Pedestrian sheep

jeremyrundle

Can I thank those who are "in the know".

As a new rider I have taken the advice offered in both places, regarding riding on the road.

I am learning to ride out from the pavement two feet, it works, instead of most cars pushing past with cars coming towards them forcing them to carve me up, now most wait until there is nothing coming the other way and going round with a gap.

Thank you for the advice.

robocolley

I cycle a canal towpath and a shared path on the way to work and the bell is certainly very useful, especially if you use it before you are too close to people. Leave it late and it seems to scare the hell out of them....most people are away in their own little world in the morning and don't like sudden surprises.

mybreakfastconsisted

I used the regents Canal towpath for years. If you ping the bell peds tut, if you don't they tut.

Headhuunter

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

I used the regents Canal towpath for years. If you ping the bell peds tut, if you don't they tut.

Problem isn't the lack or presence of a "ping", it's the speed many cyclists fly by at along shared pathways like canal towpaths. Before I commuted to work by bike I used to walk along part of the canal that heads from Hackney to Islington and every day I would nearly get mown down or knocked into the canal by some eejit trying to break a land speed record on a bike with no regard for other users of the path. If cyclists are able to or need to fly along at high speed, they should be on the road.

jeremyrundle

I agree some are MORONS in capitals, today I was sitting at acafe in Tavistock and a "youth" cycled from the road, over the pavement and down a walkway not giving a damn if an elderly or even blind as there are in Tavistock person may have just got up and walked out.

I however am fifty and sensible, I rarely go from anything other than my sedate speed in 2-3 the middle gears, yet I still have morons with dogs.

However today my new toy arrived, airzound and tomorrow I am off to Tavvy again, can't wait.

Banned member Porgy

thelawnet wrote:

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

maybe so - but actually questioning the right of a cyclist to use a cycling lane is surely out of order.

I once had two blokes order me off the pavement in Leyton when I was using a shared use contraflow path which was my only option - as the only road that went where i wanted to go was this one way road in the wrong direction. I explained and they mumbled apologies - I think - but for a second thought it was all going a bit nasty.

Headhuunter wrote:

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

I used the regents Canal towpath for years. If you ping the bell peds tut, if you don't they tut.

Problem isn't the lack or presence of a "ping", it's the speed many cyclists fly by at along shared pathways like canal towpaths. Before I commuted to work by bike I used to walk along part of the canal that heads from Hackney to Islington and every day I would nearly get mown down or knocked into the canal by some eejit trying to break a land speed record on a bike with no regard for other users of the path. If cyclists are able to or need to fly along at high speed, they should be on the road.

agree entirely. I'm gobsmacked by most cyclists I see on the canal path - and usually embarrassed by their attitude. As they wizz off barely missing an elderly couple, it's me that gets glared at as I inch slowly past them a few minutes later. I've even had people flinch away from me in fear even if I come to a dead stop they won;t move.

So I've stopped using canal paths.

jeremyrundle

In the short time I have been a member here I have learnt so much from you proper cyclists.

I now have a hi9gh visibility jacket, two lights on the rear (good ones) and four on the front two flashing two steady, and airzound and follow the advice of not cycling in the gutter, and I STILL have dogs on 30' leads and idiots walk in front of me, even though I cycle slowly on cyclepaths.

antfly

You need a loud bell and to ding it early, I even get complimented on the loudness of my bell. Only once did someone refuse to move and give me the Vs behind his back but he was a teenage Goth.

jeremyrundle

As I say I now have "airzound" :twisted:

Waiting to try it out :twisted:

jeremyrundle

As I say I now have "airzound" :twisted:

Waiting to try it out :twisted:

antfly

I`m not sure that will endear you to pedestrians.

jeremyrundle

And I am not sure that that matters, I am over fifty and have almost been brought off my bike countless times by ignorant people with dogs on 30' leads, and people walking into me going the same way, and my disabled son HAS been knocked off by a woman with a dog on a lead.

Or do you think hitting the naxt dog allowed to run in front of a bike on a cycle way would teach the owner a better lesson than a horn

antfly

It's fairly civilized around here, maybe it's worse where you are. Perhaps don't get too close before you blast them though, those things are loud, you might get an ASBO.

jeremyrundle

Oh I couldn't agree with you more.

I am slow anyway, and have always said loudly from a distance "excuse me PLEASE", I would be the first to complain if a moron came up behind me with an air horn, I would do a quick tap on it from about 30-40 feet.

chuckcork

What can I say, some people are simply stupid.

Like the time I was told off by a woman for cycling on the footpath, next to the painted cycle lane. She didn't notice that I was avoiding her and her child, who were wandering up the middle of it! If she hadn't been where she was I wouldn't have been where I was either.

Not the first time I've had that, if given a choice cycle lanes seem to be preferred to walk in?

Is it the being set down from the rest of the pavement, painted green and with little cycle signs that makes them so attractive? Are people who walk in them all:

a)stupid?
b) colour blind?
c) both?

But what does get my goat is the shared paths where signs ask cyclists to be considerate...ever tried to be considerate when you are trying to get past a group of 10, all walking abreast?

The Rookie

If peds are in the cycle lane, I don't give way, a loud and then louder 'excuse me' works wonders, especailly if its clear you aren't stopping and it's going to hurt THEM.

Simon

kurako

The Beginner wrote:

If peds are in the cycle lane, I don't give way, a loud and then louder 'excuse me' works wonders, especailly if its clear you aren't stopping and it's going to hurt THEM.

Simon

You'd seriously hit somone for being in your way? You'd better hope the drivers you encounter on the way home don't share that attitude.

Sanderville

The Beginner wrote:

If peds are in the cycle lane, I don't give way, a loud and then louder 'excuse me' works wonders, especailly if its clear you aren't stopping and it's going to hurt THEM.

Simon

I used to think that. Turns out you're the one who will keep travelling when your bike stops. The peds might get bruised but you could end up on your face ten yards down the road with broken wrists.

I wasn't running anyone down, by the way. Tourists knocked me off.