What's with cycling on the RIGHT of a path?

[Ric2013]

I get this a lot.

I'll be cycling down a cycle path and see an oncoming cyclist. I start to pull over to the left side of the path, and the other bike pulls over to his (or her) right (my left). I pull over further and the other bike either moves further to his right and so off the path and onto the footway or grass, or we maintain a collision course until we stop (or I finally give up and move to my right, thus allowing the other bike to pass on my left).

To me, passing right side to right side seems logical, as then we are both riding on the left side of the cycle path, same as on all public roads in the UK.

I don't know if it's foreign students instinctively moving right, or if this is a nationwide phenomenon. Anyone else had this experience?

[mjr]

Yes. My solution is in viewtopic.php?f=7&t=94184

That said, I do sometimes ride on the right when I don't see oncoming traffic and it is the safer line because of junctions, adjacent lanes and so on...

[yakdiver]

I just shout out "bon jour"

[pwa]

Given a choice I'll always want to stick to the rule of the road, which is to keep left. But I've long since given up expecting rules to apply on shared use paths. Whatever the theory, in practice they don't. Pedestrians treat them as footpaths, traffic free zones, and a lot of the cyclists seem to fall into that relaxed mentality too. They act as they would if they were pedestrians on footpaths, just taking any old line and sticking with it.

[tykeboy2003]

Anyone else had this experience?

Loads of times. On one occasion we came to a halt and I asked him why he didn't move to his left and all he said was "Why should I, we're not on a road?". He was British so "being used to riding on the right" didn't apply.

This phenomenon (understandably) also applies to pedestrians who walk just about anywhere on the path.

[Cyril Haearn]

Groups of joggers are awful
When cycling in a group one singles out

Walking one should keep right (HC!), I keep as far away from motor traffic as possible, even walk on the grass

[MikeF]

I occasionally have this. On one occasion I moved to the left as I saw another approaching so that I was cycling very close to left of the path leaving plenty of space on my right, but the other cyclist was obviously determined to pass on my left so much so he cycled through the long grass, brambles, and rough ground to do so and eventually had to stop. Some parents will often say to their juniors "Keep to the left", which I think is good awareness training, but on the other hand some adults are "clueless" and their children are more savvy; amusingly I heard "Keep to the left, Dad" as one father cycled along rather aimlessly.

Sometimes there are users who have not cycled for a long time and how to deal with other cyclists either approaching or overtaking has not entered their thoughts.

However on an odd occasion where there have been oncoming cyclists and pedestrians, I have passed on the right because to do otherwise would have been daft or even dangerous. There are a number of foreigners who cycle around here and I think that is sometimes why they try to keep right instead of left.

[PDQ Mobile]

Buy a recumbent and take the chain ring guard off.
You'll never have many problems!

[Stevek76]

Walking one should keep right (HC!), I keep as far away from motor traffic as possible, even walk on the grass

On a shared path it's far easier if everyone just keeps to the left.

If there's oncoming traffic and the walker(s) is on the left a cyclist can slow to walking pace until a gap appears. If they're on their right, i.e. heading straight at you, then you have to stop completely if the path is busy and everyone just ends in a mess as they are then faced with having to move back left to go around a now stationary bicycle.

The busy and not wide enough bristol and bath path demonstrates this very well.

[rfryer]

+0.5

I fully agree that things work better if all users gravitate towards one side of the path.

However, it's not clear to me whether that should be the left (as is the default for cyclists) or the right (the default for pedestrians). But I do wish someone would make a decision and tell us all!

[Postboxer]

Maybe someone could set up a website to tell everyone the right way to do everything, increasing productivity by saving the countless hours wasted every year as people argue about which way the toilet roll should hang, what the round bit of bread that bacon goes in is called and then what that is then called once the bacon is in.

There could then be another secret website with instructions for parents, detailing how much the tooth fairy leaves and roughly how much Santa spends these days.

Isn't right for pedestrians only really when they're walking in the road, so they can see oncoming traffic and get off the road? On a shared path this doesn't make sense any more and it's simpler if they're on their left, oncoming cyclists are on their left and therefore no-one has to move over anywhere.

[Cyril Haearn]

Maybe someone could set up a website to tell everyone the right way to do everything, increasing productivity by saving the countless hours wasted every year as people argue about which way the toilet roll should hang, what the round bit of bread that bacon goes in is called and then what that is then called once the bacon is in.

There could then be another secret website with instructions for parents, detailing how much the tooth fairy leaves and roughly how much Santa spends these days.

Isn't right for pedestrians only really when they're walking in the road, so they can see oncoming traffic and get off the road? On a shared path this doesn't make sense any more and it's simpler if they're on their left, oncoming cyclists are on their left and therefore no-one has to move over anywhere.

Website idea sounds great

I understand the highway code says "walk on the right", I do this generally, and on shared paths I cycle slowly

I think some of use here are lucky, like me, we can get out of town easily, but in London or between Bristol and Bath there are just far too many people, the soluition is segragation. And maximum speed limits for cyclists

[Ric2013]

If you are suggesting that this is not worth discussing, I don't agree.

Pedestrians can do what they will, I just try to avoid them. Agree that right for pedestrians is only when they are in the road and there is no pavement. In any case it is only advisory and I think even the Highway Code states that its applicability is not universal. However, it is suggested that a pedestrian is safer on a pavement when facing the oncoming traffic - also makes it harder for the mafia to sneak up on you and steal your watch from a moped lol.

I don't think a rule of the road is needless bureaucracy where vehicles are concerned. After all, imagine driving down a country lane in the middle of a road and faced with an oncoming car: you then need to decide between you whether to pass left to left or right to right. Whereas, with the consensus that we drive on the left, we can both slowly pass without having to decide how on each and every occasion. If there were not an agreement on this, our town traffic would be even more chaotic than it is!

My original point was that I thought it odd that, since we keep left on the roads, many cyclists do not tend to keep left on cycle paths, and I wondered if there was any logic to it - sounds like there isn't really

[mjr]

Isn't right for pedestrians only really when they're walking in the road, so they can see oncoming traffic and get off the road? On a shared path this doesn't make sense any more and it's simpler if they're on their left, oncoming cyclists are on their left and therefore no-one has to move over anywhere.

No, it applies to any highway, including cycleways. As correftly statedabove, it's advisory. It wouldn't be a problem with oncoming cycles if we built the cycleways wide enough for the volumes of use or provided footways on the busier bits.

[whoof]

With regards to walking on the right the Highway Code says "If there is no pavement, keep to the right-hand side " and relates to walking in the road. When walking on a shared path such as the Bath-Bristol Railway path as it's not a road and I walk on the left.

I've had a number of occasions when I've been cycling on the left with someone cycling towards me on my right and someone walking towards me on my left. I stop, the pedestrian stops and I wait for them both to pass. I've had a number of perplexed pedestrians ask what I'm doing and I explain I didn't fancy riding head first into either them or the oncoming cyclist so I've stopped to give way.