Use the cycle path

[grognut]

Hi All,

This is a bit of let off steam post but what are other experiences of the following:

On a few occasions on my daily 2mile commute I get drivers who, while passing, will shout out of the passenger window "use the cyle path" ie "Get off the road".

These driver may have been slowed down by courtious drivers who have slowed down before overtaking me. The most annoying of all was the motorcyclist saying the same (being one myself). Most of these drivers have been solo. Some event have tooted their horn while driving the opposite direction and gesticultaed to use the cycle path. In one case the guy was stuck in a queue of traffic.LOL

I should point out that there is a segregated pedestrian/cycle path along one stretch which is bumpy and has a car park exit crossing it. The rest of the route has a split pavement (cycle/pedestrian) usually with cars parked on the cycle path part and lots of driveways and two junctions. Given that I normally potter along at 18-20mph I don't like using mixed paths.

Also I usually cycle about 18" out from the kerb, not the middle of the lane. Luckily the roads are in very good order.

This has only happened about 6 times in the last year, the last two days ago, but I find it so annoying. I guess it's the arrogance of the driver that gets to me and the inability to have a discussion as they don't stop.

Has any one else experienced this behaviour.

Cheers

Grognut

[FatBat]

The one time the driver actually stopped to debate this point, the conversation went something like this;

Driver: "you should be on the cycle path"
Me: "Why?"
Driver: "cos its safer and better"
Me: "If it's so good, why aren't you cycling on it instead of driving?"
Driver: "I don't cycle anywhere"
Me: "But you seem to know a lot about it"
Driver: "I don't"
Me: "Precisely"

[grognut]

Nice one!

[[XAP]Bob]

Get this all the time, never managed to have a conversation with them though...

I generally ignore them - the main section this happens on is downhill, past a (30mph) speed camera where I'm doing 28-35mph
The cycle lane is AWFUL in that part - not only is it too narrow to be safe, but the surface is unsafe at speed.

[gilesjuk]

Use of them is not mandatory. So a valid defence is to shout "Highway Code" back at the drivers (like they do when you ride two abreast) to remind them to read it (not that anyone ever does once the driving test is passed).

[Basil W Bloke]

Driver: "You should be on the cycle path"
Me: "You should be on the bus"

[Tigerbiten]

Most of the combined pavement/cycle tracks around where I live are only around 4.5' wide.
Which is ok on a bike, but my trike is 3' wide.
So if I use the path then nothing else can .........

Also I need to know that if I start down a path/track away from a road, I can easily get the trike and trailer out at the other end.

Luck ..........

[MattyDeez]

Been cycling for about 2 years around south shields and i've never had any problems with people shouting get off the road, must be nice drivers where i am.

[Gavsdad]

Whenever I use a cycle path I finish up riding through glass, flints, sticks and generally puncture. As someone has said, it is not mandatory to use them.

The best action I find is to look straight ahead, don't make eye-contact, don't lower yourself to shout back, they soon loose interest.

I have often tried to look for a 'typical' shouter, often they have several teeth missing, shaved heads, 'fag in hand and are passengers in workmen's vans. The funny part is, they are still shouting way after they have overtaken and think we can still hear what they are saying.

[drossall]

Cycle paths are not safer than the road in general, and will often be more dangerous. The main reason is probably that accidents typically happen at junctions (including driveways and roundabouts). Unless there are bridges, no cycle path design reduces the number of junctions. All that they achieve, therefore, is to put the cyclists "out of sight, out of mind", making collisions more likely, and to put the cyclists nearer to hedges and walls, where it is harder for them, and emerging drivers, to see each other.

I generally ignore them - the main section this happens on is downhill, past a (30mph) speed camera where I'm doing 28-35mph

The Government advice is to use the road when exceeding 18mph.

That said, I can't remember ever getting this problem.

[DougR]

A perennial problem -
Ride on the path in potential conflict with slower moving pedestrians, dogs, blackthorn hedge trimmings - or mix it with the traffic and be thought a shellfish inconsiderate barsteward without even the manners to use the facilities provided and risking the following at the next council road committee meeting "No point in making any provision - it goes unused anyway"....

.....
The Government advice is to use the road when exceeding 18mph.

....

Which makes some sense when the road is a 30 mph jobbie.....

I used to commute across M.K. - where there were lots of cycle paths which could be used to avoid the grid roads - BUT these paths had been planned by a maniac armed with a spirograph and then decorated with bushes chosen by a gardener whose a sense of humour had been stolen from Vlad The Impaler. The alternative was a direct route on a single road - a single dual carriageway road with a 70mph limit and regular roundabouts......

There is no good answer.

[drossall]

I've ridden across MK, although never in commuting hours. It's impossible, owing to a basic failure to apply road principles to the paths. Unless you have local knowledge, you have to go on the roads to be able to navigate.

If driving from Watford, there are no signs to my destination in (say) Crick at the start of my journey. What I do is to find signs to "the Midlands" or "the North" or even Leicester or somewhere, and follow those. As I get nearer, I pick up signs to Rugby and then to Crick. I never get to any of the places whose signs I was following, except the last one.

It follows that I can't get to my destination without signs that go to places well beyond it.

For some reason, though, in MK and other places with cycle networks, people who know how to signpost roads make the schoolboy error of signposting from each "village" only to the next, so that getting from one side to the other is impossible. We need cycle network signs to Bedford, Aylesbury and Luton to help us find Bletchley, Wavendon and Wolverton. It's no more relevant to ask whether cyclists ever go to those further places* than to ask whether "The North" is put on road signs to help out Pooh Bear, because no-one else has ever found it.

*They do of course, but that's not the point

[Big T]

I get similar comments from drivers on the Nottingham Ring Road, often when they are sat in a queue of stationary traffic and I'm cycling down the middle of the 2 lanes of the dual carraigeway. My response varies from completely ignoring them, to shouting "Go forth and multiply thyself" or words to similar effect. They even have the cheek to tell me that the bike in a red triangle means "no cycling", when it actually means "watch out for cyclists" - well done, you've managed to spot one.

On the odd occassion I have used the adjacent cycle path, I nearly got wiped out by someone turning left across my path at a junction without signalling, or by someone emerging from their driveway, or by the taxi who seems to thinks it's Ok to drive along the pavement. I'll stick to the road, thanks.

[paulah]

Also I need to know that if I start down a path/track away from a road, I can easily get the trike and trailer out at the other end.

that made me laugh.., yesterday I noticed a signed route going off to my left not long after I had turned into the road. Today a bit before the junction I saw what was probably the other end so decided to investigate. I went down a road, then down a wide surface alley, then down a narrow fenced path with nettles either side, and then, too late to back out, a railway bridge with a double flight of steps. So I started to lug the folder up, stopped, removed the panniers and put them on my shoulder, started off again, eventually got to the glass strewn top, and then faced three flights of steps to go down. The noise the rear wheel made banging on the steps was horrendous. Eventually I got down, put the panniers back on and cycled off to rejoin my route at the predicted point.

Bizarrely this is a recommended cycle route on my council cycle map.

[anothereye]

They are saying they don't want to share the road with cyclists so the logical reply would be: "use the motorway"
Attached is my illustration, maybe print a copy and give it to them?

Gerry