bails87

Father Faff wrote:

1) It's not illegal to ride on footpaths in Scotland
2) You can certainly ride on footpaths in England with the landowners permission
3) You can't be prosecuted for riding on a footpath in England

1)Okay, let's keep this south of the border then
2)Yes, it's the landowners land at the end of the day. With the landowners permission you can drive a tank down there. But most people won't ever make any contact with the landowner.
2) You can't be prosecuted. But you can be sued by the landowner for any damage you've maliciously caused, it's a civil offence, not a criminal one.

And SS, I'm talking about footpaths away from roads, not pavements/'footways'.

Anonymous

I ride on footpaths quite regularly. I very rarely see anypne else at all there, and if i do come across walkers, i give them right of way, and give a cheery hello. The walkers are usually pretty cool about it. But then again I live in an area where outdoor acivities are the norm, and we all generally get on.
Oh, and not that I suggest anyone does so, but I have ridden UP the Snowdon miner's track before I heard about the bike ban thing, and since I was going fairly slowly uphill, nobody was bothered, they were all friendly and polite, some of them thinking I was bonkers for taking a bike up such a place. I wouldn't ride down at speed though, far too many people, making it annoying for the rider, and just plain dangerous.
(However, I strongly urge anyone not to ride up or down between 10:00am and 5:00pm, or we may end up with bikes banned completely, as I said i had no idea of the ban at the time)
I've only been accosted once by a walker claiming I shouldn't be riding on a trail, which, ironically, was a bridleway. She was a proper NIMBY/Daily Mail reader type, claiming that she'd fought for the rights of all of us to go anywhere we wanted to outdoors (yeah, except mountain bikers it seems!) and kept pointing at hoof marks, highlighting the damage that our knobbly tyres were doing to the ground. We tried in vain to explain that they were horses hoof marks, but she just wasn't listening!

Father Faff

Bails87 puts it succintly.

And we should be campaigning for a right to cycle on footpaths!

At the same time that means being polite and courteous to footpath users and getting off the bike and letting them pass before we carry on bombing down em.

Anonymous

oh, maybe it's worth pointing out that a lot of the "footpaths" around here seem to have originated as animal tracks, or the paths that the quarrymen used to travel along to get to work and so on. Also, disused railways etc.

TheKrikkitWars

I try and avoid using footpaths, but I won't dismount or detour from them unless I think I'm going to make a nusiense of myself...

There are a couple of little blasts near me which include connecting sections of footpath which are visably scarred by bike tyres, but have no evidence of walkers ever using them, these I feel in no way guilty about. Conversely bangor high street is prohibited to motor traffic from 9am to 6pm, but not to cycles, and I feel much guiltier about riding up and down there weaving between crowds of blissfully ignorant pedestrians, even though I'm allowed to ride there.

Kiblams

There are no footpaths away from roads around where I live that haven't been made into National Cycleways...

Anonymous

bangor during shopping hours is like a low budget zombie film though

TheKrikkitWars

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bangor during shopping hours is like a low budget zombie film though

I'd never thought of it quite like that but that description is disturbingly accurate :shock:

bails87

Kiblams wrote:

There are no footpaths away from roads around where I live that haven't been made into National Cycleways...

Really? So has the cycleway replaced the footpath? Or been built next to it? Are they tarmacced/hardpack/natural?

Kiblams

bails87 wrote:

Really? So has the cycleway replaced the footpath? Or been built next to it? Are they tarmacced/hardpack/natural?

Unfortunatly the government decided to make them all shared, they are a mixture of tarmacked and hardpack.

It's worth pointing out that I live in the centre of Derby and these are paths that lead out into the surrounding towns/villages between farmland.

bails87

Kiblams wrote:

bails87 wrote:

Really? So has the cycleway replaced the footpath? Or been built next to it? Are they tarmacced/hardpack/natural?

Unfortunatly the government decided to make them all shared, they are a mixture of tarmacked and hardpack.

It's worth pointing out that I live in the centre of Derby and these are paths that lead out into the surrounding towns/villages between farmland.

Better than nothing though. I bet you could use them to get to some unknown bits of path further out though. Have you looked at an OS map for stuff to ride?

mkf

i agree with bails friend because thats my attitude with everything i do.

courteous, polite and friendly manner is the only way that everyone will get on and share our fab network of trails what ever the clssifacation.

the only limition should only be you own commonsence after all rambles wouldn't like it if the goverment for whatever reason banned them from byway, rupp, bridleways.....etc

imagin the stink they'ed kick up kinder scout all over again

so its a big yes from me

HedleyP

We hardly ever see anyone on the footpaths where we cycle and most of them aren't actually footpaths but singletrack cut through the woods.

Also the trouble with the bridleways around us is the horse riders have churned them up so much they are a nightmare to ride.

Either way, we are always careful and treat others how we would like to be treated.

Slowing down/stopping and smiling goes a loooong way to fostering good relationships.

bails87

To the person who said the rules are there for a reason, what's the logic behind that?

What reason do you think there is for banning a carefully ridden bike from sharing a wide, open path with people on foot? Risk of collisions?

asdfhjkl

I ride on footpaths almost every local ride, but then I'm in Scotland so access law is on my side. Having been doing it for so often, I see no reason why walkers cyclists and horse riders can't share the same trails (although I'm fed up of having to bunny hop over horse shit).

Even if it weren't legal, I'd probably still ride most of the places I do today. One particular footpath which almost every ride starts and ends with for me is so quiet, the last person I saw using it was another mountain biker about a fortnight ago. Responsibility is what's important, I think. Doesn't matter if I'm riding something legally or not, I'll still slow down for walkers, take it easy round overgrown blind corners and show courtesy to the landowners.

cee

mwahahahahah!

that is all

bails87

cee wrote:

mwahahahahah!

that is all

:evil:

chedabob

What's the deal if things that aren't marked as footpaths on the OS map turn out to be footpaths? There's a "road" out near Lancaster that I rode up, but there's a couple of signs indicating it's a footpath and specifically "no mountain bikes".

bike-a-swan

Generally no, although I would like to. I'm not above bending the rules for a particularly nice bit of trail or in cases where a bridleway or road route would just be silly. These are the exception, not the rule though, and I'll generally only do them at quiet times.

bails87

chedabob wrote:

What's the deal if things that aren't marked as footpaths on the OS map turn out to be footpaths? There's a "road" out near Lancaster that I rode up, but there's a couple of signs indicating it's a footpath and specifically "no mountain bikes".

Read this: http://www.imba.org.uk/PRoW/PRoW_FAQs.html#question5

I've seen plenty of "private property" and "no bikes" signs in places that are general public rights of way and bridleways.

unixnerd

One thing that occurs to me is that those south of the border really need to campaign for a right to roam of the type we have in Scotland.

I'm aware of very few cases where it's caused any issues with landowners up here and a good number of those have been in relation to damage caused by horses rather than bikers.

BorisSpencer

I use footpaths to link up bridleways into ridable routes. In 10+ years I have only been asked not to ride a footpath by one person (the landowner), I dismounted and walked on to the byway having a pleasant chat with him.
Another time I came across a farmer welding up the gates on some unofficial, but oft used tracks, I stopped and asked if it was to stop cyclists, he told me to carry on, it was only to try and prevent the MXers.

chedabob

bails87 wrote:

chedabob wrote:

What's the deal if things that aren't marked as footpaths on the OS map turn out to be footpaths? There's a "road" out near Lancaster that I rode up, but there's a couple of signs indicating it's a footpath and specifically "no mountain bikes".

Read this: http://www.imba.org.uk/PRoW/PRoW_FAQs.html#question5

I've seen plenty of "private property" and "no bikes" signs in places that are general public rights of way and bridleways.

They were marked as "unfenced road, drive or track".

This is the map:

http://drop.io/lhqhjiq/asset/map-png

The arrows are where it was said they were footpaths.