Pavement warriors

merkin

The problem is that although in his case they asked someone who was confident enough to say no, many other people would have felt compelled to step into the roadway to let the fools past.

merkin

Monkeypump wrote:

To be fair, they rang their bells, stopped, said excuse me and asked to pass. Yes, they should be on the road, but would I want a doddering imbecile on a bike right behing my child?

I think it's quite ignorant of the OPs wife to deliberately block them, especially with a slow moving child. But hey, if it's that important to her to prove a point, maybe she's got nothing better to do.

Do you think she was ignorant or arrogant?
I think she was neither. I do however think the riders were both ignorant of the law and arrogant in expecting a mother to put her children in harms way in order to accommodate their pussiness. :roll: So it isn't safe enough for them to ride on the road but it is perfectly safe for the young family to stand in the same road?

Applespider

Expecting her to step into the road with kids is wrong as is expecting her (on a v narrow pavement) to huddle against the wall while they squeeze by. They should be on the road anyhow - or at least get off their bikes to pass her on the road and then get back on the pavement.

There are occasions that I venture onto shared use pavements. It does surprise me how many cyclists bowl down them through narrow gaps and brush by pedestrians. It's the equivalent of us being 'brushed' by a car/van passing too close. If it's really narrow and busy, I get off the bike and push until it widens/quietens. Otherwise, I stay on the bike but go at the speed of the slowest pedestrian in my path until it's safe to clear while keeping a good couple of metres behind them so they don't feel like I'm breathing down their neck.

walkingbootweather

I suppose we should be glad they didn't have airzounds?

Yes the cyclists should probably have been on the road, and they were cheeky to even request the mum and kids move out of their way, but it sounds as if they were at least polite and accepting of their need to remain behind the family. I've seen mum's with pushchairs, shoppers with trolleys, and elderly on mobility scooters behave much worse.

stanarchist

Grow a pair (as opposed to a pear which would be surreal :shock: unless refering to a pear tre of course.....) .

Adults should ALWAYS ride on the road as opposed to the pavement - bicycles are vehicles etc.etc.

It's only by getting more people to ride on the roads that we will increase public awareness/support for cyclists as traffic.

Riding on the pavement - behind ayoung woman and her kids !!! FFS !!!! What did they do when they got home ? Play with their Action Men - w@n3rz IMO :evil:

Kieran_Burns

walkingbootweather wrote:

I suppose we should be glad they didn't have airzounds?

Yes the cyclists should probably have been on the road, and they were cheeky to even request the mum and kids move out of their way, but it sounds as if they were at least polite and accepting of their need to remain behind the family. I've seen mum's with pushchairs, shoppers with trolleys, and elderly on mobility scooters behave much worse.

Go to Skegness.... just go to Skegness. You will not believe what you see.

walkingbootweather

stanarchist wrote:

Adults should ALWAYS ride on the road as opposed to the pavement

Always? What it they have learning difficulties or physical impairment? What if they had been knocked off by a car and are trying to regain their confidence?

Now I'm pretty good on a bike. I can change gear while pedaling, look over my shoulder while indicating, do wheelies and bunny hops, track-stand, and ride no-handed. Hell I can even ride on the road in traffic! Impressed yet msmancunia? but sometimes even I ride on the pavement. Why? Because sometimes it is the safest and most sensible thing to do.

I wouldn't generally ride on a pavement where I'm likely to meet people, and if I did I'd ride at walking pace, or get off and push. Not sure I'd have the cheek to ask a pedestrian to move out of my way though.

walkingbootweather

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Go to Skegness....

I went once. It was shut.

Initialised

Rule 64

You MUST NOT cycle on a pavement.
[Laws HA 1835 sect 72 & R(S)A 1984, sect 129]

Simple, unless there are signs saying it's shared use bikes don't belong, only legal for minors (and possibly an accompanying adult) to ride on footpath/pavement.

Next time she sees them tell her to point them in our direction for some pointers on how to ride in traffic.

walkingbootweather

Whilst I agree that cycling on a footway (as opposed to the more generic term pavement) is likely to be considered an offence, punishable by a fixed penalty fine

then Home Office Minister Paul Boateng wrote:

“The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of traffic and who show consideration to other pavement users when doing so. Chief police officers, who are responsible for enforcement, acknowledge that many cyclists, particularly children and young people, are afraid to cycle on the road, sensitivity and careful use of police discretion is required.”

At least that's my defence.....

Jay dubbleU

I never ride on pavements and I really feel embarrassed riding a road bike on a shared cycle path. Maybe its my generation but even as kids we road our bikes on the road - the pavement was for wimps. I don't see that the OP's wife should have done anything other than carry on as she normally would - if the cyclists didn't like it they should have been on the road

navt

If my wife had come home re-iterating that, I would have simply said.. "you know this would never had happened if you had simply allowed the kids to cycle to school... On the road".

Oh, BTW, my two are chauffeured in or mahoosive 4x4 the 0.25 miles to school because the pavements are chock-a-block with cyclist :-)

sfichele

Boy Lard wrote:

My wife was taking my daughter (6 years old) to school this morning and my littlest (2 years old) was walking with them. On a stretch of pavement...

Btw, where is this pavement and is it on google street view? I can't make my mind up on this without actually seeing the road, how busy it is, and how narrow the pavement is

shouldbeinbed

Wife & 2 year old holding hands, so safe to assume pavement is wide enough for 2 people side by side, possibly 3 depending on where 6 year old is in relation to them. So why the assumption of stepping into the road by Mrs OP & everyone on here? & again from the OP, a quiet, suburban road, barely any traffic - some of the posts make out like they were throwing them into the fast lane of a motorway, calm down eh.

Wouldn't standing to the inside edge of the pavement with kids likewise for the 5-10 seconds it would have taken for the 2 to pass have been quickest and easiest thing, not just for 2 overly nervous & naive but ultimately polite cyclists but also for a couple of kids slow moving & very young, no doubt nervously aware they've got big people breathing down their necks. I'm grumpy & argumentative with pavement warriors but not when my kids are (should be) 1st priority.

Seems to have been an unnecessary situation caused by all 3 adults.

Boy Lard

I'd moved on and wasn't going to post this, but for the sake of completeness here's a picture of the road. The blue area is invariably full of parked cars reducing the road to single file traffic. People know this and normally everyone is polite in waiting at the end of the line of parked cars to let people through. There is definitely not enough room between the lamp post and the wall (red arrow) for my mountain bike to fit, but I do have 760 bars on it at the moment. My road bike would fit...



...but this is all sort of besides the point. I honestly can't believe that anyone would think it would be ok for two grown men on bikes to ask ANY pedestrians, let alone a woman with 2 small children to get out of their way so they can continue to cycle on the pavement rather than just passing on the road.

gbsahne001

not exactly a major thoroughfare, so regardless of whether there was a pedestrian on the path these two were being tools for using it.

t4tomo

and not exactly a huge kerb to ride off to get there. the blokes were tools

Kieran_Burns

I'm sorry, but how can ANYONE condone the behaviour of these two or even try to justify it? FFS these are two grown adult men cycling illegally on the pavement and asking a woman with two small children, one of whom is a frigging toddler, to step onto the road so they can pass!

In what sodding reality is this EVER acceptable?

What the hell is wrong with them getting off their sodding bikes and WALKING past the woman ON THE DAMN ROAD , remounting the bikes and cycling off???

When is it EVER acceptable to put children at risk for your own selfish gains? When?

Jesus. Some people just need a smack.

msmancunia

walkingbootweather wrote:

[Now I'm pretty good on a bike. I can change gear while pedaling, look over my shoulder while indicating, do wheelies and bunny hops, track-stand, and ride no-handed. Hell I can even ride on the road in traffic! Impressed yet msmancunia? but sometimes even I ride on the pavement. Why? Because sometimes it is the safest and most sensible thing to do.

*sigh*. You had me at "...track stand"

And then lost me at "...sometimes even I ride on the pavement"

What a let down.

:roll:

sfichele

This looks like a reasonably quiet road so I can't understand why they didn't ride on the road or at least hop on the road around wife+kids.

But someone asked is it ever acceptable to ride on the pavement? My answer is sometimes yes* which is why I was interested.

* I do pretty much all my riding on the road, and will ride many miles through the Peaks at the weekend etc. However, on my commute, when its really busy, there is one roundabout that is a nightmare and I _carefully_ use the pavement around it

gtvlusso

There is a lady that I have seen on my commute a couple of times. She rides an upright tandem, she is on the front, her daughter of about 9 or 10 is on the back and then on a pannier child seat is a 3 year old.

She is my hero - I am so impressed and she rides on the road, not on the pavement!

I always say hello when I pass and marvel at how brilliant she is! Will try and get a pic.

rjsterry

gtvlusso wrote:

There is a lady that I have seen on my commute a couple of times. She rides an upright tandem, she is on the front, her daughter of about 9 or 10 is on the back and then on a pannier child seat is a 3 year old.

She is my hero - I am so impressed and she rides on the road, not on the pavement!

I always say hello when I pass and marvel at how brilliant she is! Will try and get a pic.

"D'you mind if I take a picture? It's for this web forum... no, wait, not that sort of forum!" I've seen something similar on my commute, and the odd Bakfiets barrow-bike jobbie with two kids in the front. Sadly Mrs RJS has made it abundantly clear that we are not getting one.

gtvlusso

rjsterry wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

There is a lady that I have seen on my commute a couple of times. She rides an upright tandem, she is on the front, her daughter of about 9 or 10 is on the back and then on a pannier child seat is a 3 year old.

She is my hero - I am so impressed and she rides on the road, not on the pavement!

I always say hello when I pass and marvel at how brilliant she is! Will try and get a pic.

"D'you mind if I take a picture? It's for this web forum... no, wait, not that sort of forum!" I've seen something similar on my commute, and the odd Bakfiets barrow-bike jobbie with two kids in the front. Sadly Mrs RJS has made it abundantly clear that we are not getting one.

A stealthy, stalker type pic - shady and shaky! She is not a 'looker' TBH.....

jds_1981

gtvlusso wrote:

There is a lady that I have seen on my commute a couple of times. She rides an upright tandem, she is on the front, her daughter of about 9 or 10 is on the back and then on a pannier child seat is a 3 year old.

She is my hero - I am so impressed and she rides on the road, not on the pavement!

I always say hello when I pass and marvel at how brilliant she is! Will try and get a pic.

Okay as an adult, but as a child that sort of thing scars you...

Jay dubbleU

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I'm sorry, but how can ANYONE condone the behaviour of these two or even try to justify it? FFS these are two grown adult men cycling illegally on the pavement and asking a woman with two small children, one of whom is a frigging toddler, to step onto the road so they can pass!

In what sodding reality is this EVER acceptable?

What the hell is wrong with them getting off their sodding bikes and WALKING past the woman ON THE DAMN ROAD , remounting the bikes and cycling off???

When is it EVER acceptable to put children at risk for your own selfish gains? When?

Jesus. Some people just need a smack.

+1

UndercoverElephant

Boy Lard wrote:

There is definitely not enough room between the lamp post and the wall (red arrow) for my mountain bike to fit, but I do have 760 bars on it at the moment. My road bike would fit...

This sounds very much like you've ridden on that pavement. **Shakes head**

To cut through all of this:

1) Don't cycle on the pavements.
2) If you feel you *have to* ignore point 1, expect people to point and laugh.
3) Girls don't make passes at boys with quivery asses.
4) Don't cycle on pavements.

medoramas

Two adult men with the bells on the bikes? :shock: I thought it's the first device you remove when you're old enough to not use the stabilizers... That explains everything...

tailwindhome

2 men cycling on the pavement > 2 men not cycling.

clarkey cat

won't somebody just think of the children...?

veronese68

clarkey cat wrote:

won't somebody just think of the children...?

Hooray!! And Airzounds were mentioned at some point. Now I just need to find a link to a cheap headcam and murder some squirrels. What did happen to JR?