Pedestrian sheep

jeremyrundle

Can someone please tell me why when I am on a cycle/footpath coming up behind people (I am fifty and not a racer) I always have to say excuse me to get past, they are oblivious to any one else and today I was told Look where you are going (I was behind and riding toeir way) and they wondered right in front of me, and later a woman said to her partner as I passed "should they be riding here" when I said "it is a cycle path" the chap shouted "you have a problem mate.

I do wonder if they would speak to a long haired earing wearing chap with tatoos this way (NO disrespect intended), is it because I am fifty.

One woman called me a "yob).

I have FOUR lights on the front and still white van man cuts me up at roundabouts.

What can I add top my bike to be more visible to people.

Is it ME !

dondare

Shared paths are the Devil's work. They can sometimes be useful as short cuts or simply an escape from traffic noise and fumes but the trade-off is that you have to contend with pedestrians. In all their manifestations.

jeremyrundle

Yest but what I do not understand is why the attitude, as if you have no right to be there and when you say excuse me the look on their faces as if you are the devil incarnate,

Jay dubbleU

I get this all the time - problem seems to be if you ring your bell or horn or whatever they fly into panic and it seems to make things worse. I just wait and sneak past them - even that gets a negative reaction some times

hfidgen

Speaking as a driver, cyclist AND pedestrian I can give you my observation that the problem isn't about people being on foot, it's just due to idiots

You can find polite, courteous drivers/cyclists/pedestrians anywhere you look, equally accompanied by complete wankers. Just the way it goes.

dondare

The fact is that a bike is a vehicle and pedestrians and vehicles don't mix well.
If I ever use a cycle path or shared use path then I give absolute priority to peds and treat them with the utmost courtesy. Charm, even. No bells, horns or whistles, just a polite "good morning" (or whatever) and a "thank you" once I'm past. But sometimes I'm reduced to walking speed and if I don't like that then there's always the real road.

thelawnet

pedestrians are quite entitled to pootle around oblivious. Make your way past slowly.

EssexCyclist

What can I add top my bike to be more visible to people.

A taser? *joking*

I think people are suprised due to the stealth nature of bikes. Similar to dondare... I always pass with an overly cheery "Good morning", seems to work for me but maybe I just live in a calmer part of the country.

cyberknight

Add an Airzound
Assuming you do not mind scaring the pedestrians out of their skins !!!

jeremyrundle

In reply to thelawnet I agree pedestrians are entitled, to poodle but should that stop them using an od form of thinking called "common sense".

On a cycleway you THINK, these people are the same ones that cyclists encounter in supermarket car parks, they don't walk in front of cars but see you coming and walk out either believeing you have seen them or that the bike is rubber and will not hurt.

As I said there are "blind" steps to the path from teh car park, peds. can not see anything on the path that is coming until they reach the last step but they run down right onto the path, one day........

BiggerBoat

Mixed use path (shudder). What about those nearly invisible 9000 meter retractable dog leads, fkn lethal. And dogs, are they all suicidal or what? Dog sees bike, heads straight for front wheel, durrrr.

t0pc4t

I ride paths out of Bracknell before I hit the road, nicer ride and a better surface than the roads.

You do get prats on there, joggers with ipods weaving over the path, people with retractable dog leads, parents letting little kids run about while they're on their phones.

But there seem a lot because you notice that and have to take action.

There are a lot more people who I exchange a friendly hello with, or who move their dogs close when they see me coming and who are generally pleasant and as considerate to me as I am to them.

It's like lorry drivers on the motorway, the bulk of them are very considerate drivers but you notice the ones who drive like idiots.

shouldbeinbed

a cheery 'good morning, excuse me please, coming past on the left/right' usually does it for me

yesterday I even got a sorry from some nice lady not even in the way.

I don't think abuse is a looks thing, I've got a 'posh' accent for the area I ride and look like a geek but get no grief.


but yes dogs are all rather curious about bikes, I make sure to gather mine up if I see the bikes coming.
I take my greyhounds out on a ride so that they can get a bit of speed up and the daft sods still try and throw themselves under the wheels.

freehub

I hate cycle patchs, thereis one in York going down to Bishopthorpe from Naburn, and people never notice me, I always predict the inevitible dog walking straight in front of me, it's a traumatic experience because my average speed drops down from 21.5mph to about 19mph, I have to take a 7 mile detour.

BiggerBoat wrote:

Mixed use path (shudder). What about those nearly invisible 9000 meter retractable dog leads, fkn lethal. And dogs, are they all suicidal or what? Dog sees bike, heads straight for front wheel, durrrr.

Dogs =

baloo_the_bear

I try to avoid mixed paths and stick to roads. The dog magnet in my front wheel is a right pest. Small children also seem to want to walk into moving bikes as well.

fatherted

dondare wrote:

The fact is that a bike is a vehicle and pedestrians and vehicles don't mix well.
If I ever use a cycle path or shared use path then I give absolute priority to peds and treat them with the utmost courtesy. Charm, even. No bells, horns or whistles, just a polite "good morning" (or whatever) and a "thank you" once I'm past. But sometimes I'm reduced to walking speed and if I don't like that then there's always the real road.

Excellent post.

Most parents try and make sure their small children aren't in the way yet they have a right to wander around as they wish. Dual paths / cycle lanes through commons and parks aren't a good idea.
As cyclists I really think we should stick to the roads.

jeremyrundle

You may be able to "stick to the road" as a cyclist but as I have said before some of us have disabled sons with learning difficulties who ride with respect and slow, not all cyclists are able to use the road, what of the adults who may suffer fits, are medically unable to use the road, they have a right to cycle without being abused because a moron walks in front of them.

regards

dondare

jeremyrundle wrote:

You may be able to "stick to the road" as a cyclist but as I have said before some of us have disabled sons with learning difficulties who ride with respect and slow, not all cyclists are able to use the road, what of the adults who may suffer fits, are medically unable to use the road, they have a right to cycle without being abused because a moron walks in front of them.

regards

Sometimes life isn't fair and other people; cyclists, pedestrians, motorists or train passengers will treat anyone disabled as a nuisance. Heartless indifference is a big part of human make-up.

jeremyrundle

The problem is that my sons have learning difficulties, they are to most "100% normal" you wouldn't know so I have found that unless you are in a wheelchair people assume notning is wrong, to most people the only "disabled" are in a chair.

Life is complicated.

pastryboy

No matter what you do you'll get moaned at by pedestrians. I got moaned at the other day for being 'too fast' on a cycle lane.

I've been moaned at for just about everything even though I've never hit anyone and avoided all manner of erratic pedestrians/dogs/kids and so on that have found their way in front of me.

Problem is some people want you to ring your bell, some react badly to it and move all of an ince. If you do ring it half of them won't hear it (or have earphones on). Some people are incapable of walking in a straight line. Some people jump at the sound of a bell, some jump when you've decided to spare them the bell and gone around them. Can't win...

sc999cs

jeremyrundle wrote:

The problem is that my sons have learning difficulties, they are to most "100% normal" you wouldn't know so I have found that unless you are in a wheelchair people assume notning is wrong, to most people the only "disabled" are in a chair.

Life is complicated.

My 12 year old son is severely autistic (functions on the level of a 3 year old) so looks like a normal child to everyone else. I can't even take him on a bike because he would shoot off at 10 - 15 mph and be a danger to himself and everyone else. Instead he goes on a scooter and I escort him on my bike. No one cares about me being on my bike. Explain and 99% of people (in this area at least) are very understanding. The other 1% I don't care about. It is their problem and loss, not mine.

If you need to be on the pavement with your sons then ride on the pavement.

jeremyrundle

If you need to be on the pavement with your sons then ride on the pavement.


Oh we don't ride on the pavement (and when I do) no one cares, I am too considerate and stop for pedestrians, the ONLy problems arise cycling on "cycle paths" also used by pedestrians.

Unfortunately most paths in Devon where I live only have a sign each end none along so people joining the path are oblivious to the fact that even though it is 20' yest 20' wide in some areas and council vehicles are on it ! because it is also a park, cyclists are not allowed.

The other week a woman accused me of hitting her dog "on the nose" with my bike (you needed to see her and her age) and called me everything including a YOB.

At fifty, wearing a checked shirt, trousers and Debenhams fleece (I have no tatoos, earings etc and have short thinning hair) I supposed being called a yob to me should be a compliment

sc999cs

jeremyrundle wrote:

Unfortunately most paths in Devon where I live only have a sign each end none along so people joining the path are oblivious to the fact that even though it is 20' yest 20' wide in some areas and council vehicles are on it ! because it is also a park, cyclists are not allowed.

Have you made a typo here? Are cyclists allowed or not?

jeremyrundle wrote:

The other week a woman accused me of hitting her dog "on the nose" with my bike (you needed to see her and her age) and called me everything including a YOB.

It sounds like the woman has the problem, not you. To her the dog is probably a surrogate child and she is just being overly protective. As the parent of a disabled child to another, I'd recommend just to let it go. You'll probably never meet her again - if you do ask nice and politely is she is prejudiced against disabled children and if she thinks disabled people should be banned from the park? She'll soon shut up.

t0pc4t

dondare wrote:

The fact is that a bike is a vehicle and pedestrians and vehicles don't mix well.
If I ever use a cycle path or shared use path then I give absolute priority to peds and treat them with the utmost courtesy. Charm, even. No bells, horns or whistles, just a polite "good morning" (or whatever) and a "thank you" once I'm past. But sometimes I'm reduced to walking speed and if I don't like that then there's always the real road.

I agree with most of this but my experience is it seems better to use a bell. I did not have one to start with and said hello to people, most moved.

One night I was hammering home and said hello to a young lady with a pushchair. She got in a bit of a flap, obviously due to me, and so I stopped to apologise.

She explained that when she hears a bell she expects a cyclist hence the flap when I said hello.

So, from then I got a bell and ring it to let people know I am coming. Then as I pass I say hello / thanks

Ginjafro

Some pedestrians are just that because that (pedding) is all they can do and just about in some cases! I too have experienced their God given right to walk 4/5/6 abreast on shared paths or questioning my right to cycle. I feel the most obnoxious peds simply don't like being reminded the are incapable of enjoying cycling - jealous....

Fortunately, many peds are okay, considerate and respond positively to polite and cheering warning of my approach - However, if any peds are in a "cyclist only lane" they usually get the " BIIIIIIIIKE !!! " at the top of my lungs treatment just as I am behind them, scares the hell out of them. Childish maybe but they'll live and will be more careful next time.

MrChuck

A week or so ago I was riding down the canal and came up behind a group of 4 older people, wlaking in 2 lines of 2 abreast. The path was very dry and gravelly so it's quite noisy, so I slowed down and gave them a chance to hear me coming before I said 'excuse me'. About 30 metres out one of them does hear me, looks round, and nudges the person to her left. They move over but don't say anything to their two friends just ahead of them. As I passed the first couple I smiled and said thanks, to which the womam who'd spotted me first replied "You should get a bell, then we could hear you coming." This despite the fact that they had heard me coming. I was a bit bemused and asked her what the difference between a bell and saying 'excuse me' was? No answer, the couple in front have moved over by now, so I rode om.

Anyway, the point is that I think people don't like knowing that you were well aware of them long before they were aware of you- they maybe feel a bit foolish and they want to say something snidey. Saying something about bells is a good place to start.

MadammeMarie

jeremyrundle wrote:

What can I add top my bike to be more visible to people.

A gun.

MadammeMarie

jeremyrundle wrote:

Yest but what I do not understand is why the attitude, as if you have no right to be there and when you say excuse me the look on their faces as if you are the devil incarnate,

Media sponsored intolerance.

TimeEventParadox

Sadly there are F!wits in all walks (sorry) of life. Most of them read the daily mail.

Daily Mail readers of course do own the combined use path, footpath, road, and anything else you can think of,, and you should give them a wide berth at all times. It would be useful if they had little day glo jackets with Daily Mail Reader on the back as a kind of warning to us all.

It's not called a rat race for nothing.

MrChuck

TimeEventParadox wrote:

Daily Mail readers of course do own the combined use path, footpath, road, and anything else you can think of.

And so do their dogs

Zachariah

I thought this going to be about actual sheep. I just went on an early morning ride along some country lanes. There was a section through some fields where sheep were grazing, and the poor creatures almost universally decided to run across the road in front of me when I approached.

I started shouting politely when I saw a group of sheep by the road ahead. "Hello! Coming through!" This had the effect of making them move on before I was next to them.

Maybe you should sing as you ride along mixed paths. Or carry a hi-fi system.