Idiot Walkers

H-Giant

Was cycling over the weekend, on my way home around 2 mins away I venture off the road and onto the cycle lane. Not going that fast around 7mph or so. So one side of the cycle lane is for pedestrians and then the cycle lane painted red. Guy with his 3 friends gets off the bus and is walking towards me laughing and talking with his mates. He sees me coming but does not want to move out the way.

In the end I had to slam the brakes and nearly fall (as I was clipped in) if I had fell I wouldav gone into the road. He starts jumping up and down aggressively and yelling how hes going to stab me. We have an argument, I state he clearly saw me but didnt want to move, hes still going on about stabbing me. I ask him to carry out his threat but he refuses yet still going on about how hes gonna stab me

People these days

sloppyschleckonds

If someone is threatening to stab you, call 999.

kingstongraham

You asked him to stab you?

tangled_metal

He's an idiot but an idiot walker. A walker is generally known for hill and country walker not some guys who get off the bus. Be careful with phrasing of rants or you might find yourself guilty of labelling innocent walkers with an unfair bar reputation like ppl do with cyclists.

It seems to me that a few mates getting off the bus aren't walkers just pedestrians. Did they have their woolley bobble hats on? No cagoule? They're peds. Normal part of the general population and as such are as likely to be mouthy yobs as anything else.

cougie

They're just idiots and not worth your time.

I don't think you helped yourself though. You didn't have to brake suddenly and there was plenty of time to unclip.

There's no real answer. Some people are just idiots. Avoid them as much as possible.

H-Giant

cougie wrote:

They're just idiots and not worth your time.

I don't think you helped yourself though. You didn't have to brake suddenly and there was plenty of time to unclip.

There's no real answer. Some people are just idiots. Avoid them as much as possible.

He was manouvering like he was going to get out of the way so I could pass but then decided not to, therefore I had to brake suddenly and unclipped just about in time

H-Giant

KingstonGraham wrote:

You asked him to stab you?

He wasnt going to stab me, not with 25 or so people around. He was a yob who thought he could act tough infront of people and be intimidating

peat

A yob, yes. I think the ramblers association would be bothered by him being labelled a walker, though.

keef66

So while approaching at a speed that made it difficult to unclip in time you were able to determine that he was just showing off to his mates and absolutely not carrying a knife or likely to stab you? Impressive stuff!

Those shared paths which rely on different colours or textures to separate peds from cyclists might work in Holland, Germany or Denmark where they are part of the fabric of daily life and people generally follow the rules, but over here they are worse than useless. Most people pay no attention to which side is for what, so you get peds on the cycling half telling cyclists they should be on the road, motorists telling them they should be on the cycle path, and dozy dog walkers with their tripwire flexi-leads creating a hazard for everyone.

It's recognised that the interaction between bus / tram stops and bike lanes is a potentially dangerous one, and where there is space it's safer to have the bus stop / waiting / alighting area between the road and the cycle lane to help avoid the kind of incident you described. Sadly in this country it is incredibly rare for cycling infrastructure to be given the space / money it deserves.

I never use shared lanes, and only use dedicated cycling lanes if they are well surfaced / clear of crap and are safe for riding at a sensible speed. Anything with frequent side roads / drives / parking or poor sight lines and random street furniture and changes of direction, and I'll rather take my chances on the roads.

trekvet

Blimey, give me a lane-filling John Deere any day.

kajjal

Unless you want to enter their world just avoid nutters.

Bucksspeedyboy

Rambler-type walkers are also to be treated with caution! I was riding down a (quite wide) country lane on one of my regular routes and there were two elderly guys walking side by side down the lane about 100yds in front of me on my side but with their backs to me, i.e., they were walking with their backs towards oncoming traffic. They were obviously ramblers with rucksacks etc. There was also no other traffic about.

As I got nearer to them, I thought I saw the guy on the inside look behind him and so I thought he’d seen me. So I came up behind them and moved over to the right side of the lane to pass, but as I was about to draw level with them the guy on the outside suddenly turned right without looking behind him (presumably because he didn’t hear any cars coming) and was about to step straight in front of me. I shouted out and he jumped back out of my way. There then proceeded to be a barrage of shouting at me as I went on down the road about bloody cyclists going to fast and “why haven’t you got a bell”

Granted I didn’t warn them of my approach, but you don’t expect someone to suddenly decide to cross a country road without looking. Now wary of all pedestrians .

tangled_metal

Did you invite him to stab you?

First.Aspect

Did either of you have a knife?

cougie

To be fair it's your responsibility not to run him over. Even if he is walking with his back to traffic.

racerex

Interesting discussion. As an American I was wondering if you in Great Britain have the problem that we do with everyone seeming to have earphones stuck in their heads these days. As I get older I find myself riding bike paths more often to slow down and get out of traffic a little. But even if you call out, "on your left", or "right behind you" as you approach, people will jump startled as you come by. My other peeve is how many people don't know their right from left, as when you call out "on your left", about half the time they move into your path. The previous poster is right though, it's always our responsibility to avoid collision, General Prudential Rule.

cougie

I think every country has headphones now.

In the UK we often have shared use patths where walkers are meant to be on one side of the pavement and cyclists next to them. The number of walkers that prefer the identical bike path is amazing. I'd swear that's their favourite side. It's no big deal though. I don't go fast down there. I'd you want to ride fast - you can do it on the road.

DavidJB

Sounds like you encountered a chav.

First.Aspect

racerex wrote:

Interesting discussion. As an American I was wondering if you in Great Britain have the problem that we do with everyone seeming to have earphones stuck in their heads these days. As I get older I find myself riding bike paths more often to slow down and get out of traffic a little. But even if you call out, "on your left", or "right behind you" as you approach, people will jump startled as you come by. My other peeve is how many people don't know their right from left, as when you call out "on your left", about half the time they move into your path. The previous poster is right though, it's always our responsibility to avoid collision, General Prudential Rule.

We don't have headphones in the UK. Or the internet. I'm using a typewriter right now.

thegreatdivide

Bucksspeedyboy wrote:

Granted I didn’t warn them of my approach

So you're completely at blame.

tangled_metal

Headphones aren't the problem on a cycle path we use a lot. It's a canal towpath so the big problem at certain times of day are pensioners who can't hear you even when you shout out loudly or use a loud bell.

Other hazards include friends getting exercise together when the most exercised part is their voice box! Really! They wouldn't hear anything outside of the chat.

Of course flexi dog leads too. Or the well trained dog who always walks across the cyclist's or joggers or faster walker's path last minute because the owner is sure "it's OK, it won't do anything".

I guess we're semi-rural without the city chav problem to worry about. The worst our chavs do is sit in the play park of a night looking bored. We've not had a murder for at least 10 years.

mrfpb

Don't use a canal path unless you're happy to be slow. No way do cyclists have any priority there.

DavidJB

Tangled Metal wrote:

We've not had a murder for at least 10 years.

Love how this is your barometer for a nice area.

fenix

That does sound pretty good to me.

peat

racerex wrote:

But even if you call out, "on your left", or "right behind you" as you approach, people will jump startled as you come by. My other peeve is how many people don't know their right from left, as when you call out "on your left", about half the time they move into your path.

When people are walking, they're brain is on idle. Just arriving with a "on your left", understandably, can confuse them. In a split second they have to register that someone is speaking to them and process what they are saying. Which is often interpreted as "bluh bluh LEFT", so they jump left.

I start with a 'hello' or 'morning/afternoon' and then say as clearly as possible "i'm passing on your left". The most important element is that I will have slowed right down.

I also have a bell. Mixed results. They can startle or cause people to over react. When they need only keep walking but in a predictable trajectory, they will step aside and turn and scowl at you. Whatever mate.

drlodge

I have a "ping" bell on my CX which I've used on towpaths and similar shared pedestrian/cycle paths. Seems quite good but sometimes I have to get up close for them to hear it.

Certainly such places are not for speeding along.

tangled_metal

DavidJB wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:

We've not had a murder for at least 10 years.

Love how this is your barometer for a nice area.

We set to be doing a lot better than a lot of the UK in that respect. However it was a bad taste, tongue in cheek, throw away comment that I regret.

My real barometer is walking pretty much anywhere I could feasibly want to go at night without fear of attack. The way the first thought when a house got broken into nearby the first thought was something's wrong there, it's insurance fraud it something. Not that insurance fraud isn't bad but it's someone doing wrong who knows what's happening so not the victim. The victim is a big insurance firm miles away. The way I don't actually know anyone in my town who has been broken into or mugged or a victim of crime.

However the same isn't true of Lancaster down the road. I know a few from down there who've robbed places. Ho hum!

BTW this is true. Where I live was singled out as a relatively safe place in a risk or crime risk survey I think I saw earlier this year. Our town was in a small localised pocket that compared more with the crime levels of rural parts of the far north of Scotland or rural Orkney islands. It must be something in the water!

Bucksspeedyboy

thegreatdivide wrote:

Bucksspeedyboy wrote:

Granted I didn’t warn them of my approach

So you're completely at blame.

Yer, right. I was completely to blame because two muppets were walking with their back to any oncoming traffic, I thought one had seen me, I moved right over to the right of the road and then one of them decides to do an abrupt right turn straight into my path without checking behind him first. Oh, and I also didn’t see you hiding in the bushes at the scene to decide I was to blame.

H-Giant

First Aspect wrote:

Did either of you have a knife?

No, I dont carry a knife. Im not a yob

H-Giant

cougie wrote:

To be fair it's your responsibility not to run him over. Even if he is walking with his back to traffic.

He was walking towards me, he saw me, he just didnt want to move

cougie

That wasn't to you. It was to bucks speedy boy almost running down a pedestrian who did have his back to him.