Pavement warriors

tailwindhome

MonkeyMonster wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

I'm afraid I have to side with MM on this one.

Using your kids to make a point like that seems a bit irrational. Why not just let them pass and get on with your day?

Monkeypump and I are very very very different.

edited. sorry

tailwindhome

rjsterry wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

I'm afraid I have to side with MM on this one.

Using your kids to make a point like that seems a bit irrational. Why not just let them pass and get on with your day?

Eh? They were just walking down the pavement. Nobody was 'making a point'.

Not how I read it.

Seems to me the equivalent of driving at exactly 69mph on the fast lane of the motorway, oblivious to the queue behind you and reminding everyone that "The limit's 70mph"

Let the two cyclists past and get on with your day

HoHoHoBlueGiant

A cheery, 'does your mummy not let you cycle on the road?' always seems to help!

veronese68

TailWindHome wrote:

Seems to me the equivalent of driving at exactly 69mph on the fast lane of the motorway, oblivious to the queue behind you and reminding everyone that "The limit's 70mph"

I'd say it's more like the equivalent of driving your tractor up the single track road as fast as it will go while some twunt in a Porsche is sat behind you tooting his horn because he's too scared to use the bypass that runs alongside.
Are you deliberately not reading the bit about it being a narrow path with no room to pass? Or are you just yanking our chains?

Maxticate

Boy Lard wrote:

Seriously? Please, if you aren't confident enough to ride on the roads, stay at home, get the bus or walk.

Conspicuous by its absence in the options you listed above is, take the car, which is the most likely option that people will opt for if ridiculed and belittled by other cyclists, of the type posting in this thread, for not being brave enough to cycle on the road.

msmancunia

Maxticate wrote:

Boy Lard wrote:

Seriously? Please, if you aren't confident enough to ride on the roads, stay at home, get the bus or walk.

Conspicuous by its absence in the options you listed above is, take the car, which is the most likely option that people will opt for if ridiculed and belittled by other cyclists, of the type posting in this thread, for not being brave enough to cycle on the road.

I'm sorry, I don't agree. If you aren't brave enough to do it, then either go and get some training (some trainers will even go on your commute with you), or just wheel your bike to the park and get on it there. There is absolutely no reason for a grown man (or woman for that matter to cycle on the pavement. It's the first thing peds complain about - so lets not give them any ammunition.

Boy Lard

TailWindHome wrote:

Boy Lard wrote:

If the 2 men were walking on the pavement and they asked my wife and children to step into the road because they wanted to come past and they didn't feel that they should have to step into the road would you also find that a reasonable request?

I would always be the one to step off the pavement in this kind of situation, but there again, I still hold doors open for people and I don't assume that I am more important than everyone else, as seems to be the norm these days.

why?

Because it's polite. It's the same reason I would give up my seat on a bus for someone elderly, infirm, or a pregnant woman. It's why I would hold open a door for someone entering a shop behind me. It's why I say please and thank you when buying something, even though I "don't have to because I'm paying".

This is all just about being polite and cycling on the pavement is illegal and not a matter of being polite or courteous to others anyway.

bigmat

Hang on, I thought that RLJ was "the first thing peds complain about"?! Maxticate makes a good point - we all had to start somewhere, I don't think there's any need to be quite so critical of somebody who doesn't feel comfortable riding on the road. CLearly a lot depends on the road / pavement in question, but I'd generally rather someone have a go at building up their confidence than just not bother.

rjsterry

BigMat wrote:

Hang on, I thought that RLJ was "the first thing peds complain about"?! Maxticate makes a good point - we all had to start somewhere, I don't think there's any need to be quite so critical of somebody who doesn't feel comfortable riding on the road. CLearly a lot depends on the road / pavement in question, but I'd generally rather someone have a go at building up their confidence than just not bother.

Building up your confidence on the pavement, well, I'm not convinced, but OK, I'll go with that if there really aren't alternatives, but then at least be aware that you are there under sufferance and should be giving way to pedestrians, not hem giving way to you. As has been pointed out, it would have taken them seconds to hop off, wheel the bike off the kerb scoot past, and then continue back on the pavement if they absolutely must.

bails87

And to be fair, the guys rung their bells, asked to get past, got told "no" and waited. It's not like they skittled the mum & kids to get through.

Ginjafro

Oh for F*cks sake they were two grown men, they shouldn't have been riding on the pavement, period.

clarkey cat

the only time it is acceptable to go on the pavement is when you bunny hop up on the pavement to miss a red light.

bails87

Ginjafro wrote:

Oh for F*cks sake they were two grown men, they shouldn't have been riding on the pavement, period.

I agree, and I don't think the OPs wife did anything wrong by not moving into the road to let them through.

mroli

clarkey cat wrote:

the only time it is acceptable to go on the pavement is when you bunny hop up on the pavement to miss a red light.

Or if you're cycling the wrong way down a narrow one way street and a car comes towards you...

msmancunia

clarkey cat wrote:

the only time it is acceptable to go on the pavement is when you bunny hop up on the pavement to miss a red light.

Nice stealth trolling there

veronese68

msmancunia wrote:

clarkey cat wrote:

the only time it is acceptable to go on the pavement is when you bunny hop up on the pavement to miss a red light.

Nice stealth trolling there

It's a special talent. Unfortunately people know he's joking and don't bite.

tailwindhome

Veronese68 wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

clarkey cat wrote:

the only time it is acceptable to go on the pavement is when you bunny hop up on the pavement to miss a red light.

Nice stealth trolling there

It's a special talent. Unfortunately people know he's joking and don't bite.

Hehe

veronese68

TailWindHome wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

clarkey cat wrote:

the only time it is acceptable to go on the pavement is when you bunny hop up on the pavement to miss a red light.

Nice stealth trolling there

It's a special talent. Unfortunately people know he's joking and don't bite.

Hehe

Yours was too subtle for me, dagnabbit. Hook, line and sinker.

gtvlusso

Where I used to work; we had a guy who insisted on riding on the pavement the entire 6 mile journey to the office. The guy did not live far from me, at the time, when I asked him about this pavement journaey he stated that he feared for his safety because he was a rubbish cyclist, he also did not hold a driving licence because he was scared of driving on the roads........This suggest to me, that he was unable to take any responsibility for himself or his actions.

He is now a senior manager, where I used to work, and obsessed with spreadsheets.........

bails87

gtvlusso wrote:

Where I used to work; we had a guy who insisted on riding on the pavement the entire 6 mile journey to the office. The guy did not live far from me, at the time, when I asked him about this pavement journaey he stated that he feared for his safety because he was a rubbish cyclist, he also did not hold a driving licence because he was scared of driving on the roads........This suggest to me, that he was unable to take any responsibility for himself or his actions.He is now a senior manager, where I used to work, and obsessed with spreadsheets.........

Suggests to me that he's a p&ssy!

SimonAH

gtvlusso wrote:

Where I used to work; we had a guy who insisted on riding on the pavement the entire 6 mile journey to the office. The guy did not live far from me, at the time, when I asked him about this pavement journaey he stated that he feared for his safety because he was a rubbish cyclist, he also did not hold a driving licence because he was scared of driving on the roads........This suggest to me, that he was unable to take any responsibility for himself or his actions.

He is now a senior manager, where I used to work, and obsessed with spreadsheets.........

I hate management by spreadsheet - but my BIGGEST business hate is one senior colleague who will call a meeting (to be seen to be calling a meeting) and then have five or ten of you sitting around in the boardroom for an hour whilst that meeting turns out to be him designing a spreadsheet with once-every-ten-minutes input from one of us, that is then labouriously two finger typed into said spreadsheet.

Which he then will refer to as a "Tool"

Which is approximately what most of us think he is.

Nice guy socially, just a rubbish manager.

clarkey cat

I spent 9 months on a project and all we did was fill out 'resource and activity' spreadsheets, the purpose being to show that too much time was spent doing admininstration tasks and accordingly we needed additional resource to help with the day job. It was a mental 9 months.

Agent57

Meh, the cyclists weren't "stuck" behind the mother and kids. I'm sure they could have bravely risked their lives for the whole 5 seconds it would have taken them to ride past in the road. Wimps.

Kieran_Burns

Agent57 wrote:

Meh, the cyclists weren't "stuck" behind the mother and kids. I'm sure they could have bravely risked their lives for the whole 5 seconds it would have taken them to ride past in the road. Wimps.

Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die, O brave Sir Robin!
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways,
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin!

He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp,
Or to have his eyes gouged out, and his elbows broken;
To have his kneecaps split, and his body burned away;
And his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Robin!

His head smashed in and his heart cut out
And his liver removed and his bowels unplugged
And his nostrils raped and his bottom burned off
And his pen--

bompington

gtvlusso

I will admit to losing my rag with someone over pavement cycling a month or 2 back:

Massive road works closed an urban street, downhill, that I sometimes use on my cycle in. As a result the road was closed, but the pavements were clear. The street is a 'housing' street and consequently all the house gardens open onto the pavement. The roadworks covered about a 200M section of road - as such, I would diligently get off my bike, walk the 200M and then re mount and ride on. Anyway, I saw literally every other cycle commuter just ride down the pavement - bear in mind that a kid could come flying out of any of the gardens onto the pavement and get flattened by a cyclist flying down the hill on the pavement.

Anyway, I was walking down the pavement through the roadworks one day and decided to walk 'big' - i.e. spreading myself and pushing the bike to cover the whole pavement, This was because I could hear a fast approaching bike behind me. The cyclist, still on his bike had to brake hard and then gave me a load of abuse about being in his way. The boil of my frustration burst and I told him exactly what type of c0ckmonkey he was and then dared him to call me what he called me again........I also pointed out that if he flattened an infant I would make it my job to see him get some custodial action.

he bravely rode off shouting 'f*ck off' at me as we got to the end of the works and I could re-mount my bike......I was going in a different direction and left it there.

So, to summarise this encounter with a pavement cyclist. Pavement cyclists know they are doing wrong as they are fairly aggressive about it when questioned and they are complete cowards when it comes to someone pointing out that they could sue the road and an alternative route, they are cowards when someone asks them to explain themselves and they have no issues with threatening the safety of anyone else:

Stupid, self absorbed cowards with no thought for the safety of anything or anyone. They also tend to lie allot, be socially awkward and make sh*t managers.

noodles71

I know this isn't Amsterdam and the law is different but we would be all better off for it if life was what it was like over there for getting around. I personally would have moved over when it was safe for everyone to get about what they wanted to do.

It has taken them 40 years to get where they are but we have to start changing attitudes here in the UK to get where they are so why not set such an example for the kids......

notsoblue

If we had segregated cycle facilities, this wouldn't be a problem.

But yeah, those guys were d1cks...

noodles71

notsoblue wrote:

If we had segregated cycle facilities, this wouldn't be a problem.

But yeah, those guys were d1cks...

There are plenty of places that are not segregated and both pedestrians and cyclists have learnt to happily co-exist. Sure, if these guys had been screaming down the pavement in a manner unsafe to themselves and pedestrians then quite rightly they deserve all the praise they have been getting here. I guess my attitude towards this was formed by growing up in a place where what these guys did was not illegal and not considered anti-social in this example.

What I find strange about living in the UK is pedestrians everywhere will have a go at cyclists on their pavement "because it is the law" regardless of how dangerous their actions are. Meanwhile you won't hear a peep from anyone when ratbags throw litter on the pavement two feet away from the bin or using it as a makeshift bar to consume their cheap six pack of Tennants Extra Strength. Trust me, this winds up a 4yr old more than cycling on the pavement does.

jds_1981

bails87 wrote:

And to be fair, the guys rung their bells, asked to get past, got told "no" and waited. It's not like they skittled the mum & kids to get through.

Exactly, what's the problem?